[Foundation-l] Future board meeting (5-7 april 08)

[Thomas Dalton]

On 10/04/2008, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/10/08, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  > --->Board Membership and Employment
>  > The board decided there would be no restrictions regarding to a board
>  > member becoming a staff member, nor for a staff member to become a board
>  > member.
>
>
> Hmm. Perhaps it would be best to clarify whether this means transferring
>  from the board to the staff and vice versa,
>  or whether it is intended to mean that even
>  simultaneous board membership and staff job are possible. If the latter
>  I have to say I am somewhat surprised....

I expect that's just Ant overly simplifying the decision in her
summary, but clarification would be good. Having someone on the board
and the staff at the same time wouldn't work - they would report to
Sue (possibly indirectly) in their role as a staff member and Sue
would report to them in their role as a board member. That would be a
terrible mess. (There's a possible argument for the ED to be on the
board in the same way that CEOs are often on boards in the business
world, but not one I would support [nothing personal, Sue].)

>  I think the community has expressed fairly explicitly that such dual
>  roles would mix things up. Though on the obverse side, I suppose
>  arguably the treasurer is in some sense inextricably connected at
>  the hip with staff in some senses.

Not really. There is a clear separation between the role of the
bookkeeper/accountant and the role of the treasurer. There is also the
key detail that the treasurer doesn't get paid.