[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Brianna Laugher]

2008/4/27 Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com>:
>  Incidently, note that chapters may very well elect as representatives
>  someone who is not a chapter member, or even who may not be a real
>  community member. That's up to them.

Right, so "the chapters" should decide first
* what constitutes "the chapters" (members of internal? chapter
boards? chapter members?)
* what the method that the chapters will use to choose candidates will
be (with no constraints at all??)
and then
* carry out the choosing of candidates according to the method they chose

And there's no kind of timeline or deadline for all this?
And they could simply choose, say, to pick the top 2 failed candidates
from the most recent community election?

Given that the seats are called chapters but "the two
chapters-selected seats are not intended to represent chapters'
self-interest"... It looks a little bit to me like the Board is
pushing off the task of appointing Board members from the community,
to "the chapters".
Which may be an entirely good idea... but like Effietsanders, I (as a
community member) am also rather surprised to only hear of it when
it's all decided and done.

If the chapters are choosing community seats, I guess it may be
appropriate for the community to have some input into that method.
(You know -- if the chapters decide that would be good.)

>  I guess the transparent question is "would Florence be appointed as
>  community expert". I am fully sure the answer is no.

Well, that's something of a shame, because in my experience you've
been an active, hard-working and responsive board member.

which reminds me of your earlier comment:

> * And some members fear that the organization could be "taken over" by
> powerful forces if there are no safegards regarding community involvement

(Ironic...
We are happy to let the content in the world's top reference source be
decided by anyone who puts their hand up, but not the governance nub
of same.
When do we under- and when do we over-estimate our own power?)

With the recent professionalisation of WMF - massively expanded staff,
and the end of the "working Board", is this fear still well-founded?
(if it ever was)

Actually... does this mean that community elected positions are no
longer subject to ultimate Board approval? I thought that was the
safeguard.

Finally,
does this Board update affect the Advisory Board?


cheers,
Brianna

-- 
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/