[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Geoffrey Plourde]

Unfortunately, we can't remove most of them. Maybe the Board should not have the power to modify bylaws. 



----- Original Message ----
From: Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 9:29:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Jason Safoutin
>  You are the board of trustees. And as I see it, the board has done
>  nothing but abuse the word 'trustee'. They have made, as a whole, no
>  attempt to get any community input on anything from this, to Kaltura.
>  The constantly leave the communities out of the loop and make decisions
>  with total disregard as to what we might think.

I don't necessarily want to be as confrontational as Jason is here,
but I agree with his sentiment completely. The board is not some
competely separate entity from the community at large. The board is
just another group of volunteers who want to help manage the legal and
financial logistics of this foundation, instead of writing content or
blasting vandals, or whatever. Volunteers decide their own level of
participation, and such decisions are not demonstrations pf any level
of quality, commitment, expertise or intelligence.

Maybe the current board forgets it's own humble origins as a select
group of highly-motivated community members. I would like to cite an
old adage that says "It is never likely that you alone are correct and
that everybody else is wrong." Taken in context here, I think it's
highly unlikely that the board is so aloof and so omniscient that they
can safely disregard the opinions of the community at large. Or, it is
highly unlikely that what the community at large wants or does not
want should be ignored off-hand.

Since emails, complaints, discussion have done nothing to turn the
creeping tide of secrecy and separation on the part of the current
board, perhaps the best recourse is for community members to speak
with their votes. Board members who have been acting in a way contra
to the will and benefit of the community should be systematically
removed, and replaced with community members who are actually
dedicated to this community. Most voters will probably agree that
board members without such dedication do not belong on the board
beyond the next election.

--Andrew Whitworth

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