[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Geoffrey Plourde]

I do also appreciate the service that the Board has provided. Its just that this recent move seems like a slap in the face to volunteers. The fact that the Advisory Board was not consulted is also worrying. If they aren't being asked to advise, why do we have them?  



----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Bimmler <mbimmler at gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 9:48:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 6:41 PM, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't know why discussions on this list and elsewhere always devolve so
> quickly to revolutionary ultimatums. The board has not 'betrayed the
> community' - it simply took a step, regarding its own composition, that
> took
> a portion of the community by surprise. Many would have liked to hear
> about
> these changes in advance, to discuss them and potentially influence
> alterations to the changes before they became fait accompli. This doesn't
> translate to "We must eliminate the Board and start over with people who
> don't totally ignore the will of the community."
>
> As a matter of fact, I think those sorts of comments are untrue,
> unnecessary
> and insulting to the members of the Board who do, I believe, try very hard
> to do what benefits the projects and the community and try I imagine very
> hard to anticipate and understand the goals and beliefs of our community -
> and not just those few of us who post to Foundation-l. Confrontational
> statements and belittling and minimizing the efforts and commitment of
> those
> people we have elected to the Board is unhelpful and to be avoided. We
> can't
> require you to assume good faith on this list or outside of en.wikipedia,
> but you might take under advisement the fact that it would be a good idea
> nonetheless.
>
>
In one word: Thank you.
I absolutely agree with your comments and I'm presumptuous enough to say
that probably many of us who expressed criticism of the board's
'consultation strategy' on this point are not trying to make a motion of no
confidence out of this affair.
It was regrettable that this changes came as a surprise to most people I
know and I hope that it will be done somehow otherwise next time.
But I still trust the board and I consider all these calls to arms that we
see here now rather preposterous (if I may use another of these pre-...
words).

Michael
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