[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Geoffrey Plourde]

And in regard to the right way, I will be working on a model of community governance that I hope will be a compromise between VC and CWF. 



----- Original Message ----
From: Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 5:38:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

2008/4/29 Geoffrey Plourde <geo.plrd at yahoo.com>:
> First, the Board sent the ball on Wikicouncil back to the Community, then the Board made community elected seats a minority.

? It was not exactly clear that the Wikicouncil concept *as presented
to the Board at that time* was something that was supported by "the
Community" at large. They have expressed support for the concept, but
not that particular instantiation. I am sure that if they had accepted
it there would probably be *more* outrage! (possibly directed slightly
differently)

Secondly seats for community members are still a majority: 5 + Jimmy.
If a vote goes 5-5, it fails. So there is no "power bloc of
outsiders".
If you are really concerned that "the chapters" are going to somehow
choose the wrong people, then why not pipe up with suggestions about
what "the right way" would be.

>  Because of our principles, we attract a lot of people who are suspicious of authoritarian structures. This move seems kind of authoritarian.

Yeah, so getting outraged by default - regardless of the merit of a
proposal - is definitely a good move!

Put it this way, throwing a hissy fit is not a good argument that the
community should have more input. We should demonstrate we deserve
more input by making that input reasoned and sensible.

Clearly, no one is too happy about surprises like this. Florence has
apologised, more input from the other Board members would be nice.

regards
Brianna

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

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