[Foundation-l] A question about chapter seats.

[Sebastian Moleski]

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 10:27 PM, Chad <innocentkiller at gmail.com> wrote:

> As has been said, the two new "chapter" seats will be filled by
> representatives
> of the individual chapters, with the method of selection left up to
> the chapters
> (and no real guidance on how to go about this).


The board said that two seats would be filled by representatives chosen by
the chapters. It specifically did not say that those two seats are meant to
represent The Chapters.


> However, as the chapters are left to decide how their seat will be
> dispensed,
> what if they came forward with an idea such as "the WMF Board will pick a
> member of our board to represent us on the WMF Board." Or perhaps, "the
> staff will select for us." Or potentially, "ChapCom and the Chapters
> Coordinator
> will make the decision."


That decision would be outside of the scope of what the chapters seats are
for. The board specifically said that these seats are to be filled by the
chapters. That means, the decision or choice has to be made by the chapters.
The board's statement did not really leave room for complete delegation to
someone else, much less someone bound in loyalty to the foundation.


> For what it's worth, the chapter representation is severely limited
> compared to
> the overall traffic. According to Alexa, the United States (no
> chapter) approximates
> to over 29% of all views. Japan (no chapter either) is around 9%. This is
> nearly
> the first 40% of the overall traffic which has been disenfranchised to
> an extent.
>

Most of the traffic is caused by readers who have no opportunity to
influence the board's composition unless they apply for an appointed
position themselves, become an editor meeting the voting requirements, or
joining a chapter and influencing the selection through it.


Sebastian