[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

[Delirium]

Florence Devouard wrote:
> Some of the discussions currently at the board level implies 
> "separating" the board in two bodies, with the board keeping mostly 
> professionals, whilst the council would host the community members (who 
> may be professional, but not the *right* professionals).
>
> If this is the directly we take, the role of the wikicouncil will not be 
> to "promote wikimania", it will be to make sure that the staff of WMF is 
> dealing with what is appropriate given our mission, and make sure the 
> staff of WMF is respecting/promoting the values which are important to 
> us. It will not be an operational role, but more a gatekeeper role.
>   

This seems somewhat backwards, unless I'm also missing a proposal to 
change the Foundation's legal structure somehow. The Board is currently 
the ultimate authority in the Foundation, and so it's important that 
it's controlled by people who understand, strongly support, and act to 
guarantee the mission. It's much less important that it have a strong 
operational role or have any particular professional expertise, since 
the board can hire anyone it wants with any desired professional 
expertise, and delegate operations to them. So yeah, I could see normal 
operations being turned over entirely to a professionalized staff, but I 
think it'd be wise to turn over ultimate authority (i.e. votes on the 
board) to anyone other than people chosen exclusively for their role as 
guarantors of the Foundation's mission.

-Mark