[Foundation-l] Restricting Appointed members (Proposal).

[Milos Rancic]

The Board is not and should not be a professional body. Board's
responsibility is to choose a good Executive Director and to give to
them to organize professionals to do professional tasks.

Otherwise, we are at the magic circle: The Board chooses Board's
members, who are only responsible to the Board. And if it is so, than
two very different entities will definitely start to exist: The Board
and the community. And if we get such partitioning, schisms, like
Encyclopedia Libre will not be exception(s), but ordinary things. Or,
if the community becomes more organized, than it will be able to chose
some other company (for profit or not for profit) to host its content.

On 3/18/08, Henning Schlottmann <h.schlottmann at gmx.net> wrote:
> Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
>  > A Resolution To Restrict The Number Of Appointed Members To The Wikimedia Foundation Board Of Trustees.
>
>
> I strongly believe this discussion - as well as the volunteers council
>  and all others regarding representation of the editors - is going into a
>  wrong direction and realizing this resolution would be detrimental to
>  the future of the WMF.
>
>  While the WMF started out of the Wikipedia and today is best known for
>  hosting the projects, its scope goes way beyond that and right now with
>  the move to San Francisco and the build up of professional staff, WMF
>  takes the necessary steps to reach out. So over time hosting Wikipedia
>  and all the other wikis will be only a small activity among others.
>
>  In my eyes, binding the majority of the board to the community of
>  editors would be a burden, not an asset, as editors to Wikipedia will
>  very soon don't know much about the activities of WMF, and being based
>  in the community of the wikis will not be helpful for the tasks of a
>  board member.
>
>  The Red Cross started with emergency services for wounded soldiers. Does
>  anyone here really believe that it would be helpful if two thirds of the
>  board of directors in Geneva would be elected by army medics of the world?
>
>  The WMF is working hard to become the "Red Cross of Knowledge" (c)
>  Jimbo. It is moving beyond the wikis and we - the editors - should set
>  the WMF free, not bind it to our communities.
>
>
>  Henning Schlottmann, user:H-stt (de, en, commons, meta)
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  foundation-l mailing list
>  foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>  Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>