[Foundation-l] Expert board members - a suggestion

[Michael Snow]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> The best examples you can see are Stu West and Jan-Bard de
>> Vreede. Stu with his technical and financial expertise is simply there,
>> in every meeting, in the board mailing list, we don't have to go out and
>> ask someone from the outside, especially because these expertise are
>> really direly needed in every meeting and most of our topics.
>>     
> Brion and Véronique have that expertise and could easily be brought in
> to whatever meetings they are needed for.
>   
This is incomprehensible to me. One of the key responsibilities of the 
board is to oversee the work of the staff. That requires a combination 
of the board's own expertise plus outside advisors on occasion to 
supplement this. Brion and Veronique do great work and we need their 
expertise in doing it, and occasionally they may be brought into our 
meetings to provide information. But it would be totally abdicating our 
responsibilities for us to call on that expertise in order to review the 
work they themselves did.

--Michael Snow