[Foundation-l] Questions about new Fellow

[Thomas Dalton]

On 21 January 2011 06:36, whothis <whothith at gmail.com> wrote:
>You can't be on an advisory board and tell a non-profit organization
> what to do as a pro-bono advisor to the board and then get paid by the said
> foundation as a fellow a few years into your tenure, serving both positions
> at the same time.

I think you are over-estimating the influence of the Advisory Board.
It's a loose collection of people that support the movement and have
useful experience that get asked occasional questions by the Board and
get invited to Wikimania every year. They don't have any power. I
don't see a conflict of interest here.

Achal could easily give up his position on the Advisory Board and it
wouldn't change anything - the board could still ask him questions if
they wanted to, he could still get a ticket to Wikimania through any
one of several routes (normal scholarship, foundation staff, guest of
the foundation, etc.). Being on the Advisory Board doesn't really mean
anything, it's just an honorarium given to people to thank them for
their advice and to make things more convenient administratively. I
don't see how an honorarium can give rise to a conflict of interest.