[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Brasil + WMF

[Jimmy Wales]

On 8/28/11 1:00 AM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> I think that developing such a legal entity should be a high priority
> for Brazilian Wikipedians to ensure that Wiki activities in Brazil are
> controlled by Brazilians. At the same time I don't think there is any
> value to having a WMF appointee on your board; such a person would find
> it difficult to function under circumstances of perpetual conflict of
> interest.  No other chapter has such a clause.

I had never thought of this before, but now that it has been mentioned, 
I just wanted to disagree, quite respectfully because Ray is awesome of 
course, and say that I think it is a very interesting idea to have a WMF 
appointee on the boards of chapters.

There should be very few cases where there is a "conflict of interest" 
since chapters and the Foundation are deeply tied together always (and 
that's a good thing).  I think having a Foundation representative on the 
board of chapters does present some possibly insurmountable logistical 
issues (who will they be?) but I actually think such an arrangement 
might be incredibly valuable for improving communication and 
*decreasing* perceived conflicts of interest.

--Jimbo