[Foundation-l] Call for nominations: chapter-appointed seats on the WMF Board of Trustees

[Stuart West]

On Feb 1, 2012, at 4:12 AM, Thomas Dalton wrote:

> Last time, the chapters decided to keep the process very confidential
> in order to allow free and frank discussion of the candidates. It was
> felt that it would be good to have confidential discussions, in
> contrast to the public ones that are associated with the community
> elected seats, because that might attract different candidates than
> would stand for the community elected seats (ie. candidates that don't
> want lots of discussion about every good and bad quality they have
> happening in public - the selection process can involve a much greater
> intrusion on privacy than actually serving on the board does).

FWIW, as I think back to Board conversations in 2008 (it was my first meeting), Thomas's comments are quite close to Board's rationale in creating the chapter seats in 2008.

The hope was to attract/identify Board candidates who could add a lot of value to the movement but who, for one reason or another, would NOT typically be candidates in election.  That might be because they aren't well-known in the editing community that decides elections.  Or as Thomas mentions that they wouldn't be interested in going through the sometimes grueling election process.