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

[Stuart West]

I'll give my personal view on the question, and invite others on the board to jump in.  I think the difference between the specific expertise seats and the appointed seats is subtle but important.

My sense is that the WMF Board specific expertise seats are more focused on board operations and governance.  so the Board might do a self-assessment and identify that it needs someone with financial/audit oversight experience to serve as Board Treasurer, and then go out and find it. That's me.  It's also reactive and designed to fill in the gaps.  So we as Board decided a few years ago that we lacked sufficient insight and perspective from outside North America and Europe, so we sought out and were incredibly luck to find Bishakha.

The opportunity for the two seats appointed by movement organizations like the chapters is broader.  Many more people are involved in identifying and surfacing potential candidates, so it has the potential to cast a wider and more thoughtful net.  And there is less constraint to meet specific governance needs, which frees up the process to focus on the people and perspectives that can have the most positive impact on our movement's pursuit of the mission.

-s


On Feb 1, 2012, at 1:12 PM, Benjamin Lees wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:23 AM, Stuart West <stuwest at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> How is this different from the rationale for the expertise seats?
> 
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