[Foundation-l] Board Resolutions from March 30th 2012

[Stuart West]

My personal view on this John is that abstaining is appropriate in a couple cases:

- you truly don't have an opinion and trust those who do have opinions to make the decision.  in that case it's really a decision to support the majority view of the others who are voting.

- you don't particularly like a decision but don't hate it enough to vote no.  again, this ends up being a decision to support the majority view of others.

In the end I think it comes down to personal choice.  Some people see the world as more black and white and are comfortable with a simple yes or no (i tend to be in this camp).  Others feel a yes/no vote can lack nuance and respect for the gray areas in between and prefer not to unnaturally push themselves to one extreme or the other.

One note.  I do view a recusal as something completely different.  You should recuse yourself if you have  some kind of personal conflict of interest with a decision.  That's different than an abstention.




On Mar 31, 2012, at 7:45 AM, John Vandenberg wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 4:25 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 31 March 2012 06:13, John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> if you cant decide whether something is good or bad for the
>>> organisation, you are ill prepared for the vote (a procedural
>>> problem), or you are incompetent.
>> 
>> Either that, or you're honest. Nobody knows everything (except me, of course!).
> 
> There is no requirement to know everything.  There is a requirement to
> make decisions in the best interests of the organisation, *as you see
> it*.  If a trustee persistently abstains on the big decisions because
> they cant see *it* (no vision), or wish to avoid scrutiny, they are
> abusing their right to abstain and failing the organisation as a
> trustee.
> 
> -- 
> John Vandenberg
> 
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