[Foundation-l] "By electing some of the Board members, who are really few"...

[Anthere]

Gatto Nero wrote:
> 2006/12/28, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org>:

>>>How communities can express their opinions about Foundation choose?
>>>Directly? (Oh My God, don't answer "Yes")
>>
>>By electing Board members, and by participating in community decision
>>processes (demanding more of those from time to time helps).
> 
> 
> By electing some of the Board members, who are really few. Really: how
> much member there are? Seven? I don't think they're representive at
> all, especially cause there are no regular elections (zum beispiel,
> once a year).

Sorry, but I really do not get it.

We are currently 7 on the board.
Amongst those 7 people, 5 are community members.
Jan-Bart and Michael are the only "outsiders", and god, are they precious !

Jimbo, arguably, is a community member. He has been the heart of the 
project since the very begining of Wikipedia, nearly 6 years ago.

Erik joined the project in 2002. I joined the project in early 2002. I 
am not sure when Oscar and Kat joined, but I would say they have been 
there for at least 2 years.
Erik and I were elected to be on the board. Kat and Oscar were 
appointed, but they were candidates number 2 and 3 of the last 
elections, which make them imho, half-elected, half-appointed members.
In any cases, Kat and Oscar are both people you know and who have 
received huge support at last elections.

That makes 4 people amongst 7 as being the nearest thing we can think in 
terms of representation. Plus Jimbo, who frankly, does not deserve to be 
told he does not listen to community feedback.

Elections are not frequent ? Of course they are not. It takes a lot of 
time and effort to organise an election, and being elected for 1 month 
does not make ANY sense. So, there is no way we can make elections more 
frequently than once a year.

I would like to add that the board recently took a very bold stance, 
written in the bylaws themselves, to garantee there will ALWAYS be a 
majority of community people on the board.

These people are meant to be your representants.

Anthere