[Foundation-l] Design goals for the election and board selection process

[Jimmy Wales]

I have enjoyed the technical discussions around the design of the  
voting mechanism, and I think it is quite worthwhile for us to  
continue learning and thinking about these things.  There are several  
tradeoffs here, and the choice is not easy.

But additionally I think we should think about what the purpose of  
the elections is, and what the appropriate design should be.  This  
should be part of a broader analysis of what the purpose of the board  
should be, and what the overall design of the process of board  
selection (including elections, appointments, etc.) should be in  
order to achieve those goals.

The possibilities open to us are endless.  And there are strengths  
and weaknesses to various approaches.

A quick list of some of the things that I think are important:

1. Diverse representation - and I mean diversity in the sense of  
geography, languages, projects, gender, skills, etc.

2. Professionalism - part of diversity, we don't want or need all the  
board to be "good editors" but rather to have as well people who have  
technical experience, nonprofit governance experience, legal  
experience, big business experience, dot-com experience, public  
charity fundraising experience, foundation grant application  
experience, political experience/contacts, etc.

3. Harmony - the current board is filled with good people who do not  
always agree but who -- to my great pleasure -- work together in an  
atmosphere of mutual respect and trust (mostly, we are human of  
course :) ) -- approval voting is good for this, it generates  
candidates who have broad support.  Some voting systems would be much  
more likely to allow a "troll candidate" to concentrate attention and  
get elected in a partisan split, etc.

4. Responsiveness - that the board listens to the community

5. Independence - that the board has the moral authority to make  
unpopular decisions at times, so that the board does not end up being  
too beholden to internal politics of the moment and can feel the  
strength to stick to principles even in cases where those principles  
might not be so popular

(Yes, 4 and 5 are in tension and therefore have to be balanced.)

--Jimbo