[Foundation-l] The foundations of the Wikimedia Foundation (was: Wikimedia Council)

[Fruggo]

I think this is a very interesting proposal. The concept of an
ondernemingsraad works great in a lot of companies. I believe that the role
an ondernemingsraad has, describes pretty good the role a Volunteer Council
should have, although the comparison doesn't go all the way; the
ondernemingsraad looks after the interests of the company, with the
interests of the employees in mind; I guess the Volunteer Council would look
after the interests of the Foundation and it's projects (the "company"),
with the mission of the Foundation/projects in mind. The interests of
(individual) employees should not really matter (that might be something for
the meta-arbcom), but of course the Volunteer Council would advise from a
volunteer's perspective, and would guarantee that the volunteers (and their
ideas and wishes) are taken seriously.

-Fruggo



> effe iets anders schreef:
>
> -knip-
> However, I would like to propose something else. I am not sure if it
> is a known system in companies abroad, but in the Netherlands the
> larger companies (>50 employees) are obliged to have a
> "ondernemingsraad". This is a council of employees that has four
> rights:
> * The right to discuss with the employer about decisions. The employer
> is obliged to cooperate with this with a certain group of defined
> decisions.
> * The right to be asked for advice. The employer is obliged to ask the
> advice of this council for certain decisions. He is not obliged to
> follow this advice. However, he will have to consider it seriously,
> and has to motivate if he does not follow it.
> * The right to be asked for approval. In decisions which have a direct
> impact on the employees, the employer is obliged to ask approval of
> the council. He can only ignore this through legal procedures.
> * The right of initiative. The Council can make proposals for the
> employer, which will have to consider these seriously.
> (derived from: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ondernemingsraad , GFDL, see the
> url for the authors and license information)
> -knip-
>
>