[Wikimedia-l] Board resolutions on bylaw amendments and appointment of Foundation staff officers

[Samuel Klein]

It's a good idea to make prep materials available a week in advance, to the
community as to the board.
Exceptions can be made for any materials that are sensitive in nature.

I can think of only one or two examples from the past few meetings.  Much
of the material is published afterwards anyway.

On the same subject, most draft resolutions can be worked out on meta as
well.  This might encourage more community-proposed resolutions for the
Board to consider, which would also be healthy.

SJ


On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Bence Damokos <bdamokos at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Bishakha,
>
> In my opinion, given the generally curious nature of our movement, it might
> be a good idea to make more preparatory material for the board meetings
> available publicly in advance.
> Not necessarily as a way to allow comments or input, but as a matter of
> transparency. Especially for proposals that are not likely to be changed
> during the meeting (e.g. the technical bylaw amendments) and that will
> become public as a result of the board vote, it might be possible to
> publish them in advance without any adverse consequences, and resulting in
> greater transparency.
>
> (In this regard, the fact that Sue's recommendations were on Meta already
> was a great step; without knowing the exact deliberations that happened at
> the meeting, probably the bylaw amendments and the committee charters could
> have been made public in advance.)
>
> Best regards,
> Bence
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 5:21 PM, Bishakha Datta <bishakhadatta at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 4:53 PM, Lodewijk <lodewijk at effeietsanders.org
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Bishakha,
> > >
> > > could you please elaborate why the board has chosen for a secretive
> > > amendment procedure here, rather than sharing the proposed amendments
> > with
> > > the community and asking their input on it? Especially where it
> concerns
> > > such non-trivial changes.
> > >
> > > Ok, now that the document showing old and new has finally been
> uploaded,
> > I
> > will try to answer your question.
> >
> > The legal team proposed that we amend the bylaws, primarily to ensure
> > compliance with Florida non-profit laws.
> >
> > Since most of the changes are legal in nature, they were not referred to
> > the community for prior input.
> >
> > I understand how this action can be seen as secretive or opaque, even
> > though it may not have been intended as such.
> >
> > Is it also possible to see this action as reasonable, given the nature of
> > most of the changes?
> >
> > Just asking! Feel free to disagree,
> > Bishakha
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-- 
Samuel Klein          @metasj           w:user:sj          +1 617 529 4266