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

[MZMcBride]

phoebe ayers wrote:
> Regardless, in the spirit of being constructive, I propose (as a
> community member) two changes to the Board and community at large:
> * a formal Board resolution that states the procedure for bylaws
> changes (mirroring the other procedural resolutions, such as voting
> transparency and deliberation rules).
> * a better (more public) standing rules/procedures type of document
> that lays out the procedure for how the board works -- i.e. what the
> best practice is for notification of meetings, etc. etc. Currently
> some of this information is in the board manual, some is in the
> bylaws, some is in resolutions and some is in informal private
> documents like the notes the secretary uses. It would be nice to bring
> that all together into one place on meta, and such a document would
> help future boards -- compared to many nonprofits, we have a lot of
> turnover on our board, and it takes a while for each member as well as
> each secretary to come up to speed. I'm imagining a document that is
> more like an English Wikipedia guideline, rather than policy -- best
> practices that the board follows unless there are good reasons not to.
> 
> I guess now that I've made these suggestions I've also volunteered
> myself to work on them, huh :P

I always enjoy reading your mailing list posts. :-)  And yes, any
demonstration of sanity will be used against you (cf. David Gerard's law:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Raul654/Raul%27s_laws>).

In the past, Sam has said that private solicitation of Board members to
introduce a resolution was the best approach. This came up in the context of
the travel guide idea, I believe. I'm beginning to think that we need a
better process for this (and perhaps planning for a better process should
take place at Lodewijk's new Meta-Wiki page).

Developers use Bugzilla to track issues. I'm not sure what Board members
use. Mandatory notification prior to bylaws changes seems like an issue that
has suffered from poor issue tracking, as a request that ultimately needs a
(Board) resolution. Perhaps a page at Meta-Wiki could track such requests?

MZMcBride