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

[Nathan]

While I'm sure most readers understand these principles well already,
they are worth restating: the Foundation is not a wiki. It is not
purely a democracy. Greater democracy has not, to my knowledge, been
shown to correspond with greater effectiveness in non-profit
management. The WMF is not a membership organization. Legally, the
practice of allowing the editing community to elect members to its
board is voluntary.

I'm not arguing that the community doesn't often have good input, or
that a general ethic of transparency and cooperation isn't an
extremely positive characteristic of the Foundation. In fact, the
support of the community is absolutely crucial to its survival. I
merely want to suggest that the tone of entitlement evident in some
recent posts to wikimedia-l is misplaced.

Nathan