On Sat, Mar 14, 2015 at 12:34 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
I'm generally supportive of this legal action, but I am troubled by this statement:
"I trust our legal team to make decisions about what legal actions to participate in."
...WMF needs an activist board. All of the guidance that I read about boards in general says that good boards do due diligance, and I would encourage the WMF board to be proactive and ask tough questions. This can be done while maintaining a positive and respectful atmosphere.
Dear Pine,
As a recently-retired board member, I want to briefly chime in here. Apologies for dragging this thread off-course from the announcement.
There seems to be an assumption that board members don't ask good questions unless they are 'activists' - that is simply not true of any board I'm on, and most certainly not of the WMF board. To combine this with James' email replying to yours, 'providing oversight', 'strategic direction' and 'doing due diligence' often means asking the right questions, including 'tough' questions - at board meetings or via email, but not publicly.
Over the last five years, we've seen greater and greater clarity in separating board and staff roles at the WMF - that's a good thing that most organizations need to do as they mature, and helps both the board and the staff do what they should be doing, instead of getting their roles mixed up.
Best Bishakha