(I should clarify I don't think the pledge is necessarily wrong; it reads
to me like a straightforward affirmation of the conflict of interest policy
and I think it can't really be blamed for a notion of siding against the
community. But if it's confusing, maybe let's consider clarifying.)
-- brion
On Feb 25, 2016 7:54 AM, "Brion Vibber" <bvibber(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
On Feb 25, 2016 6:55 AM, "Andrea Zanni"
<zanni.andrea84(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 2:48 PM, Brion Vibber <bvibber(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> What I will disagree on is with the notion that the board has to take
the
> org's side against the movement by
definition. It is my understanding
that
> the board has the role of oversight of the
org -- that is, it's the
board's
> job to ensure that the Foundation is
effectively accomplishing the
goals it
was
created to perform.
As much as I agree with Brion,
probably Denny's message is telling us a lot.
I haven't read carefully the WMF Board Pledge of personal commitment, but
this is not the first time this issue is discussed: see for example
Cristian mail, two months ago, tackling the very specific thing. [1]
One thing we should do is ensure that the legal obligations of a trustee
of a Florida not for profit corporation are not conflated with an
arbitrarily-written 'pledge of personal commitment' (or, to be sure, our
own preferences).
If the pledge is poorly worded or just wrong, it should be corrected.
(IANAL, so I'll leave further talk of legal obligations to those more
familiar with the topic.)
-- brion
Maybe the Board "feels" a lot of pressure about this, and this is a
problem
on itself.
We all know that "toxicity" of an environment doesn't need laws or
written
rules, but people being people, social pressure,
etc.
If Board members feels without power, bound to the WMF and not the
Movement, that's a real problem we need to look into.
Aubrey
[1]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2015-December/080600.html
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