Well the keyword in "trustees" is the word "Trust" and as far as i
can
see James was the ONLY one that was forthcoming with what happened
back in December, the others decided to keep their mouth shut and let
it slide which obviously, made it worse and out of control.....The
community has over the years selected a few BoT members that weren't
really that good, including some recently but James has been an
exception if we can get the ONLY Board of Trustee that the community
TRUSTS back on board, its a win for the community..
It was a really 'sly' move by the BoT to select someone else in his
place even before the fire died down..so yes, even if the current
members of the Board do not trust him, WE the community DO...thats
all that matters.
On 2/27/16, Kevin Gorman <kgorman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I'm responding to an off-list comment I received
to clarify that my email
wasn't at all meant to denigrate the work of all trustees.
It's quite possible that there were other trustees pushing down the right
path - but I would stand by the statement that James Heilman was the only
trustee actively and aggressively following his fiduciary duties. A
trusteeship can involve an intense time committment, and is a volunteer
role; there is no fault, no flaw in a trustee not universally actively and
aggressively following their fiduciary duties at all time. But I've been
talking with WMF and ex-WMF employees for months before this eruption, had
a pretty thorough idea of what it was about, and had a pretty solid feeling
that it was the wrong thing to do even before it happened.
James' actions retained valuable Foundation employees that would of
otherwise left, and there are yet other valuable Foundation employees that
would likely have stayed had he not been removed over the issue. Not all
trustees have the available time to be exemplary trustees at all times, and
sometimes people just make the wrong call - I will readily confess that at
another organization (~$20m org,) there were times when I both didn't have
time to dedicate to be an exemplary trustee, and also times when I just
made the wrong call. However, this is a situation where Jame's was acting
as an exemplar and was removed for it. That is not intended to denigrate
the work of most other trustees, but it's not a good situation either.
Removing a community selected trustee who was acting as an exemplar
*because* he was acting as an exemplar is not a good thing. One of the
first solid steps towards rebuilding community trust would be reinstating
James.
----
Kevin Gorman
On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 4:51 PM, Kevin Gorman <kgorman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all -
I understand that this idea has been discussed on other currently active
threads, but in my opinion, it deserves a separate thread. To an informed
observer, it was pretty obvious why James was removed to begin with, and
to
a casual observer, I'm guessing it's become obvious. It would be
unfortunate of events have soured James' relationship with other board
members to the point that it would be literally unworkable to put him back
on the board... but it's also become readily apparent that the community
trusted community selected (and sorry, but that's a bullshit trick,)
trustee James Heilman wasn't violating his fiduciary duties.
I would go as far as to say that James Heilman was the only trustee who
was actively and aggressively following his fidicuiary duties, and that if
Dr. James is willing to accept a reappointment to the board, one of the
next three board motions that passes should be appointing James Heilman as
trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. His removal wasn't a surprise to
him,
he knew it was coming - but he also knew he was acting in the interests of
the Wikimedia Foundation.
And that's the exact kind of trustee we need.
----
Kevin Gorman
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