While reinstating James Heilman (or rather, appointing him as replacement of Arnnon - I am assuming this is your suggestion?) may be a decision that is popular with a significant part of the community, I am uncertain how productive such a move would be. Especially now there is no more ED, I don't know if the board would be helped with an internal struggle (which, given the temperatures around James' removal, is very likely to happen). Sorry James, I like you a lot as a person, and I appreciate your boldness and consistent banging on doors - but I suspect your guts will also tell you that this is true. This is of course a different story if the board were to come forward themselves that they would /like/ him back on the board, because of who he is and what he brings (they know what they're getting themselves into).
I'm afraid that for the time being, James' board membership is best considered water under the bridge. If we can learn from it, we should though. Someone suggested on a relevant Facebook thread to organise a discussion between James and some willing board members to work out what exactly happened, what were the causes etc. It might be a constructive conversation if both parties are willing to join, and from that we could learn lessons for the future. Because no matter how you turn it, if a board feels the need to remove one of its members, it is a failure of the board as a body. Because they didn't manage to get a constructive working relationship with this member. And I hope that the board can learn from that, and improve its processes.
Best, Lodewijk
On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 2:32 AM, Comet styles cometstyles@gmail.com wrote:
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@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@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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-- Cometstyles
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