On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 7:02 AM, Greg Grossmeier greg@wikimedia.org wrote:
<quote name="Milos Rancic" date="2016-01-03" time="04:37:49 +0100"> > Then he tells to some of them: "This is going to happen. As you don't > want that to happen, you should try to make pressure on Board members. > I suggest you to do that in this way." I have to say that I did that > numerous times on committee level in relation to the community needs: > "Look, this is not going to pass Gerard. Our options to do that are > those. You should do this, I will do that."
Asaf's comment disagrees with this point. I can confirm that with myself as well. James never promised me anything specific was going to happen and never made a recommendation on what I should do.
It was clear from James' statement that he didn't promise anything and I didn't say that.
Whatever else he said is a part of normal communication and I don't see that as something bad.
While I really have no idea what exactly happened, I could see two separate issues:
Obviously, there is one significant issue (or a couple of smaller) over which Board has disagreement with James and (a part of) staff. We don't know what it is and I'll start separate topic in relation to that. That's relevant and we should talk about it.
The other issue, the one which triggered James' removal, is connected to it, but formally quite different. I am quite sure that making one action against the collective decision isn't something which would trigger his removal. On the other hand, repeating those actions and stance (which, I am sure, is quite ethical), could produce development like this one.
Said so, I don't have an opinion in relation to James' removal; I just gave description of what I see as the most probable reason. If I am right, I am happy it's not a product of serious political disagreements, as well as, on the other side, I don't like the timing. Otherwise, I have no position and it's not because I want to be "neutral" (I am sick of those willing to be "moderate", "neutral", "balanced" [1]).
This problem should have been solved much earlier, without escalating it to the point of Board member removal. I am also sick of thinking about problems created in the past (months, years) because of lack of cognitive abilities of participants at that point of time. The problem is that it's always easier not to actively tackle solvable issues. And it's endemic to our movement.