On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 4:22 AM, WereSpielChequers < werespielchequers@gmail.com> wrote:
Pine has a point. We all know that the founder seat will go eventually. Whether it goes on the death or incapacity of the founder or earlier is a valid question for the board and the community. I'm not convinced that an elections committee should be deciding which posts to elect, and even if such governance issues do fall into its remit they should probably focus on how to elect first. So I'd say this should be a board decision.
As for the arguments to retain a founder seat for the next few decades, I suggest that those who favour such a position try to couch their arguments in terms of institutional knowledge, the value of an element of continuity and the positives for the community to still retain such a link with our founder. Then hope that the incidents of a few months ago fade in memory and are not repeated. There is a case to be made for a founder seat, but as with any argument in this community there are ways to argue respectfully and effectively, and there are arguments that undermine your cause and weaken your reputation.
I think that Pine's question is definitely valid, and in the same time I don't think it is really related to the Election Committee, or that it can be really resolved through a discussion on this mailing list (although it can be initiated here).
My personal view is that there are a lot of benefits of having the founder's seat with a voting power, and there are also noticable disadvantages (accountability to the movement, etc., but also one of the disadvantages is the returning, endless discussion, drawing our attention from more crucial topics).
I believe we should get our priorities straight - overall Board governance/structure, vision&strategy, movement's structure&financing all in my mind are urgent. The founder's seat is a topic related as a specific subtheme of the Board's structure, and as Christophe has already mentioned, I think we will get some food for thought once we have the governance review (for instance, apart from opinions, we'll know more about common practices - just as a reference, not to bind us in any way, of course).
best,
dariusz "pundit"