[Foundation-l] Outsiders on the Board? (was Re: Poll for Wikistandards)

Sun Jan 29 14:05:17 UTC 2006

Robert Scott Horning wrote:
> Angela wrote:
> 
>> On 1/28/06, Robert Scott Horning 
>> <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote:
>>
>>> One other issue that needs to be dealt with immediately is the
>>> opposition vote by a member of the Wikimedia Foundation board.
>>>   
>>
>>
>> Two members of the Board were elected by the community, so,
>> unsurprisingly, those two people are going to be involved in community
>> matters like this poll. I realise some people would prefer the Board
>> be made only of external people, but with the current situation,
>> you're going to have to accept that at least two people on the Board
>> have dual roles of being on the Board and being Wikimedians. I am not
>> going to accept the constant attempts to prevent me expressing any
>> opinion outside of official meetings.
>>
>> We will soon have the Special Projects Committee
>> <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution_Special_projects> to
>> decide things like this, so I can't see the results of the poll going
>> directly to the stage of Board decision anyway. Since we're delegating
>> authority away from the Board, my view on the matter, as someone not
>> intending to be on the SP Committee, isn't any more relevant than that
>> of anyone else voting.
>>
>> Angela.
>>  
>>
> As for having members of the board being outsiders, I think that should 
> not happen at all or under exceptional circumstances.  I support the 
> concept of Wikimedians being involved with the board, and I understand 
> the role of being both a leader and a contributor... and having opinions 
> as well.  We live with that on all of the Wikimedia projects anyway, 
> where admins and bureaucrats are also ordinary editors and contributors 
> as well... each with their own opinion and often vote on things like 
> VfDs and policy questions within projects.

If Wikimedia needs qualified outside help, it's in operations, not 
oversight. Only an elected board, accountable to the Wikimedia 
community, can ensure that the principles that the community holds dear 
are upheld.

Some committees might benefit from the guidance of qualified outsiders, 
but the committees should still be dominated by volunteers, either 
selected by a transparent and fair process with Board oversight or, as 
Erik suggests, with open membership.

-- Tim Starling