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

Mon Jan 30 13:28:58 UTC 2006

> Robert Scott Horning wrote:

> > As for having members of the board being outsiders, I think that should
> > not happen at all or under exceptional circumstances.

It's nice to hear that side for a change. I was beginning to form the
impression elected members were neither necessary nor wanted.

On 1/30/06, Tim Starling <t.starling at physics.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:

> 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.

I don't think there's any suggestion the committees (as opposed to the
Board) should be dominated by anything other than community members at
this stage. The processes of selecting those members are still under
discussion, and something the people organizing the committees the
Board approved the creation of
(<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolutions> have been asked to
report on by February 11.

On 1/30/06, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:

> At our size, however, we are faced with enormous
> responsibilities. ... This is something that requires professional legal and  financial
> knowhow.

Luckily we have an awful lot of legal and financial know-how within
the community. More than we could ever afford to pay for, and, more
importantly, coming from people who not only have that knowledge, but
have an understanding of what Wikimedia is and a belief in its
principles.

On 1/30/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> In some cases liability insurance can be
> purchased, but that too can be expensive.

The Foundation does intend to purchase insurance. Work has already
gone into completing applications for Board and Officers Liability
insurance and also for the more expensive Cyber Insurance. It was
partly the need to list the "Officers" on the application that raised
the question Anthere mentioned in this thread of who is an "Officer",
and whether the people Jimmy gave various titles to last year fell
under that definition.

Angela.