[Foundation-l] Re: Funding for the newly elected Board Members

Tue Jun 22 09:34:56 UTC 2004

--- Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
> I don't see it as very different.  Many Wikipedians have spent their 
> personal money in contributing to quality articles, including buying 
> out-of-copyright books from eBay in order to scan in images, to name 
> just one example.  We don't have plans to reimburse people for this expense.

The comparison is still not valid since creating articles has its own rewards
(different for each person) and the creation of *any* article is *never*
mandatory. Meetings are a drag and require board members to do things they may
not really want to do just because the work *must* be done. 

Meetings are are a necessary part of the functioning of the organization. The
organization is nothing without people. People are social creatures and are
energized by social contact and/or from a feeling that important people know
and care about them (why do you think political candidates spend so much time
on the road?). Thus to create and maintain the organization a certain amount of
social interaction is needed. So the trustees should be able to seek
reimbursement for meeting expenses. 

Also, as Erik rightly states, the highest bandwidth way to accomplish that is
through face-to-face meetings. Once per year would be an absolute minimum. Once
a quarter would be ideal if those meetings could be hosted by different
Wikimedia chapters around the world (creating stronger ties between the
foundation and the chapter system). 

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)

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