[Foundation-l] Opinions/suggestions for "outside" members of the board?

Mon Jun 19 20:55:21 UTC 2006

Hello all,

I think it is very good to think about this kind of stuff, but maybe i
missed a more general question, without asking about the exact person.
However I do understand the enthousiasm of people when the idea exists to
get Eben Moglan or another famous guy (I missed the women, but maybe
overlooked them?) on the WMF-board, but I was wondering if someone could
inform me why exactly we would need those people. Is it because they have a
good insight, because they have certain qualities to *do* stuff, or that
they could promote the concept better, as they are more famous, and will
network better? Probably all of these reasons will be a part of the
redenation Jimmy followed.
But I think that with the current way the board is organized, the members of
the board do a lot of stuff, and have to spend a very big amount of time on
WMF, prevents maybe that the people named are willing to participate, but it
would maybe also prevent that their qualities will be fully used. The board
is pretty small now, and the percentage of "famous" people, who are
*automaticly* buzzy too, will increase quickly when they are admitted to the
board. I don't want to say that is bad, but that it might need also then
some restructuring in the way the board functions.
So I think it might be a good idea to think first of all about if we want
prominant persons at all on the board (the answer will probably be yes
though) and secondly, as Jimmy mentioned before, we should think about what
kind of prominent person we want. Do we want someone with specific
knowledge, do we want to bond the WMF through this boardmember to a certain
type of organization, do we want someone active in politics so the ideals of
the WMF can be spread that way, etc etc etc. Maybe it would be more usefull
to think about this kind of questions first before we start with names. The
discussion gets quite soon complicated then usually. This way we don't have
to say people are bad or not famous enought also, as we are searching to
find someone who fits into the profile, after we found a profile :)
I hope my two cents are usefull,

greetings, Lodewijk aka effeietsanders (that guy with the long weird name)

2006/6/19, Lord Voldemort <lordbishopvoldemort at gmail.com>:
>
> On 6/19/06, The Cunctator <cunctator at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I don't know the right names, but someone who's been really good at
> > advocating for improved resources/outreach into the third world, third
> world
> > civil rights etc. would also be a great addition outside of the
> "obvious"
> > choices.
>
> Angelina Jolie? Works with U.N. without all the political implications
> of Kofi Annan. Downside: May give Christine a bit of a stomach ache
> considering Jolies past experiences with co-workers. ;-)  Okay, I'll
> try and be more serious, I just couldn't help myself.  --LV
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