[Foundation-l] Some views with regard to current discussion

Fri Apr 20 06:30:12 UTC 2007

Hoi,
Well again there is more to the story where you paint yourself so rosy...

Let me quote Anthere from an e-mail dated April 1:
"Next step was tuesday morning, one hour way from taking my flight. We were
in Carolyn office. You entered the room and gave Carolyn your resignation
letter. I told you, "please enter the room, close the door and let us talk
together about that". You looked at me in a bland fashion, said nothing,
went out of the room, closed the door and left the office. Carolyn run after
you to ask you what was going on and the only message she brought back is
that we were all crazy. Bottom line: you refused to talk to me when I
proposed that we talk. It is not normal
that you claim I never asked you an explanation, I did and you chose to not
answer."

I will not say that you did not talk to Carolyn, you probably did. But
saying that you were so wonderful in being open and helpful about your
sudden departure is a misrepresentation of the facts. You may have helped
Carolyn who you consider a friend. It is pretty clear that you did not do a
sterling job in reporting to and collaborating with the board (also but not
only) in the April 1 mail. This is also clear in your mail of March 22 where
you write: "That said, at present, I am unwilling to discuss the  reasons
for my resignation from the WMF office team"

The rules allow you to run for the position of board member, you are the
only one who being a former employee indicates that he intends to run for a
position. You are the only one who is already waging a political campaign.
Your campaign is considered to be negative by many people. You are in a
position to do whatever you like within the limits of the law there is even
room for brinkmanship because the WMF wants to spend its money on other
things than a civil suit. The existing board members have to function in
their role and, they are not necessarily in a position to refute your
claims. They also have more to do that humour you.

Having you start a campaign distracts from the business at hand. You abuse
your privileged information by "kiss and tell". To me this is unethical.
Where you are of the opinion that certain things are not correct, that there
is an abuse of donor money, I would say that there is room for discretionary
spending. The extend of which is not for you or me to decide.

Given all this I think you should not run for a board position. I think you
are not qualified. I think you will, once elected, prove to be headstrong
and unable to cooperate with other board members. You have a problem in
accepting authority, when you were to be elected, you would not have
authority as the authority is in the whole of the board. I fear that your
presence on the board would make the board more argumentative, less
cooperative and less effective. I believe strongly that you should desist
and not run for a position.

Thanks,
    GerardM

On 4/20/07, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> In a message dated 4/19/2007 4:01:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> wiki at devreede.net writes:
>
> The  sudden departure Danny without a
> proper transfer of knowledge, combined  with the start of new employees
> and a lot of new things happening make  this an especially trying time
> for them.
>
>
> I do not feel it would be right to answer this entire email, though I do
> find it questionable whether a board member should single out one person,
> by
> name or insinuation, as somehow ineligible to run for the board. I am
> hoping I
> misunderstood your email.
>
> On the other hand, I want to be clear about this allegation. After my
> departure, I appeared in the office on several occasions and sat with
> Carolyn to
> relay any information that I had. I went through all of the information on
> my
> whiteboard, and I gave her each of my files, explaining to her what they
> contained. She was always and is always free to call me with questions.
> As  Carolyn
> will surely agree, I considered her a friend more than just a  colleague,
> and
> will continue to do so. Note that my Rolodex is also in the  office with
> all
> my important phone numbers.
>
> Just this morning, long before you sent your email, Carolyn called
> me  asking
> for access to my old work email, which is on Mark Bergsma's
> personal  server.
> I had asked Mark for this in the past, but he was reluctant because of
> privacy concerns. When Carolyn asked, I immediately sent an email to
> Mark   (at
> 4/19/2007 9:06:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time) releasing all my emails
> to  Carolyn
> (only).
>
> As for fundraising for Wikimania, I agreed to speak with the intern who is
> currently working on it and cleared an entire afternoon to pass on
> information
> to him. I found it unfortunate that when we met, he told me he had only
> twenty  minutes so "make it quick."  I have been working at this and
> similar
> professions since before that intern was born, and found it insulting both
> to me
> and to the foundation that hired me for my expertise to think that this
> experience could be condensed into a twenty-minute cheat sheet. However,
> as I
> explained to Carolyn later that day, I am always available to answer
> questions  and
> share ideas.
>
> I regret that you feel this was inadequate and can only hope that other
> employees acted in the same way, with the same sense of responsibility,
> when  they
> left.
>
> Danny
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's free at
> http://www.aol.com.
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