[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

Mon Mar 17 02:24:54 UTC 2008

Actually, I am going to start a new thread to see if there is support to add an amendment to the Charter specifically stating that appointed seats not exceed 1/3 of all seats. 

----- Original Message ----
From: Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 6:17:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

On 3/17/08, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 16/03/2008, Geoffrey Plourde <geo.plrd at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > The Board is accountable. If they really screwed up, you know what would
> happen? Somebody would lead an exodus of most of the editors and start a new
> Foundation. An army without soldiers can not fight.
>
> That only applies in really extreme cases. If they only mildly screw
> up, there isn't all that much we can do about it beyond wait for the
> next elections and hope the new members can change things a little.

This is a really important point, that can do with some amplification.

It is *really* vital that there is and will *ever* be an electoral component
to the constitution of the board of trustees. Even if it may well continue
that there shall be wise concerted action to provide guidance to which
particular electoral results in the end happen, there have to be checks
and balances.

Even the case where Trustees were _merely_ up for "confirmation" by the
community at large, would be *highly* unsatisfactory. What would happen
then, in the case of a serious rift, with the *whole*community* seriously
at loggerheads with the Board of Trustees, is the only thing the community
could do would be to refuse to give assent, rather like Sir Thomas More.

In the wikimedia case, that would be little short of tragic. Do think about it.

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]

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