Re: Fwd: Draft of Proposal for the GNOME Foundation.

[Joe Shaw <joe helixcode com>]

> 3. "No single organization or company will be allowed to have a
> majority of the board seats."  It was my impression that individuals,
> not organizations or companies, would hold board seats.  You'll have
> to come up with a formulation that says what you mean, keeping in mind 
> that people like me change "employers" on a regular basis (I'm an
> independent contractor).

Yes, individuals would hold the seats, but you cannot ensure that their
employers wouldn't require them to vote for company policy, so who they
work for is significant. We never want one company to have an absolutely
majority on the board, because then the board could effectively be
controlled by one company. We just want to ensure that one company's
policy cannot be carried out without the consent of at least one member
outside of the company. If an independent person was on the board and then
got hired by a company, creating a majority, then one person from that
company would be required to step down. It's really just a safeguard for
the foundation to ensure independency.

Joe