Re: Candidacy (Tim Ney)

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 20Nov2001 12:17AM (+0100), Christian Schaller wrote:
> 
> I will not claim to know every detail of a how a corporation work and I
> bet they differ slightly from country to country, but AFAIK the CEO
> meets on board meetings in the role as CEO, to inform the board of the
> current situation of the company, not as the elected representative of 
> the stockholders. 

Sometimes the CEO or other executives attend board meetings to inform
the board and not as board members. But other times the CEO (or even
other executives) are on the board as members, part of the slate
elected by the shareholders.

Indeed, it's not uncommon for the CEO to also be chairman of the baord
(not that I think we need that - Havoc makes a great chair).
 
> As a sidenote I also wonder if we should use the corporate world as our
> inspiration for how to build democratic institutions :)

Many nonprofits work the same way. In fact I have never heard of an
organization that has the rule you describe.

> I guess it is to late to do this for this election, but I think it is
> something which should be discussed to be made part of our rules for the
> next round.

I would still argue against such a rule.

> True and I will, but I do not want me and others not voting for Tim due
> to our objections to the conflicting roles to be seen as a vote off no
> confidence to how Tim has handled the job of director.  

Now that you've made your feelings clear I doubt anyone will see it
that way.
 
> There are other examples to on where Tim could find himself on both
> sides of the table too, but I will let this debate rest now til after
> the election. 

I think it's perfectly fair of you to raise such issues now. They are
very relevant to Tim's candidacy. 

Personally, I can't imagine any major conflict of interest, and if one
were to come up, I would expect Tim to recuse himself. I would expect
of any other board member facing a conflict of interest to do the same
(and certainly being an employee or officer of a company with a strong
interest in GNOME can be a potential conflict of interest in certain
situations).

Regards,

Maciej