Re: Questions for the candidate

[Mark McLoughlin <markmc redhat com>]

Hi,

On Mon, 2004-11-29 at 21:06 -0500, Miguel de Icaza wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> On my way home, I realized that people in this group are thinking of the
> board in two different ways.
> 
> I am thinking about the board in the sense that a board of directors
> behaves for other non-profits and for companies.  I have sat on various,
> and attended meetings on those, and am aware of the schedule of various
> others, and they are nothing like the Gnome Board.
> 
> In any case, that is where am coming from.
> 
> But I realized that the others are thinking about the board in a
> different way: they are thinking of the board as the executive team for
> running the Gnome project.  
> 
> In other organizations boards appoint executive team members.  A sign
> that the board is functioning in this way is the long list of "ACTION"
> items listed on the minutes: the board meetings have become meetings for
> executing on the strategy.
> 
> So the bi-weekly meetings become a meeting to discuss execution issues
> of the foundation, what is typically referred as tactical
> decision-making, not strategic decision making.  They are blended
> together in these meetings. 
> 
> So the minutes reflect that: a lot of tactical decisions that could have
> been perfectly delegated.

	So, the board should be a strategic decision making body? I never had
the impression that this was the intent and probably would have voted
differently if I had thought that was the case. I voted for people who I
thought would attend the meetings and get stuff done.

	Looking at foundation.gnome.org, the intent that the board should be a
strategic, rather than executive, body isn't at all obvious:

"
The board is the primary decision-making body of the GNOME foundation.
It is responsible for ratifying all decisions the GNOME foundation
makes. These decisions can be overturned by referendum.
"

"
The GNOME Foundation is run by a Board of Directors, which is elected
annually by the GNOME community, as the GNOME Membership, to carry out
much of the GNOME Foundation's tasks. The Board of Directors meets every
other week with a phone conference to discuss various topics pertaining
to the regular activities of the GNOME Foundation and GNOME.
"

	If anything, that suggests to me that the Board *is* an executive body
and that it is the *Foundation* that is the strategic decision making
body.

Cheers,
Mark.