Re: Temporaray enlargement of the GNOME Board with 3 persons

[Daniel Veillard <veillard redhat com>]

On Tue, Jun 06, 2006 at 08:33:45PM +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> Considering the current state of affairs, I think it's wholly appropriate
> that the board is nominating Quim Gil (next in line from previous election
> results) to fill the position left vacant by Luis' resignation, but I don't

  yes, agreed, it's defining a new practice, but this sounds sane as long
as that person is still okay with this.

> believe it's appropriate or necessary for the board to increase the number
> of directors (with or without referendum, but to answer your charges, mostly
> without) at this stage.

  I can't juge on the 'necessary', but I think it's inappropriate too.

> > and the only thing which justify not working by delegation is that most of
> > the operation need to be done in secrecy.
> 
> I don't believe anyone has cited 'secrecy', though the word 'private' has
> come up. Ultimately the workings and decision of the board is not secret at
> all, but there are activities that require a certain amount of privacy or
> sensitivity. The process of dealing with employees, and the handling of the
> accounts (handling, not reporting) are good examples. I don't think this is
> even remotely controversial - anyone who has participated in the running of
> a non-profit organisation (including you, Daniel) would be well aware of
> this kind of balancing.

To have balance one need one opposite side, a perceived one. Sure some details
can't be shared, as you know I'm well aware of that, BUT I also always promoted
being as public as possible with issues. Currently the board work is opaque,
which would be fine if the few signals emitted were good, but 'we are overhelmed
we need to reverse to some extend a voted decision' is not a good signal.

> If the board is not appropriately reporting its activities, then any member

  The board is not reporting its activities in a timely fashion.

> should feel absolutely comfortable to ask questions and make demands. But I
> would ask that those questions and demands be specific and reasonable. :-)

  Okay, what happen at the board meetings since March, time of last published
minutes I could find. I assume it's reasonable request to at least know if
you are meeting, and what are the problems/questions you are facing with
the details you can share. It then helps getting a sense of how much work 
need to be done you can't cope with and hence how necessary increasing the
board size again really is.

  I hope my reaction can be understood, and my request not unreasonnable,
but really that request should not need to be done, this should be normal 
process,

Daniel

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