Re: Question for candidates: transparency and accountability

[Josh Triplett <josh joshtriplett org>]

On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 12:39:50PM +0200, Fabiana Simões wrote:
> I'd like to hear your thoughts on implementing transparency and
> accountability on the Board.
>
> How transparent the work of the Board should be to Foundation members? What
> should be communicated and when? Do you think we have been transparent
> enough in the last term? If not, how can we improve things and how high in
> your priorities would be to do so?
>
> In terms of accountability, it's been unclear to me since joining the
> Foundation how much different Board members contribute to the Board's goals
> and tasks. Do you think the meeting notes provide enough visibility and
> context to the work being done? By the end of a term, how can the
> Foundation have a fair understanding of one's contributions to the Board?

I believe the board should be entirely transparent about all of its
activities and discussions, with two exceptions:

First, if the board is discussing some legal or contractual issue that
cannot be disclosed until after a certain point, then detailed records
should still be kept, but those records can be kept private until the
point where they can be released/discussed.

And second, if the board is handling some privacy-sensitive issue for
community members, such as harassment or dispute mediation, then the
decision of how much to disclose there should be up to the parties
involved rather than to the board.

Other than exceptions like those, the board should be entirely
transparent and public about its activities and records.

> From what I've seen in the board minutes and similar, I think the board
has been quite transparent about what happens in board meetings, but I
agree that the board could potentially improve transparency about
followups and resolutions that happen via activity outside of board
meetings.

I also think that activity summaries such as those other board members
have recently posted help to avoid the "hidden in plain sight" problem
that the minutes can have.

Do you have any specific examples of board-related activities you could
point to where you think additional transparency would have been
helpful, as an example of what to improve?

I certainly plan to be entirely transparent about my *own* activities if
elected to the board.

- Josh Triplett