Re: Question for candidates: transparency and accountability

[Magdalen Berns <m berns thismagpie com>]

Hi Fabiana,

Great question, thanks! Response inline:

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?

I think it is appropriate the board seek a consensus from the community before adopting any new policy. I also believe it it is fair practice for the board to take steps to advertise posts, such as: secretary, treasurer and president before appointing new officers.

I would seek to encourage healthy discussion between the board and the rest of the community about matters of importance arising, which would include, taking conscious steps to publish the agenda and minutes as early as possible. I would also advocate we publish advisory board minutes. More generally, I think it would be useful if we kept an up to date list of all committee names, committee members, committee meeting logs/minutes and policies, just as we already to keep our current members list up to date on the Foundation pages.

Always useful to be able to see a more detailed breakdown of income and outgoings so we are clear on how much each “sponsor" is actually contributing to the project in real, practical terms. The community could also benefit from being kept abreast of the specific yearly contributions of advisory board affiliates.  

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?

Who knows that GNOME has been a “delinquent” charity in the eyes of so the California State Department of Justice since 2013? The board have done their best under exceptionally challenging circumstances, but of course must always strive to do better, year on year. If elected, I would be seeking feedback from members on an ongoing basis. Transparency and accessibility go hand in hand: This is a top priority for me.

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?

It would be useful to be able to provide access to meeting logs, but as I understand things, there are some confidentiality issues which may prevent that from being workable. I suppose I could advocate each director write a monthly or (dare I say it) maybe even a fortnightly report, that sort of thing could make it clear to members that everyone is "pulling their weight” and ensure members are always clear on what tasks are actively being carried out by each member of the board.

By the end of a term, how can the Foundation have a fair understanding of one's contributions to the Board?

Jeff’s end of term update was a good call and I get the sense that the rest of the community really appreciated his efforts too. It would be great to see the same sort of thing from all board members and then compiled either into a pdf document or as a condensed so it can be added to the annual report and I would certainly be willing to support an initiative like this.

Thanks again, for your questions!

Magdalen