Re: Question to candidates - Minutes of the board meeting

[Allan Day <aday gnome org>]

Hi Max,

Max via foundation-list <foundation-list gnome org> wrote:
...
> Could you promise to think a way --- Everyone get "Minutes of the board meeting" in a very close time?

Thanks for the question and for raising this issue. It's really
helpful for the board to know what the ongoing concerns of the
membership are.

I agree that fast publishing of the minutes is a good thing, and is
something that we should improve on. In the past I did a short stint
as secretary, and during that time I made it a priority to get the
minutes out quickly, which I think I did, and I seem to recall that
people reacted positively.

The challenge is that speed of publishing depends on the board's
capacity. To be blunt: we're busy there often aren't people queuing up
to do the job. For example, Philip Chimento is our current secretary,
but he's been tied up with some urgent, fairly time-consuming work for
the Foundation (thanks Philip!), and no one has been able to take up
the slack.

But I do think that the board should work on this issue, and I can
think of some options for what to do:

1. When the officers and responsibilities for the new board are
decided, the board could opt to reduce the workload on the secretary.
For example, they could be exempt from committee liaison
responsibilities.
2. We can create a mechanism so that the board is updated about which
minutes have been published. This could be an update from the
secretary at the beginning of each meeting, or it could be an issue to
which the board is subscribed.
3. The secretary doesn't have to be a director, so if there's no one
on the board who is able to perform the role adequately, we could ask
for volunteers and appoint someone from the community.

The first point is something to consider when the new board takes
over, the second is something that the board should look at as soon as
its able, and the third is probably a fallback option to consider if
things aren't going well.

Thanks agin,

Allan