Re: Temporaray enlargement of the GNOME Board with 2 persons

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006, Anne [ISO-8859-1] �tergaard wrote:

> Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:42:04 +0200
> From: "Anne [ISO-8859-1] �tergaard" <anne oestergaard nu>
> To: foundation-list gnome org
> Subject: Temporaray enlargement of the GNOME Board with 2 persons
>
> Hello all GNOME Foundation Members,
>
> About the size of the present board.
>
> The Board would like to propose to you a temporary enlargement of the
> board with two persons: Behdad Esfahbod and Germán Poó-Caamaño.
>
> Background:
> Not so long ago we had a Reducing Board Size Referendum
>
> "Should the board size be reduced from its current 11 directors to 7
> directors?"

The way I always thought of the purpose of the referendum was that it
should be possible - in fact it is a necessity - that others beyond the
official board be involved in organising.  The number of people on the
board seems to be a symptom of the fact that it is difficult to get people
involved and helping out with the foundation any other way.

> The board is at the moment of the opinion that a GNOME Board of 7
> persons should normally work and be enough, provided that we have a
> staff person who can take part of the work load.

Being officially on the Gnome Foundation board is a nice way to provide
more recognition for the people who work on behalf of Gnome but is it
really necessary to give official titles to get people to help out in this
way?  (Perhaps it is, I'm assuming nothing at this point and I certainly
dont want to discourage those who work to help keep the Gnome Foudnatoin
organised.)

Would a board of 15 people get huge amounts of work done, or would it
hamper decision making?

Could there be some kind of a secondary board, or council or committee or
whatever you want to call it with a more fluid membership formed from
those actively helping at any given time, requiring only a nomination from
the board?  That might give the flexibility required and provide another
way to recognise all the work being done on our behalf.

> They are both happy and willing to join the board, but under the
> condition that there is not severe objections from the GNOME Foundation
> Members.

The way the referendum was written it did leave it open for the board to
reexpand later at their own discretion.  If you are really convinced it
will help I wont make an issue of it but there might be a better way and
you could take successful referendum as encouragement to think about it a
little further if this is the best way to organise the board in the long
run.

-- 
Alan