[Osmf-talk] Upcoming Special General Meeting Opinions?

[Jonathan Harley]

On 28/11/14 19:54, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Tim,
>
> On 11/28/2014 07:44 PM, Tim Waters wrote:
>> May I ask that those Board members please feel encouraged to explain a
>> little bit more about the meeting at this stage?

To take just one part of Frederik's response:

>
>
> It has been claimed that term limits are unnecessary because the members
> can already freely decide to not elect someone again after a couple of
> years. I hold against that; incumbents always have an unfair bonus
> against newcomers, and also this could only function if board work were
> transparent enough for members to see who exactly did, said, and voted
> what. They don't enjoy that transparency at the moment, so how would
> they know if a board member has done a good job and deserves to be
> re-elected? And anyway, four years of "good job" is more than can be
> expected even from the bravest.
>

The "claim" that term limits are unnecessary is demonstrably true: the 
membership did indeed recently decide to elect some new board members 
instead of having SteveC back, even though he's easily the single most 
recognisable name in OSM. I don't see how you could have more of an 
"unfair bonus" than that.

It seems to me that the comment about transparency is getting towards 
the heart of the problem. If board work isn't transparent enough for the 
members to judge, then why doesn't anyone have a suggestion for a 
resolution that would address the actual problem? Removing choice from 
the OSMF electorate seems like a clumsy attempt to address a side-effect 
of the problem, rather than its cause.


Jonathan.


-- 
Dr Jonathan Harley   :    Managing Director    :   SpiffyMap Ltd

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