Board meeting?

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

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David Barrett wrote:
> 
> Re: Problems with the invite system
> The chair (or whoever sets the agenda) can clearly disregard suggested
> topics as seen fit; there's been no lack of backbone in this area to
> date.  But if he/she receives a surprising number of requests on a
> particular topic, then it might be worth raising the issue.

Sorry, my bad; I was replying to something I excerpted later.  The
problems I foresee aren't with topics, but with the idea of inviting
specific individuals to participate.

> A summary then, though it's a little scary that something "approved" in
> board meeting N needs to be "re-approved" in board meeting N+1.

No, what needs to be approved is the *record* of what was done,
just in case the minute-taker made a mistake.  And that can't
happen until after the minutes have been drawn up, which doesn't
happen until after the meeting -- so approval of them has to
happen at the *next* meeting.  If this seems foreign to you, I
think you're in the enviable position of not having had to deal
with the tedium of being on a corporate board.

It gets worse, because before the minutes can be approved, the
directors need to have *read* them.  If they haven't been read,
the approval gets tabled until the next meeting.  Despite best
intentions, I've seen it happen many times that either the
minutes weren't ready by the next meeting, or else not all of
the directors had read them.  (I'm speaking primarily of other
boards here, not OSI.)  Volunteers again.  People do their best.

> there's been little
> evidence on this list that the board actually does anything.

That's curious, since the board has been doing a hell of a lot more
in the last few months than ever before.  I guess it's just a
matter of expectations.

> It's like we
> occasionally have priests come down to the masses and tell us about all
> these miracles being worked by up in heaven, and how these miracles are
> worthy of worship, but miracles are few and far between here on Earth.

Get involved in the membership discussion and help bring it closer
to Earth. :-)

> I don't see it mentioned anywhere on the website, though the name does
> sound familiar.  Has it been appointed by the OSI board to create actual
> recommendations that will be listened to, or is more of a grass-roots
> effort to create change from the outside in?

It has been mentioned several times recently on this list.  It's
a combination of both of the above.  It will make recommendations
that will be listened to, and the input and discussion comes from
anyone -- ANYone -- who is interested.  Send a message to
membership-discuss-subscribe at opensource.org to join.

On a side note, I find it a trifle ironic that some of the
communications that *have* been happening have been missed.
There's no procedural cure for that.  As I said, everyone
does his best.
- --
#ken	P-)}

Ken Coar, Sanagendamgagwedweinini  http://Ken.Coar.Org/
Author, developer, opinionist      http://Apache-Server.Com/

"Millennium hand and shrimp!"
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