[OpenID board] URGENT: New Board members motion

Dick Hardt dick.hardt at gmail.com
Mon Nov 3 23:54:20 UTC 2008


I don't see any advantage to the coupling of hiring an ED and bringing  
on new board members. Any ED is going to look at the risk of getting  
paid. Bringing in money before hand is a good sign. In the current  
economic climate, making a donation to a Foundation is going to come  
under increased scrutiny.

The bylaws allow the board to appoint temporary community board  
members as need be -- something we would want to do in case someone  
needs to resign for some reason.

Only bringing on corporate members one at elections does not serve us  
well. We have a product, which is membership, and we should remove  
barriers to selling it rather then raising it -- and requiring the  
timing to coincide with an election does not serve anyone well --  
except those that want to make board membership exclusive.

We have been working on having elections since last March.

As noted in my financial report, not bringing these corporate members  
on board was a bad financial decision.

-- Dick

On 24-Oct-08, at 6:49 PM, DeWitt Clinton wrote:

> Sort of.  I think we should have finished the discussion about how  
> to proceed with a full five new corporate board members, timed that  
> around the hiring of the new ED, and ideally scheduled all of it  
> around the election of new community members.  With those three  
> pieces in place we then could make a coordinated engagement on all  
> three.  Four pieces, in fact, as we can count the CRC in there as  
> well.
>
> I share your frustration, Dick, and I agree that sometimes a vote  
> makes a good forcing function.  It's taken far too long to get where  
> we are, and I happen to concur that those were fine nominees.  And I  
> especially welcome Brian's continued leadership in any case.
>
> Hopefully this is the kick in the pants we need to close in  
> expediently on the missing pieces.  And then I'd welcome seeing this  
> come up for a vote again in the near future.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -DeWitt
>
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 5:33 PM, Dick Hardt <dick.hardt at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> Do you have a suggestion on how this should have been done  
> differently by me?
>
> I made the motion on the board call and agreed to withdraw it until  
> after the membership committee report was published, and then we  
> could do the vote over email. Agreed that the vote should have been  
> started on the public list -- but we are here now.
>
> Do you have a new motion to bring the nominees on the board that you  
> would support that we could act upon?
>
> -- Dick
>
>
> On 24-Oct-08, at 5:17 PM, DeWitt Clinton wrote:
>
>> This is not a vote against any of the nominees, but procedurally  
>> and organizationally we can do better than this.  Hence to the  
>> motion as it stands at this time:
>>
>> -1
>>
>> -DeWitt
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Raj Mata <rajmata at yahoo-inc.com>  
>> wrote:
>> -1.
>>
>> Agree with Gary.
>>
>> Raj
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: board-bounces at openid.net [mailto:board-bounces at openid.net] On
>> Behalf Of Krall, Gary
>> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:42 PM
>> To: board at openid.net
>> Subject: Re: [OpenID board] URGENT: New Board members motion
>>
>> -1.
>>
>> As we are actively in the process of recruiting for a Executive  
>> Director
>> which my understanding is should complete shortly coupled; with the
>> manner in which this vote has been requested/handled is a clear
>> indication to me that adding any additional members at this time  
>> would
>> not be prudent.
>>
>> Gary.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: board-bounces at openid.net [mailto:board-bounces at openid.net]On
>> Behalf Of Dick Hardt
>> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 9:48 AM
>> To: board at openid.net
>> Subject: [OpenID board] URGENT: New Board members motion
>> Importance: High
>>
>>
>> (this motion was originally posted on the board-private list to
>> protect the confidentiality of the potential corporate board members
>> -- reposting to public list to provide transparency to community)
>>
>> Background:
>>
>> There are two corporations that have expressed interest in joining  
>> the
>> OpenID Foundation for the last six months. The board approved  
>> adding 5
>> new corporate board seats, to be balanced with community seats so  
>> that
>> the community seats have a majority.
>> Brian Kissel has been active on the marketing committee and the
>> customer research committee. He organized a gathering of content
>> providers in NY that led to the OpoenID UX summit last Monday.
>> The primary source of funding for the Foundation is corporate board
>> seats. In order to fund a new Executive Director and OpenID adoption
>> initiatives, we need more funding. The patience of the two
>> corporations is running thin as they have been waiting for far to  
>> long
>> for a decision from the board.
>>
>> The motion: Add the two corporate board seats and add Brian Kissel as
>> the community seat. Brian's seat (like all other community board
>> seats) would be up for re-election when we hold an election.
>>
>> All board members need to vote or abstain for the motion to be
>> considered.
>>
>> Votes to date:
>>
>> +1 Dick Hardt (made motion)
>> +1 Martin Atkins (seconded motion)
>> -1 David Recordon
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