[OpenID] Several Questions for the Current & Future Board

[Dick Hardt]

On 18-Dec-08, at 9:00 AM, Johannes Ernst wrote:

> Well, as a current board member I disagree. Nobody can figure out  
> whether "there is an issue" unless financials are transparent to at  
> least all members of the board.

The task of checking if there is an issue was delegated to myself as  
Treasurer and the finance committee which was myself, Scott and Bill.

>
>
> BTW, I'm not arguing at all that we need to waste any time talking  
> about financials. If they are distributed in generally accepted  
> formats (BS, P&L, cash flow, perhaps in this case membership  
> pipeline) a day or two before each board meeting, AND there is no  
> issue, nobody ever spends any time talking about them at all.

No, it usually does not work that way. Someone usually has a question  
because they did not understand something in the financials, or forgot  
about something. This is a a good exercise in a small company where  
things are much more dynamic and a much smaller board. Having all  
board members involved in the details of all committees is an  
inefficent use of resources, and slows progress down substaintially as  
there are more board members. Given the size of the board, the  
overhead is high in my opinion.