[foundation-board] board discussion: FC tasks and Chapters

Becky Hogge becky.hogge at gmail.com
Fri Mar 16 17:54:26 UTC 2012


Please see responses inline:


On 15 March 2012 18:14, Jordan S Hatcher <jordan at opencontentlawyer.com>wrote:

> Thanks for pulling this out into a separate set of proposals.  In the
> future, I think we should consider numbering them so that they can be
> debated or approved by item a bit easier.
>
> I have several questions on all of the items below -- as I'm still going
> through the board pack and don't want to raise questions for points that
> may already be answered there, I will respond once I've had time to review
> the materials.
>
> I'm happy to approve ITEM 1
> only at this time.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jordan
>
> On 14 Mar 2012, at 09:59, Laura James wrote:
>
> The following items relating to staffing have been pulled from the board
> agenda into email at Martin and Becky's request. I think that most of these
> require fairly straightforward approval/rejection, so I have set them out
> below in a form which I hope will make it straightforward for each board
> member to respond to each line item.
>
> Please note that as we have 7 board members, a majority of 4 is needed to
> approve any item.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Laura
>
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ITEM 1
>
> Request that Foundation Coordinators to be set target to create role
> descriptions for all contractors and to review pay rates, both to be
> implemented before end 2012 (in response to issues detailed in Foundation
> Coordinator report)
>
>
I approve.

>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ITEM 2
>
> Request that the board consider creation of a renumeration committee (in
> response to issues detailed in Foundation Coordinator report)
>
>
I approve of the Board considering this. In considering it, I would want to
know how such a committee would be resourced (presumably in part from work
emerging from ITEM 1). Although I think this work is important, I don't
know if I have the right skills to sit on it myself, and I wonder which of
us does. I'd like to understand a bit more what the role of such a
committee would be.

>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ITEM 3
>
> Request that the board to agree to the executive team dedicating
> significant time to strategy development in the near term as a priority,
> which may mean that other activities such as management of individual
> projects, conversion of contractors to employees, process improvements,
> etc, are put on hold or done to a very basic level for this period. This
> will ensure the strategy is developed as quickly as possible whilst
> maintaining basic operational management at a level similar to that offered
> during the first 2 months of 2012.
>
>
I'm happy for most of the listed activities to be de-prioritised, but I'd
like to know about which process improvements will suffer.  It looks like
Laura's already done sterling work improving a lot of organisational
processes and I wouldn't want us to lose out on momentum.

>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ITEM 4
>
> Belgium:  Chapter incorporation
>
> 1) Request for confirmation that we are happy to move to sign an MOU
> following the standard template
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x8hvgLhklXma7bS0dKgJL9Xs2-Q6xlWgu2JV3S-oJGg/edit
> (Recommendation from Laura&Kat:  that we accept Belgium as a chapter. They
> are a robust group we've worked with extensively.  Their incorporation
> articles were reviewed by Laura and look acceptable within the MOU
> requirements.)
>
> I approve.

>
> 2) We have the option of nominating someone to their board as part of the
> MOU. Do the board wish to take this up and nominate someone, and if so
> whom?   (Recommendation from Laura&Kat: this is very much down to the board
> to choose, but we are very confident in the professionalism of the team not
> to need close supervision. )
>
> I would like to discuss this at the Board meeting. Right now I cannot put
myself forward due to other time commitments. I imagine other Board members
will be in the same position. I'd like to hear other board members views on
this.

>
> 3) Request from the local group for central funds to pay for travel costs
> for a high profile international speaker at a big event they are running
> http://appsforghent.be to help boost their profile. Speaker TBC.
> (Recommendation from Laura&Kat:  accept this request subject to it being a
> reasonable amount & an estimate being received before we confirm. (funding
> from Omidyar chapter support pot))
>
> I accept this request subject to it being a reasonable amount & an
estimate being received before we confirm.

>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ITEM 5
>
> Austria:  Chapter incorporation
>
> 1) Request for confirmation that we are happy to move to sign an MOU
> following the standard template
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x8hvgLhklXma7bS0dKgJL9Xs2-Q6xlWgu2JV3S-oJGg/edit
> (Recommendation from Laura&Kat:  that we accept Austria as a chapter. They
> are an active local group and have been for some time.)
>
> I approve.

>
> 2) We have the option of nominating someone to their board as part of the
> MOU. Do the board wish to take this up and nominate someone, and if so
> whom?  (Recommendation from Laura&Kat: this is very much down to the board
> to choose, but we are confident in the competance of the group not to need
> close supervision. )
>
> I would like to discuss this at the Board meeting. Right now I cannot put
myself forward due to other time commitments. I imagine other Board members
will be in the same position. I'd like to hear other board members views on
this.

>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ITEM 6
>
> Switzerland:  Chapter incorporation
>
>
> 1) Request for confirmation that we are happy to move to sign an MOU
> following the standard template
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x8hvgLhklXma7bS0dKgJL9Xs2-Q6xlWgu2JV3S-oJGg/edit
> (Recommendation from Laura&Kat:  that we accept Austria as a chapter. They
> are an active local group, we've met them and they seem competant.)
>
> If the recommendation is that we accept Switzerland as a chapter, I
approve.

>
> 2) We have the option of nominating someone to their board as part of the
> MOU. Do the board wish to take this up and nominate someone, and if so
> whom?   (Recommendation from Laura&Kat: this is very much down to the board
> to choose, but we are confident in the competance of the people involved
> not to need close supervision. )
>
>
I would like to discuss this at the Board meeting. Right now I cannot put
myself forward due to other time commitments. I imagine other Board members
will be in the same position. I'd like to hear other board members views on
this.

Cheers

Becky
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