Hi! On Sat, Oct 22, 2022 at 5:50 PM Andreas Mantke <ma...@gmx.de> wrote:
> > If there is only the chance of a _possible_ CoI in front of a > discussion/decision/process the ones with such a possible CoI has to > leave the meeting (You could get that really clear from the above > European Commission document). > All the directors present in the meeting gave useful information relating to their interests, which everyone present took into account. They each personally judged that they did not cause an actual or apparent conflict. There was no indication of any conflict with the business of the meeting arising from those interests (for example, Thorsten's "interest" was having published LibreOffice Vanilla on behalf of the Foundation in the past). The business of the meeting proceeded and consensus was reached. This is the normal way business is conducted everywhere. Taking the position you are describing would lead to obviously unreasonable outcomes for a community such as ours. For example (and to get away from the usual suspects), as the owner of a successful cloud hosting business that apparently deploys NextCloud and OwnCloud for clients, using your logic Paolo Vecchi should have removed himself from any and all conversations about LibreOffice Online and take no part in any future discussion about them, as he clearly has a related interest. I am not expecting that; are you? We are a community-of-interest and we can expect many people to have interests to declare in our work - and not just arising from employment. The Board needs to know and understand each director's interest, and directors need to make realistic and honest decisions about when they are unable to participate due to an actual conflict. It is a decision for each individual and we have to trust each other that is being made. It is inappropriate and harrassing for people to continually raise the subject. Accusations of breach of trust (which means alleging either a failure to disclose an interest or persisting in a decision process in spite of an unresolved conflict of declared interests) are very serious and should be the rare exception, not the constantly-repeated refrain of every meeting as they are now. It really is time for this to stop - it undermines trust and poisons discussion. I work in this subject area fairly often and I wrote an informal article a while ago on the subject that may help; see https://minkiver.se/~/WebminkInDraft/Trusting-Charity-Directors Cheers Simon -- *Simon Phipps* *TDF Trustee*
