Hi, On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 03:47:03PM +0200, Frederik Ramm wrote: > In theory, the OSMF members are the boss and board is just a group of > people asked by the members to run business for them until they convene > next time. In similar organisations I know in Germany, it is absolutely > not uncommmon for members to discuss and submit proposals to the AGM > that would be binding for the board; and for people to actually discuss > and argue and vote at an AGM. > > OSMF has no culture of democracy really; and this is most likely due to > the founding story: This is not a political body, it's mainly a > safeguard for things like our trademarks and a legal entity to operate > our servers.
The problem is that I don't see where the membership has any leverge on the board apart from the elections. We have had discussions about transparency before but they have been utterly fruitless so far. A good part of the current members has promised to report from the work of the board in their manifestos. None has ever done that more than once. We have lost quite a few very active community members in den OSMF because they have lost any hope that anything can be changed whatsoever by being a member. Going through the minutes, I am remaineded that the board has given itself a set of rules already two years ago: http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board_Rules_of_Order It very clear states the obligations of a board member with respect to board meetings and transparency. How does the board hold its individual members accountable for following the rules of order? How can the OSMF membership hold board members accountable for it? Kind regards Sarah _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
