On 3 March 2016 at 11:51, Chris Keating <chriskeatingw...@gmail.com> wrote: > A few reflections on this subject: > > 1) I would however endorse the idea of publishing more papers / > presentations, and fuller notes of discussions in minutes. These give a > lot of context to what is going on, and often it's lack of context that > makes people concerned about what is actually going on. (I'd echo Eric's > comment about the level of depth that WMF staff share in quarterly reviews > and so on!)
I think this may have got written out of order :-) But, yes, I agree that publishing board papers can be very useful. > 2) Audio or video recording meetings is, in my view, a very bad idea. > Wikimedia UK tried this for a while and then abandoned it. Board members > start worrying about how their words are going to be perceived by people > outside the meeting rather than the people in the meeting. In an > environment where someone will start a critical email thread about every > single misphrasing or ambiguity, I really worry this would cripple the > Board's ability to have a conversation about any issue. Also agree. Detailed minutes strike a good balance here. > 3) 3 weeks for publication of minutes sounds like a reasonable time frame > to me. I'm seeing a few "How can it take 3 WEEKS??!!?!?" reactions from > people. Probably because the Board spends all weekend meeting then on > Monday go back to their jobs. Then someone starts writing up the minutes > from their notes, probably the next weekend. The realise they need to query > something and drop someone an email about it. They respond on Tuesday, by > which point the minute-writer is spending the free evening they dedicate to > Board work on addressing some other issue and the next chance they get to > look at it is first thing on Saturday morning - they spend Saturday morning > writing up minutes and then circulate a draft .... which then someone wants > to amend ... .you get the picture. :) I think this is entirely reasonable for minutes made by and for an entirely volunteer group. But WMF is a large organisation, employing many staff. It coordinates and supports the board meetings, presumably at some cost. Surely it could arrange to provide a confidential note-taker whose *job* it is to take those minutes, put them into a fit state the following day, and circulate them shortly afterwards? It might still take a little while to get them approved and published, but we'd still be a step up on where we are now. -- - Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
