Hi! On Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 1:54 PM Andreas Mantke <ma...@gmx.de> wrote:
> > if I read the minutes correctly there are four board members with a CoI, > because they provided or were involved in providing LibreOffice in the > app stores within their company / brand. > No, you do not read the minutes correctly. No-one declared a conflict of interests. The directors involved declared an interest, but did not feel that it was in conflict with their duties as directors and consequently there was no conflict of interest. This is the same approach the European Commission takes to the presence of interested parties in meetings > > I don't see that this members with a CoI left the meeting before topic 3 > was discussed and decided on. > That's because no-one had a conflict of interests in the matters considered. > > It looks to me as if this four directors offended the rules they have > decided to follow. It would then be interesting for the community to > hear why they have not left the meeting for topic 3. > No, you are wrong in four ways. First, there was no conflict between any declared interest and the matters discussed. Second, even if there had been, it would not be a reason for a person to remove themselves from a meeting as this is only necessary when the conflict relates to the information shared (for example the identity of suppliers). Third, the meeting was open to all members so anyone concerned was free to attend, as I did. And fourth, no directors are representing their employers in these meetings, they are the elected representatives of the trustees. We need to be exceptionally careful not to imply directors or former directors are committing a breach of trust. There has been far too much of that kind of allegation and it appears to have almost all been based on misunderstandings of the terms used. Cheers Simon -- *Simon Phipps* *TDF Trustee*
