My personal view on this John is that abstaining is appropriate in a couple cases:
- you truly don't have an opinion and trust those who do have opinions to make the decision. in that case it's really a decision to support the majority view of the others who are voting. - you don't particularly like a decision but don't hate it enough to vote no. again, this ends up being a decision to support the majority view of others. In the end I think it comes down to personal choice. Some people see the world as more black and white and are comfortable with a simple yes or no (i tend to be in this camp). Others feel a yes/no vote can lack nuance and respect for the gray areas in between and prefer not to unnaturally push themselves to one extreme or the other. One note. I do view a recusal as something completely different. You should recuse yourself if you have some kind of personal conflict of interest with a decision. That's different than an abstention. On Mar 31, 2012, at 7:45 AM, John Vandenberg wrote: > On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 4:25 PM, Thomas Dalton <[email protected]> > wrote: >> On 31 March 2012 06:13, John Vandenberg <[email protected]> wrote: >>> if you cant decide whether something is good or bad for the >>> organisation, you are ill prepared for the vote (a procedural >>> problem), or you are incompetent. >> >> Either that, or you're honest. Nobody knows everything (except me, of >> course!). > > There is no requirement to know everything. There is a requirement to > make decisions in the best interests of the organisation, *as you see > it*. If a trustee persistently abstains on the big decisions because > they cant see *it* (no vision), or wish to avoid scrutiny, they are > abusing their right to abstain and failing the organisation as a > trustee. > > -- > John Vandenberg > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
