<quote who="Adrian Custer"> > Would you be willing, as an agenda item, to re-evaluate the presence of > secrecy in your meetings, discussions, and deliberations? Would you please > provide us members with a statement as to the ongoing *necessity* rather > than mere convenience of keeping items secret from us?
I'm sure we can add an agenda item at an upcoming meeting, but I wanted to provide a quick answer here, from my point of view (not a statement we as a group have agreed to, etc). To start with, secrecy is not even remotely convenient. In fact, I'm sure any current or previous Board member (or practically anyone who has served on the committee of a significant organisation) will tell you that it is usually a burden -- *particularly* in the case of an open organisation such as the GNOME Foundation, and the expectations many of us have about our participation. The secretary has to remember to remove items from the public minutes, we all have to remember what is Board-internal subject matter, etc. So, that's convenience. Necessity? Some very simple examples: * We often deal with commercially sensitive information, which Advisory Board members (or others) provide in confidence. * The Board is responsible for employees, who must be able to expect privacy with regards to their management and remuneration. * Community members should feel very safe to contact the Board privately if they wish to raise or discuss sensitive community issues. In all of these cases, it would be extremely inappropriate to break that trust, and very limiting (given the role of the Foundation as a conduit) to refuse it. The (MINIMAL!) secrecy we keep is rarely convenient, but quite necessary to run an organisation such as the GNOME Foundation. I hope it sounds entirely obvious once explained in this way. Thanks, - Jeff -- Open CeBIT 2007: Sydney, Australia http://www.opencebit.com.au/ What do you call remote Linux firewall administration? Rusty Roulette. _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
