Talk:Governance Review/Implementation motions

Timing and consultation

As a general point, I am a but concerned that these motions will bounce the chapter into making some pretty fundamental changes without having fully considered the implications and without having adequately consulted the community. A 36 page report was published at 5:20pm on Thursday and you're proposing to adopt motions to implement these at 11:45am on Saturday. I'll add some comments on the particular issues below, but I'd like to ask generally whether you think this is adequate or whether it is necessary to rush these changes in like this? AndrewRT (talk) 22:23, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for raising this Andrew. The board has 5 trustees right now, you can imagine what that does to our available 'bandwidth' and stress levels when we have other commitments as well. No, I would not claim to have sufficiently considered implications or consulted the community, even if some of the decisions are quite easy in principle and have been around for a while (such as having a larger number of trustees on the board, to me that's an easy one to agree that I recall discussing when you were our Chairman). However we should be able to draft resolutions (or action their creation) which can then have wide consultation and discussion, and agree which must be a priority for the AGM, to be seen to be addressing the recommendations of the independent governance assessment. --Fæ (talk) 23:15, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Committees

Appointing committees is an easy step to "undo" if it doesn't work or if there is strong opposition, so on that basis I agree that you could do this now. Regarding the Governance Committee, given that the next set of elections is only a few months away it would be good to get that started ASAP. Likewise with the Audit Committee, it would be nice to have this complete by the AGM so the accounts can be signed off by then. I'm a bit confused how you "establish" a committee without actually appointing named individuals to be on it? Are you planning to do this bit later? Finally, you seem to have missed out the point about diversity in the GovCom terms of reference ("the Governance Committee should stress the importance of having a diverse board. Continuing efforts should be made to achieve diversity including finding women trustees") AndrewRT (talk) 22:59, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Number of board members & co-option

One of the criticisms levelled at the board at the EGM was the inability of community members to propose amendments to constitutional changes and it was agreed at the time that this would be avoided in future. Given the time before the AGM, it's not necessary for the Board to adopt a definitive motion now, without any consultation. Instead, I would suggest a single motion to request the Chief Executive to draft a proposal, in discussion with the community and in conjunction with others, to implement the increased number of board members and expanded power to co-opt. Following discussion, it can then be agreed by the board (possibly in April) for recommendation to the AGM. AndrewRT (talk) 23:09, 7 February 2013 (UTC)