[Eg-oversight-board] Proposal: reduce the size of the EOB

[Galen Charlton]

Hi,

As we have elections coming up during the Evergreen conference, I
would like to float a proposal to reduce the size of the EOB to
streamline decision-making and encourage broader ground-up
participation in project activities.

The EOB has certain direct functions that do not require that there be
eleven members.  For example, liaising with Conservancy on trademark
matters does not require the direct involvement of many people.

There are some activities where the board authorizes expenditure and
receipt of funds held in trust for the project, and those of course
must remain in its remit.  However, both the conference committee and
the merchandising committee take most of their membership from outside
the board.  Other groups, such as the developers, DIG, and the web
team, have board members that participate, but to date those groups
have not requested significant draws on project funds, nor have they
required EOB supervision in order to perform their functions.

Besides working with Conservancy on the oversight of project funds,
where I see a major role for the board is as a (though not /the/)
nexus for identifying and obtaining resources to further community
goals.  However, I believe that a smaller group would be able to serve
that function more nimbly.

I propose that the EOB be reduced to seven members via attrition.
There are four EOB positions that are coming vacant; we could choose
to amend the rules of governance to not fill them (although if we do
it in fell swoop, we should give thought to having some of the
remaining positions be made open for election so that the overall
community does not end up waiting two years to elect new
representatives).  We could also take two years at this, reducing the
board to 9 for the upcoming year and to 7 in 2015.

I welcome feedback on this proposal.

Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
Manager of Implementation
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366
skype:  gmcharlt
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