Re: [chairs] Individual members representation?

[Eduardo Gutentag <Eduardo.Gutentag@Sun.COM>]

Interesting ideas, but more in the assumptions they reveal than
in their reflections of reality.

Board members are elected as individuals, not as representatives
of companies. At least that's how theoretically things should
be. I'm not sure, of course, whether that's the reality or not,
(how many voted for me as myself or as an employee of Sun?)
but we Board members are supposed to think in terms of OASIS's
interests *above everything else* when functioning as such.

Because Board members are elected as individuals, there is in
fact no constraints on whether a BoD member is a company
employee or an individual member, so if any individual member
wants to run for BoD membership, go ahead. In fact, BoD members
don't even have to be OASIS members.

As to "reports back from the board", below: are you implying
that company members receive reports back from the board? If
so, you're mistaken. If you want to receive reports from the
Board, you can read, like anybody else, the Board minutes.

Also, how any of your proposals would help towards working
better with ISO et al. is a mystery to me.

David RR Webber wrote:
> As we are approaching year end some retrospective thoughts and
> looks ahead occur.
>  
> Would it make sense to add a Board member who represents all
> the individual members?
>  
> Clearly there are large numbers now contributing to every OASIS
> team.  But only corporate members get to vote and nominate
> board members.
>  
> Do we need balance, and would input from individual members help?
> Would this help toward working with groups such as ISO in the
> future?
>  
> Some ground rules would be needed - and also OASIS would need
> to cover expenses for the person - as obviously they do not have
> a corporate sponsor.  If the person subsequently joined a corporation
> would this automatically trigger a new appointment - or could it
> be discretionary? 
>  
> We could certainly also have a meeting room and feedback area
> for individual members via Kavi as another resource.
>  
> Personally as an individual member I would definately value reports
> back from the board from an independent member there.
>  
> OK - so I've taken the lid off a large can of worms here, but this
> was an itch so I thought I'd better scratch it! 
>  
> What are the pro's and con's?  Is this workable?
>  
> DW.

-- 
Eduardo Gutentag               |         e-mail: eduardo.gutentag@Sun.COM
Web Technologies and Standards |         Phone:  +1 510 550 4616 x31442
Sun Microsystems Inc.          |
W3C AC Rep / OASIS BoD