Re: Board Meeting Reminder for Tue Jan 7th, 20:00 UTC

On Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 06:38:50PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> You're mistaken. No one has the power to change what happened,
> obviously. It can, however, be fixed by the board addressing the issues
> it has failed to in the last quarter, and by not making the same mistakes
> again.

Clearly you are the first person to realize this...

> For your reference, the SPI secretary has already declaimed Drew's
> automated notifications as being official announcements of meetings and
> indicated that meetings that have not been more formely announced have
> not actually been called, and, as far as I am aware has not withdrawn
> that opinion.

Wichert appears to disagree, and I'm inclined to hold his interpretation
as controlling.

However, if you'd like to make some concrete proposals that are more in
line with our by-laws and standing resolutions so as to help us handle
our meetings more efficiently, that would certainly be welcomed on my
part. I definitely prefer concrete recommendations to an iterative
process by which we gradually (asymptotically?) approach the mental
model of the ideal Board meeting that you hold in your head.

> > I welcome your continued contributions; I just wish you could make them
> > without an accompanying prognostication of disaster.
>
> Odd; I thought, and upon rereading stil think, that that's what I'd done.

Hmm. So we're in agreement?

> > We need objectivity, not knee-jerk optimism nor knee-jerk pessimism.
>
> How about avoiding knee-jerk defensiveness too?

As I said, I'm willing to stand corrected if shrill criticality was not
your intented tone.

> For reference, there's no requirement to get through all the items on an
> agenda at the meeting: the meeting can be adjourned and continued later,
> or items can be deferred until the next scheduled meeting. Further,
> there's no reason why the details of most of those options can not have
> been already analysed outside of the meeting, and be resolved quickly
> at the meeting, just as you won't be preparing your report during the
> meeting itself. In trying to list all the outstanding items on the SPI
> board's agenda, I wasn't trying to either overload you or get you to
> demonstrate superhuman abilities.

As I said before, I very much appreciate your efforts in keeping track
of this old business. It should be the ranking SPI officer's
responsibility to set the agenda accordingly, though for today's meeting
it looks like Wichert is in charge of it. :)

Please take note of Wichert's correction regarding eCos, and keep up the
good work.

> So, now you have an apology and a defense. What more do you want?

Your assistance and encouragement in helping SPI as an organization to
better fulfill its charter. You seem to be on the right track with
respect to the former. All I ask is a little more of the latter. :)

All of the above isn't to say I've been above reproach in my functions
as an SPI Board member, as I believe I've noted several times in several
places. I welcome specific critique, preferably accompanied by
practical recommendations for reform or assistance. What puts me on the
defensive are what I interpret to be broad disparagements. I freely
admit that it takes two for a disparagement to be received as such, and
I will endeavor to mitigate my own role in such interpretations. This
is not difficult when I understand the basic motivations of the sender.

--
G. Branden Robinson, Treasurer
Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
treasurer(at)spi-inc(dot)org
http://www.spi-inc.org/