Elected/Appointed Board

[Christopher Aillon]

On 04/21/2008 05:48 AM, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
> I trust Red Hat based on their previous actions, and I trust the
> members of the board as a result of the work that I've done with you
> and all that I've read. Should these matters be left entirely to
> trust, however?

You cannot force anyone, elected or appointed, to act in a specific 
fashion.  When you elect or appoint someone, you are trusting them to 
act in a manner you approve of.  There is no way too 100% guarantee this 
will happen.  If you move members from appointed to elected, you're 
simply moving who is investing trust from Red Hat to the small 
percentage of the community that actually votes.

While I am indifferent as to who has 5 vs 4 since I don't think the 
spirit is harmed in either way if RHT can and will appoint non-RHT 
employees and the community can and will appoint RHT employees, I think 
the bigger issue to address is the voter turnout, or lack thereof. 
Having 10 or so Red Hat people decide things isn't that much worse than 
having only 10 or so community members decide things.[*]

[*] Okay it's not _that_ bad but IIRC we only had about 100 voters last 
election.  That's a worse turnout than the U.S. presidential elections.