Partial reply
============
On Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:16:21 -0400
Richard Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:

> Roy Bamford wrote:
> > The three remaining trustees were also nominated to stand for election 
> > for the council. Had they all accepted and been elected to the council, 
> > today we would be in the position of having trustees being a subset of 
> > council. That would have totally destroyed the council/foundation split 
> > that was one of the reasons the two bodies were created.
> > 
> > We need rules to stop that situation from occuring.
> > 
> 
> Is this the case?  That we need to stop the council/trustees from
> overlapping?  Is it true that the council/foundation split was one of
> the reasons the two bodies were created?
> 
> My understanding is that the reason we have two bodies is so that people
> can contribute to either the council and/or the trustees based on their
> enthusiasm or ability to contribute, without being required to
> contribute to both.  Also - due to the foundation being a US corporation
> it is likely the case that we can't have non-US-residents holding board
> positions.  So, the split is a practical matter - not a matter of
> principle per se.
> 
Richard,
  I guess you don't know that Roy (NeddySeagoon) is a trustee living in
Scotland? :)  Not a US citizen.

There are two bodies because (1) the council is elected by the Gentoo
developers to guide the technical aspects of the Gentoo project.  It's
members must be developers, I believe.

And (2), The trustees are the board of the Gentoo Foundation, a New
Mexico not-for-profit corporation which is separate from the project.
The trustees are elected by the members of the Foundation and must be
members of the Foundation.

Not all developers are members of the Foundation, and not all
Foundation members are developers, so it would be impossible to have
just one governing body even if we wanted to.  Which we don't, because
the skills required for the one are not the same as those required for
the other.

So the split is a bit more than a practical matter.  It is required
because the developers and Foundation members are not the same people
(although there is a lot of overlap, of course).
> I wasn't seriously involved back when the trustees were created so I 
> won't presume to argue that I really know all the reasons for it being a 
> separate body.  However, I don't think that really matters - the only 
> thing that matters is if we think it should be forced to be such today.
> 
> In my opinion the benefits of joint council/trustee membership outweigh 
> the downside.  However, I'm sure things will go on fine either way - 
> I'll trust the trustees/council to make the right decision.
> 

I'll leave the hard parts to someone else.
Regards,
Ferris
--
Ferris McCormick (P44646, MI) <fmccor@g.o>
Developer, Gentoo Linux (Sparc, Userrel, Trustees)