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On Mon, Aug 23, 2021 at 2:09 PM Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto |
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<jmbsvicetto@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> AFAIK, the Trustees have always argued that we should not reduce the number of members in the Board. |
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> |
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Keep in mind that the Council is something that is largely up to |
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ourselves and so if it becomes a bit dysfunctional we can always just |
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sort it out and elect a new one or reorganize. |
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The Foundation is a legal entity, and if there are disputes over who |
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represents it, these will end up being settled in a court of law. |
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There is also money and property at stake. We can't just all get |
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together and sort it out if something bad happens, because if somebody |
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should take legal control over the Trustees, they can with one motion |
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legally boot all the members out, and then we're all fighting it out |
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in court. |
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It is just best to keep a few people in the Trustee role so that the |
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risk of a majority doing something dumb is low. |
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There was that situation many years ago where it had dwindled down to |
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I think one person, and there was talk about bringing back drobbins as |
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a BDFL or whatever. Without getting into pros and cons I just wanted |
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to point out that legally it was just the vote of a single person that |
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mattered - the one remaining Trustee. If that person had been of the |
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mind to just do whatever they felt was best in spite of massive |
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objection, they could have done so, and the legal recourse would have |
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been so painful that it probably would be easier to just fork and |
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change the name. |
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Now, forking is always an option, as we recently saw with IRC |
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networks. Still, nobody wants to deal with that if they don't have |
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to, so it is best to have enough votes on the board that nobody can |
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just pull the whole thing in some direction. |
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-- |
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Rich |