Elections, Accountability, and Education

[Josh Boyer]

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 08:10:06PM -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
>On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 07:56:12PM -0400, Tim Burke wrote:
>> John Poelstra wrote:
>>>
>>> I wonder if the board would consider it reasonable to record the "yes"  
>>> and "no" votes by member when the vote is not unanimous? I also do not  
>>> think that someone should be able to abstain (which I think is more an  
>>> indication of lack of resolve or ambivalence).  If we elect people to  
>>> make hard decisions they should do so... not ride the middle or "decide 
>>> not to decide".
>>>
>> Alternatively, perhaps abstain can be accompanied with a reason.  For  
>> example,  a case where a board member does not consider him/herself to be 
>> an informed enough expert on the topic and doesn't want a comparatively 
>> uninformed vote to tip the balance.  In this case, which is better (or 
>> what is the expectation)
>>
>> a) expect that all board members are required to invest whatever time it  
>> takes to thoroughly understand ALL issues
>>
>> b) force board members to cast ill-informed votes
>>
>> c) allow board members to respectfully abstain in cases where they are  
>> honestly not well versed enough on the topic; deferring to the expertiese 
>> of others. 
>
>It's pretty rare for us to have votes where *both* (1) a Board member
>doesn't understand the issue at hand, *and* (2) no one else in the
>call can resolve that member's understanding by answering questions.
>By which I mean, if one doesn't understand the issue, abstention is
>not as good as saying, "Can someone explain $ISSUE to me?".
>
>Typically we try not to push things to voting or decisions when there
>are major questions still floating around.  It's unfair not just to
>the Board members but to the community too.  For these reasons, I
>think (a) is best but the expectation is on the Board as a whole to
>have a shared understanding of the issues.

There are cases where abstain is the right answer.  For example,
conflict of interest.  It's quite rare, but it can (and has) happen.

josh