Elections, Accountability, and Education

[Matt Domsch]

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 03:42:55PM -0700, John Poelstra wrote:
> >My second observation about the minutes are that board decisions are
> >announced collectively.

This is actually something I pushed for when we first formed the
Board.  While there is discussion, debate, and a healthy exchange of
viewpoints, in the end, when a decision _is_ made, it reflects the
view of the Board as a whole, nearly always by concensus.  Individuals
on the Board may of course speak in public about their views on
various points and topics, speaking for themselves, but I don't want
"the Board" decisions to become a US Supreme Court-style 5-4 decision
with dissenters writing their own dissent.  Decisions exceedingly
rarely break this way in practice that I've seen, and it only serves
to polarize.  IMHO.  This is also why, in general, the current FPL
publishes Board decisions.  Regardless of the debate, we're still
friends who can work together for a common good, and I feel we need to
present a common, non-polarizing front, which I think we've done a
good job at.

> At what point is the cost too high? My own measure is the amount of time 
> to create the minutes exceeds the length of the meeting.

This is my concern.  While I enjoy the IRC meetings, we cover fewer
topics, in less detail, than we do in concalls.  Summarizing concalls
is hard work; summarizing with even more detail - ugg.  John has done
an admirable job at this, kudos to him.

-Matt