KDE e.V. transparency (was: Re: Voting rights - the GNOME way)

[Rob Kaper]

On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 05:49:45AM -0600, Andreas Pour wrote:
> No, they have a private mailing list but nobody else is permitted to join. 
> But don't get me started on this again :-).

I don't object to private conversations per se, as long as the results are
transcribed periodically, for all members to see.

In case the e.V. board doesn't realize it: being a bit more out in the open
would efinitely help KDE. The one reason I've never donated anything (and
wouldn't even recommend it) is because there isn't a single bit of published
data on the budget and its allocation.

> I think anyone who agrees to confidentiality and does not interfere with
> its operations or act counter-productively should be able to join the
> Board's private mailing list.  I feel disenfranchised.

Nah, let them keep their private meetings but require publications on the
goals and outcomes of meetings and activities of the e.V.

> > Request a member meeting. Most statutes have a rule where a certain
> > amount of signatures (albeit it digital GPG ones) are sufficient that
> > the board *must* hold a general member meeting. At which the present
> > members can place a vote of non-confidence in the board and have it
> > replaced with new elections.
> 
> Well don't ask me to fly to Germany again, thank you very much.

If the statutes of the e.V. place high emphasis on physical presence, I'd
say it is not very suitable for a world-wide Internet project. C'mon, we are
the innovative folks, if we can't find a proper way to do all that on-line,
who can?

> In any event KDE eV is a membership-based organization and we don't need
> for the Board to do anything - they are not our servants.  OTOH, I find it
> distressing that I have absolutely no idea what they are up to, despite
> having repeatedly shown a strong interest in knowing.

They *are* the only ones who can make real decisions within the
organization, though. And since they own the trademarks, domain names and
get the donations, I'd say it is very important to know what they are up to
indeed. But http://www.kde.org/kde-ev/ doesn't offer anything concrete.

> The situation currently is bad b/c the statutes were not validly approved. 
> I will not be caught off guard at the next meeting :-).

So the ones that are up on-line are not even the currently active ones? I
suppose I could play with cvs to get the old ones.. hrmph.

Rob
-- 
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