Re: List Participation (Was. Q to Peter, Richard, Ed, Johnny, Tanya)

At 03:20 a.m. 01/12/98 +0100, eva wrote:
>According to the archives and other documents some of you didn't
>make any contribution to the Guild whatsoever. I hope you understand my
>concern.
>/e

Although I'm personally sympathetic to this point of view,
the problem does remain that participation in mailing lists
or volunteer problems is not the _only_ way one can demon-
strate the ability to lead the Guild or do the job of a
Governing Board member; the skills necessary to be a good
list guide or list contributor don't necessarily map directly
to the skills needed for the Board.

One former GBer stated it something like this:  "should GB
membership really be a reward for a job well done as a list
guide?"  I extend that to all volunteers and even active
participants; does someone's willingness to answer HTML
questions necessarily make her a good choice for the board
of this corporation?

On the other hand, there's no _obvious_ way to tell how
someone will do, unless they're actually in the position
themselves.  Only one of the current candidates fits that
category -- and he's done an _exceptional_ job as a Board
member, from my perspectives -- so it's hard to judge just
how well someone who is a "stranger" will do.

The last time we had a "no-name" GB member, who looked good
on paper but we hadn't heard from this person before, I 
personally feel we didn't get a good Board member.  However,
I caution against making this a simple case of "name
recognition" or worse yet, a "popularity contest", in the
way we elect our new GBers.

--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn(at)hwg.org>
President, HTML Writers Guild
http://www.hwg.org/

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