[tdf-discuss] Deletion of vote from TDF's Board Discuss forum

Hi all,

I'm writing here to discuss the actions of members of the Board against 
another Director (myself).

Wednesday afternoon (24/05/2023 at approximately 15:10 CET), I started a 
vote on Board Discuss, the forum setup to discuss board matters 
publicly. The vote was intended to revert a previous decision which 
completely changes the Rules of Procedure by removing well defined areas 
of responsibility for board members. The vote included the rationale and 
references explaining why the vote is urgent and mandatory.

About 3 hours later I noticed that the vote post disappeared. I thought 
it was a problem with the platform so I tried to post it again and 
that's when I discovered that my posting rights have been reduced to the 
lowest level and I have been removed from the directors moderation group.

30 minutes later I received an email informing me that some members of 
the board voted to delete my vote.

The deputy chairperson, Emiliano Vavassori, was not informed and 
involved in the vote to delete my vote and it seems also Florian was not 
copied on the vote either, as would be standard practice for votes to 
keep the ED informed.

 A subsequent email by the chairman, Thorsten Behrens, stated that it 
was due to an emergency procedure which is obviously an absurd excuse. 
Any director and selected members of staff could have moderated the 
post, notified me of eventual issues with the post and republished it a 
few minutes later.

The board members who decided to delete my vote are not willing to even 
consider that they made a mistake. This gives the impression of being a 
retaliatory action as I "dared" to challenge a decision they want to 
push despite having been made aware of the clear issues. The original 
decision was challenged by many private and public comments.

The decision to change the Rules of Procedure, as the board did, was 
confirmed to be wrong by our lawyer, confirming also the issues 
previously reported. The lawyer recommended to revoke the vote and 
revert the changes. Most board members refused to act, so I've been left 
with no choice but to send the vote in public where, as directed by the 
Rules of Procedure themselves, must be discussed.

If you subscribed to Board Discuss on our Discourse instance, you should 
have received a copy of my vote allowing you to evaluate the matter 
about which I'd like to have your opinion.

Please also consider to ask the Board of Directors to revert the changes 
they made to the Board Discuss forum. They limit the right of expression 
not only to a specific board member, but also to the rest of the 
community, because nobody can send messages there anymore without 
moderation.

Ciao

Paolo

--
Paolo Vecchi - Member of the Board of Directors
The Document Foundation, Winterfeldtstraße 52, 10781 Berlin, DE
Gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts
Legal details: https://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint


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