Although I directionally agree with this idea, I’d note the tension between it and some other goals implied by this and other announcements. In a decentralized ecosystem, there are lots of orgs. In my view, the target board size for a smaller org is five, 7-9 for a medium-sized org, and 9-11 for larger size ones. Resignations and recusals are going to be a reality in EA (and elsewhere, really), so a 3-person board doesn’t have enough redundancy to ensure effective operations when that happens. So you’re looking at several hundred board spots.
In many orgs, some of those slots should be filled by those with specialized skill and/or experience that is not in wide supply within EA (e.g., legal, accounting, senior managerial).
Although I’m all for deepening the bench, I’m not yet convinced that there are several hundred people at the moment with the skillset and bandwidth to serve on boards.
So I’d suggest something more like a point system, under which (e.g.) being on the board of RP, or spun-off CEA, etc. would consume most/all of your points. However, being on the board of a smaller org would consume fewer points. Someone being on five small-org boards whose organizations have a combined 10 FTE & $2MM budget is fairly low on my concerns list at the present juncture.
Good point, I don’t think I had considered the large number of board spots. That being said, I’d be excited for some senior people who don’t explicitly identify as EA to be on boards of EA orgs, who may have general relevant experience and connections in relevant sectors. So I’d probably stand by my previous recommendation, but would still prefer your idea to heavily overlapping boards.
I generally agree with that, but also think that large board changes can be pretty challenging.
Placing a significant number of people who don’t explicitly identify as EAs on EA boards feels more like a task on the five-year plan for many orgs rather than something that I’d expect them to manage with all the other necessary board-related changes in the next year or so.
Several significant changes are hopefully already in the cards—much more active boards, fewer seats held by the people who have commonly served on boards, more seats overall. I think it’s going to be difficult to make all of those changes happen in the short-to-medium run, and how to prioritize them best will likely vary on an organization-by-organization basis.
I also wonder if many boards would be able to attract better not-explicitly-EA candidates if they waited for a bit more chronological distance from the FTX situation and for the resultant litigation risk to be cleaned up.
Although I directionally agree with this idea, I’d note the tension between it and some other goals implied by this and other announcements. In a decentralized ecosystem, there are lots of orgs. In my view, the target board size for a smaller org is five, 7-9 for a medium-sized org, and 9-11 for larger size ones. Resignations and recusals are going to be a reality in EA (and elsewhere, really), so a 3-person board doesn’t have enough redundancy to ensure effective operations when that happens. So you’re looking at several hundred board spots.
In many orgs, some of those slots should be filled by those with specialized skill and/or experience that is not in wide supply within EA (e.g., legal, accounting, senior managerial).
Although I’m all for deepening the bench, I’m not yet convinced that there are several hundred people at the moment with the skillset and bandwidth to serve on boards.
So I’d suggest something more like a point system, under which (e.g.) being on the board of RP, or spun-off CEA, etc. would consume most/all of your points. However, being on the board of a smaller org would consume fewer points. Someone being on five small-org boards whose organizations have a combined 10 FTE & $2MM budget is fairly low on my concerns list at the present juncture.
Good point, I don’t think I had considered the large number of board spots. That being said, I’d be excited for some senior people who don’t explicitly identify as EA to be on boards of EA orgs, who may have general relevant experience and connections in relevant sectors. So I’d probably stand by my previous recommendation, but would still prefer your idea to heavily overlapping boards.
I generally agree with that, but also think that large board changes can be pretty challenging.
Placing a significant number of people who don’t explicitly identify as EAs on EA boards feels more like a task on the five-year plan for many orgs rather than something that I’d expect them to manage with all the other necessary board-related changes in the next year or so.
Several significant changes are hopefully already in the cards—much more active boards, fewer seats held by the people who have commonly served on boards, more seats overall. I think it’s going to be difficult to make all of those changes happen in the short-to-medium run, and how to prioritize them best will likely vary on an organization-by-organization basis.
I also wonder if many boards would be able to attract better not-explicitly-EA candidates if they waited for a bit more chronological distance from the FTX situation and for the resultant litigation risk to be cleaned up.