It seems that the Foundation made an error when it filed its annual report back in May 2007 when Jimmy stepped down as chairman and was replaced by Florence. For some reason, the paperwork filed with the Florida Secretary of State listed Jimmy as the Executive Chair (EC), a position which would give him final authority over practically all matters related to Foundation affairs. (He should instead have been deleted entirely; the role of "Emeritus Chair" has no legal significance and would not have been reported to the State of Florida.) Because of this error, Florence is legally unable to act with executive authority for the Foundation; only Jimmy has that power.
I sincerely hope that Mike Godwin will be filing the appropriate paperwork to correct this error post haste. I imagine the Secretary of State will allow for this to be filed retroactively; there's no way this could be anything other than a simple clerical error by Wikimedia's obviously inexperienced personnel. This was, after all, filed after Danny and Brad had left, and before Sue came on, so the Foundation was stumbling along with just Carolyn (her signature appears on the bottom of the document, after all) and a handful of office clerical workers and no legal counsel, so a mistake like this is perfectly understandable.
There is, of course, no way that this could have been a deliberate deception by Jimmy to secretly retain power, as our dear friends at Valleywag suggest...
I sincerely hope that Mike Godwin will be filing the appropriate paperwork to correct this error post haste. I imagine the Secretary of State will allow for this to be filed retroactively; there's no way this could be anything other than a simple clerical error by Wikimedia's obviously inexperienced personnel. This was, after all, filed after Danny and Brad had left, and before Sue came on, so the Foundation was stumbling along with just Carolyn (her signature appears on the bottom of the document, after all) and a handful of office clerical workers and no legal counsel, so a mistake like this is perfectly understandable.
There is, of course, no way that this could have been a deliberate deception by Jimmy to secretly retain power, as our dear friends at Valleywag suggest...
Is a conspiracy of Captain Jimbeard and the Rand League of Pirates!
ReplyDeleteThis was pointed out to me several months ago, and I, in turn referred it to various people. The answer I got then was that I was wrong, and EC stands for Emeritus Chair. Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteOf course... some people can't ever report chat logs correctly.
ReplyDeleteDo you *honestly* have a life outside Wikipedia...?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, Kelly. Very important, good job.
ReplyDelete"Do you *honestly* have a life outside Wikipedia...?"
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, here you are...
What color is the kettle?
I spend too much time chasing this today. This story is nonsense. Valleyway is wrong about EC must be Executive Chair.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I follow. I took some time yesterday and did some research. Unfortunately, like Seth states, the Valleywag is incorrect on this. Kelly, you should really do fact checking before reporting outlets no even on the wire. It is important that if you want to remain reliable, you should report reliably. This took too much time. :|
ReplyDeleteI emailed "sunbiz.org", asking if "EC" etc had any firm definition. The answer was no, so it can just as easily stand for Emeritus Chair as Exec Chair - it's up to what the foundation had in mind at the time
ReplyDeleteFrom sunbiz.org's help pages:
ReplyDelete10. What do the abbreviations for officers and directors stand for?
There are 4 characters in the officer field with no spaces in between. The abbreviations are common but some can have different meanings. If necessary, you may have to view an image of the annual report from our web page to determine the title. The most frequently used symbols are: P - President, Pastor; V - Vice-President; S - Secretary; T - Treasurer; C - Chairman, Cashier, Chief Executive Officer; D - Director, Deacon. In some instances, if space allows, 2 or more characters will be used for an abbreviation. Example: AS - Assistant Secretary; CEO - Chief Executive Officer. If one person serves in 4 capacities it may appear to be confusing but can be deciphered. Example: PDTS is President, Director, Treasurer and Secretary. Finally, some Masonic Lodges, churches, or civic organizations may have unfamiliar offices or titles. Example: G - Grand Master; W - Worshipful Master; A - Admiral; S - Sister: B - Brother.
Total time spent finding this: approximately 60 seconds. :)