Quote from: djohnston on December 04, 2013, 06:07:01 AM

Who do we want as Board Members

As for who we want as Board Members I hope everyone will consider my input on this given I've served on a number of Boards over the years.

The most important criteria for a Board member ought to be: Connections + Relationships they can bring to bare in order to benefit the Foundation's work and more broadly the whole Mastercoin Community. In a close second is the level of experience the candidate has in developing new technology projects in order to provide input and accountability.

Let me give you one simple example. I sat on the Board of a Biotech / Energy Startup. The most important member we attracted was the retired President of a major oil company. Because of her connections we made important in roads with a Fortune 100 strategic partner that ended up funding our renewable energy efforts. Without her I'm sure our startup would not have been taken seriously or would we have had the experience to know how to manage such a big customer / relationship.

That's what you want out of a board member. You want someone with relationships, connections, and experience to provide accountability and input to management who tackles things day to day.

Brock Pierce is the perfect example of this. The guy is basically the grandfather of virtual currency having been building and investing in startups in the space since the late 1990's / early 2000's. He is a super Angel in the Bitcoin space and travels around the world to jurisdictions such as Singapore, Hong Kong and others helping build companies in the Bitcoin space. While you are never going to get Brock to work full time on Mastercoin, his relationships, connections and input are invaluable to the Mastercoin effort having been there since the Exodus Address and actively been involved in Board discussions.

We want a clear separation between Board Members and the operational team. I agree with your comment about wanting to avoid conflicts of interest with those providing accountability and those receiving the funds for their efforts.

I'd recommend approaching a partner at a Big 4 firm (PwC, EY, KPMG, Deloitte). They can provide insight to international accounting, tax laws, and have partners worldwide that have global insight and political connections. (As a matter of full disclosure, I work for EY in the IT department and not on the business side)

Katten Muchin is the law firm that assisted the Winklevoss twins with their Bitcoin ETF and understand the US laws and regulations with Virtual Currency. Maybe another worthwhile approach.

Linkedin also has http://nonprofits.linkedin.com/ that can be used for finding board members.