Sorry for the late response, I just saw this question.

If I were elected to the board, how would I help to build trust and a
collaborative working relationship amount the directors? This is a tough
question to answer in a quantitative way, as interactions and human
psychology are very complicated and very unique. From my experience working
as a research scientist in academia where tensions and emotions are often
high, I have found that the seed of any positive working relationship is to
treat everyone and their ideas with respect, and to give each the benefit
of the doubt that their viewpoint comes from a place of love for the
mission and the project. To view someone through a lens of distrust, or to
assume a nefarious nature, halts the conversation before it can even begin.
Likewise, the key to healthy debate is to not lose sight of the big
picture, and as such, before a working relationship can be established all
parties must agree on the nature of the big picture. However, in places
where conflicts do arise, inevitably stemming from topics such as monetary
allocation, ethics, and organizational philosophy, I think it crucial to
keep emotion to a minimum, as strong emotion leads to frustration, which
will lead to grudges and hostility. It is particularly hard to set emotions
aside for the sake of discussion, especially in a passion project such as
this, but clear, level-headed rationality is how responsible decisions are
made.

With all that said, I believe a huge pet peeve of mine to be on the
receiving end of is dismissivness. Having an idea dismissed outright before
consideration is a belittling, aggravating, and disrespectful experience.
With that said, my track record is not flawless having found myself being
dismissive of points of view before considering the justification and
having to retroactively make amends, but each occurrence has reinforced my
learning and my personal growth to be a better and more patient listener.
If I were to have a seat on the board, this would be a strong stance of
mine: to not be dismissive the ideas, points of view, and perspective of my
peers, and to expect my peers to do the same for each other.

I hope that answers your question, or at the very least gives you an idea
of where I am coming from.

 -Britt Yazel

On Tue, Jun 11, 2019 at 2:56 AM Tobias Mueller <mue...@cryptobitch.de>
wrote:

> Hi Philip and the other candidates,
>
> On Thu, 2019-06-06 at 11:20 -0700, Philip Chimento via foundation-list
> wrote:
> > If elected to the board, how would you help to build trust and
> > collaborative working relationships among the directors, and encourage
> > healthy debate?
> I think this is a great question for all the candidates and I would be
> delighted to read statements of candidates who want to position
> themselves.
>
> Having worked with Benjamin on several occasions, the biggest one being
> GUADEC 2016, I know that maintaining a collaborative working
> relationship and healthy debate are not a problem.
>
> Cheers,
>   Tobi
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-list mailing list
> foundation-list@gnome.org
> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
>
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