On 03/20/2013 11:41 AM, Mary Barnes wrote:
Given that folks are still debating whether this years nominees
reflected a reasonable diversity (there were 9 women out of 37
nominees),
I actually don't think that the number of female nominees is
relevant. What is relevant is the number of qualified female nominees
who had the willingness, the availability, the required expertise, and
the support necessary to fill the position.
On several occasions in the past decade I've been asked if I were
willing to be nominated to serve on IESG again, even though I didn't
have either sufficient time or support to devote to the task, just so
that nomcom would have a slate of candidates to compare. I thought on
those occasions, and still think, that it's a bit silly to ask nomcom to
investigate candidates who don't have the time or support to do the
job. But I still agreed to be nominated because I could also see some
value in having nomcom compare several candidates. (Just like when
shopping for a new car, it doesn't hurt to look at models that you know
that you're probably not going to buy, just to get a sense of whether
you really want what you think you want).
So I guess I've formed the impression that merely being nominated for a
position doesn't really mean that a person is available.
Keith