It says: we are a democratically governed community.
Ok, maybe it would have sounded more like a mission if it had said "we are trying to be and maintain a democratically governed community".
But apart from sounding rather doubtful of success, that would not have been any different in outlook!
Being a democratically governed community is just about the toughest aim anyone could have, IMO. To me, it sounds like a lot of work ahead! And quite a mission to write on your flag!
If that's the case, then our mission statement should read:
"To be a democratically governed internet community"
and that's it. Yes, the diddly diddly chocolate beans (or "DDCB" as I like to call it) says that in a different syntax, but then it goes on to say a bunch of other crap also. In so doing, it desribes b77 very well and is a great statement for our front page. But it's way too broad and general to be a good MS. A MS should be focused and concise,
defining more than describing. It should point towards the one single most important thing that we are trying to accomplish, and then it should shut up.
I don't want the DDCB to fail in this vote, and I don't want to hold up the opening of the board over this. If my vote were going to decide the issue, I'd abstain and let us go forward with what we have, because I don't think the board is going to sink or swim on the strength of its MS. But I do think that in the rush to get a million different charter issues resolved, we have missed an opportunity here to figure out something important about ourselves as a community. What really is our mission? Is being democratically governed really the single most important thing thing that we do here? Or is it just a means to an end? To what end? The MS should pare everything down to a succint answer to these kind of questions, stating only what is absolutely essential.
Maybe we can revisit the issue later when we're not so busy with the entire charter and get a little more introspective in the process of rewriting the thing.