So with a lot of ANTI-BOARD OF GUSTAV SENTIMENT making its way around the forums and Discord lately, I thought I'd share a bit of an insider's perspective on what goes on there.
We do:
-Vote on awards. A separate discussion thread for each award goes up, and then a while later the actual award ballot is created. Discussion threads are meant for discussion--I've touched upon lack of discussion and will acknowledge that it can be an issue, but some form of actual discussion does happen in most non-obvious cases.
-Provide opinions on suggested policies. These can be from anyone, be it commissioners, other BoG members, or people outside of the BoG. The majority of BoG discussion threads are no different from what you'd find in the suggestion forum...they're just not public.
-Occasionally provide feedback on secret stuff. The most obvious example is expansions. Outside of secret stuff and voting, there's really nothing separating BoG threads from the suggestion forum.
We do not:
-Have the final say in decision-making. That's a blue team thing. We're an advisory board. I'd concede that BoG generally comes to a more-or-less-in-agreement point before an official decision is made, but we don't make said decisions (as evidenced by the fact that the blues are the ones who post threads about policy changes).
-Have any sort of official power. We're not mods, we're not staff. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about the BoG is that we're somehow in some sort of elevated position. We really aren't. A possible source of confusion is a distinction between BoG (an advisory board like what we have here) and BoD (a group of people who play a larger part in decision-making, are usually considered staff, and receive job pay), a structure found in the EFL and SBA. All being hired to the BoG means is that the blue team (and potentially current BoG) thinks you're a rational person who will contribute positively and make constructive comments on things. That's it, and there's no reason someone who isn't on the BoG can't contribute positively and make constructive comments.
That's just my two cents. Hopefully this gives some people a better understanding of things and helps get my general point across that being BoG is...really not a big deal.