Why not allow the open community to vote on the boards?

All board seats should be elected based solely on merit. To achieve this, only the active RESF Project contributors (a.k.a. Members) who see the reality of everything that is happening within the Projects and the Foundation can make merit based judgment calls that the open community may not ever see. This also serves as an incentive for the open community to become contributing members.

note: Board seats are NEVER sold. As mentioned above, they are based only on merit. PERIOD. No company can ever express pressure on the RESF or Projects simply by spending money. This is unlike most other open source Foundations and the RESF is strongly committed to this.