I have no contact with the founding team other than via email, and I conciously didn't apply for the position, even when they opened up applications a few months back. I had no warning either - I just woke up with some new blue stars and an email from Massimo.
Now, what about 'room for interpretation' in that. Remember that when people don't know the reasoning they will probably make something up or start guessing. So do it your, the arduino team, way and don't rely on the community or make use of the community which needs communicating before deciding. If you want both there will be guesses/interpretations/'bad climate'.
I try to explain this in a general way as i don't mean to start some fight over details.
Jeroen.