Thanks for all the positive, constructive feedback (those of you who gave positive, constructive feedback). I'm not going to address conspiracy theories, mostly because I'm not seeing most of them because of who I've got on my ignore list.
The points people made here about the Foundation making Bitcoin MORE decentralized are, from my point of view, exactly right. To take one example, I don't want to be the centralized decision-maker who figures out who should or should not be on the bitcoin-press mailing list that is on the bitcoin.org homepage any more. To take another: if there is money for the development team, I don't want to decide how to split it up (I've got an obvious conflict of interest).
RE: why Peter and why not anonymous members and why DC and why not a different process to start:
Because I'm pragmatic. I like to actually get things accomplished instead of endlessly talking about doing things. Everybody on the initial Board are people who get things done.
My biggest fear is not that the Foundation will become some massively powerful entity controlling Bitcoin; my biggest fear is that the Foundation will turn into Yet Another Ineffective Bureaucracy, employing a few people who do nothing but put out meaningless press releases.
RE: confirmation-of-payment emails: that will be done soon.
RE: bylaws:
In the spirit of openness, the Foundation bylaws are on github:
https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/tree/master/Bylaws
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Creating forums or mailing lists where Foundation members can communicate is on the very short-term TODO list.
Thanks again to everybody who has already joined, it is exciting to see people from all over the world get involved!