It's common in academic institutions. http://www.harvard.edu/board-overseers

Fair. I like UC's "Board of Regents" http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/

At Univ of Virginia we have a "Board of Visitors" http://www.virginia.edu/bov/ :)

I think that's incorrect. Overseer is generally a term the English use when referring to administration of the poor. Not sure if it's still in use today.

Can you tell I liked me some Charles Dickens?

Here's the disambiguation from wikipedia:

In professions

[1] A supervisor or superintendent; one who keeps watch over and directs the work of others, often in the context of forced labor or slavery

[2] In law, a person appointed by the testator to supervise or assist the executor(s) of a will (mostly obsolete)

[3] Overseer of the Poor, an official who administered poor relief

It's muddled at best, but the usage in reference to a supervisory role in a professional context [1] is distinct from what you allude to [3], and [1] has the qualifier "often in the context of forced labor or slavery".

Very interesting. Raised in New England, college in Louisiana. I should know that!!

My cautious rebuttal...

Startups are generally poor when they arrive at YC. Maybe that's just Sam injecting a little sly humor like he did with that last line?

This is what I thought when I saw "overseer". I would not have chosen to use that word.

You may find this interesting (or not): The way the Egyptian hieroglyph for overseer as commonly written has a visual pun, and literally means "one who is in the mouth" (http://books.google.com/books?id=aroQ0Zrl8J4C&pg=PA34&lpg=PA...).

Board of Directors usually meet once a month. Their job is much more than deciding to hire/fire/keep the CEO.

Agreed. Advisors would be better but perhaps they were bored at the "normal" names...