Hi Pine,
I have answered your questions in your email.
Regards,
Garfield
On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 12:38 AM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Garfield,
Ok, follow up questions:
* Does WMF have a plan to keep the Foundation and its essential functions
operational if, say, the San Francisco main building all SF staff are
completely offline and unreachable by phone for a week after an earthquake?
Yes, we have a plan in place in case the building in San Francisco is
unavailable. All San Francisco staff will not be offline for a week after
an earthquake. Not all staff live in San Francisco, and Loma Prieta showed
that even a major earthquake does not take the entire San Francisco Bay
Area offline. So essential functions will continue even after an
earthquake.
In addition, even though many of our staff are in San Francisco, we do have
staff in many other states and 18 countries.
* Would there be worthwhile advantages to establishing a second main office
in someplace like the US east coast or Europe?
We have tried to setup a center of activity in other states and it did not
prove to be worthwhile, as staff preferred to work from home or other
locations. So it was an an additional cost with any additional benefit. It
is my understanding that having an office outside the United States creates
complications for Wikipedia and the other Wiki projects in the area of
content protection.
Thanks, and please reply when it's convenient for
you.
I'll follow up offline with HR about talent pool questions.
Thanks,
Pine
On Apr 8, 2015 5:16 PM, "Garfield Byrd" <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Pine,
If the Foundation decides to move, the cost of making the space usable
for our staff is not a recoverable cost from the building owner.
At this point, WMF is not planning on moving out of the San Francisco
market area. We will be doing our best to manage cost when we renew our
lease or move. The advantages of having good access to talented people and
organizations WMF interacts with far outweigh any advantages to moving to a
lower cost location outside of the San Francisco market area.
Regards,
Garfield
On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 9:58 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Garfield,
I'm asking this on Wikimedia-l because a number of Wikimedians have
noted the expensiveness of the San Francisco area including its high cost
of living for staff, employer competition for engineering talent, and
associated high salaries for WMF employees.
I see on
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/8a/RFP_for_Real_Estate_S…
that WMF is considering relocating its offices when its current main office
lease expires.
Questions:
What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its
current location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for
the remodel by the building owner?
I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market
area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds, have
less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is this
being considered?
Thanks very much,
Pine
--
Garfield Byrd
Chief of Finance and Administration
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext 6787
415.882.0495 (fax)
www.wikimediafoundation.org
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
*https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>*
--
Garfield Byrd
Chief of Finance and Administration
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext 6787
415.882.0495 (fax)
www.wikimediafoundation.org
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
*https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>*