Thanks Daruisz and all who worked on this.
Looking at the bigger picture, the tone and pace of changes in WMF
governance over the past few months feel like a breath of fresh air. I hope
that this direction and pace continue.
Speaking of elections and governance, will the Founder's seat become an
elected seat? It may be too early to answer this question, but I hope that
the BGC gives it some careful thought.
Thanks again,
Pine
On Jul 20, 2016 18:00, "Dariusz Jemielniak" <darekj(a)alk.edu.pl> wrote:
Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
As you know the board passed a resolution allowing for the creation of a
standing Elections Committee in November of last year [1]. Per the
implementing resolution, the Board Governance Committee (BGC) has appointed
the initial members from the recommendation of the Executive Director and
her staff. We will be starting with 6 committee members:
-
User:Ajraddatz
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Ajraddatz>
-
User:Mardetanha
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Mardetanha>
-
User:Ruslik0
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Ruslik0>
-
User:Philippe
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Philippe>slate
-
User:KTC <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/KTC>
-
User:Atropine
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Atropine>
They will be joined by two official advisors from the Wikimedia Foundation:
-
James Alexander (Manager, Trust & Safety) from Community Engagement
-
Stephen LaPorte (Senior Legal Counsel) from the WMF Legal team
They will also be working closely with the BGC as a whole and especially
Nataliia and me. Because I may consider applying as a candidate in the
upcoming community-selection process I will be recusing for any discussions
involving that election[2].
The new committee, along with the BGC, will, of course, be able to choose
how many members and advisors they truly need and how to recruit the best
candidates. One of the first orders of business for the committee will be
to decide on a process for expanding its membership through some form of
open call. While there is an enormous amount of work for the committee to
do, it can be expected that they will begin looking at:
-
The selection of a committee Chair
-
The dates and process for the upcoming community selection process (and
consider shortening the terms and having community elections in early
2017,
so that the elected members would join the Board at April meeting[3]).
-
The method of voting for that process both for the upcoming selection
and the future and
-
The composition of the board and how to ensure a steady supply of good
candidates (in particular, making sure that the candidates have the
skills and expertise matching the Board skill matrix while making sure
that
the process is still owned by the community[4]).
Just as the BGC is committed to greater transparency (see for example our
recent minutes[5]), the committee will likely consult with the wider
Wikimedia community in developing and revising election procedures within
the scope of this charter to the greatest extent possible.
This day has been a long time coming and is the result of requests made by
multiple different temporary election committees over the years. I'm glad
to finally see it come to fruition and hope that it will allow our
selection process to continue to expand and improve well beyond the
record-breaking election we had in 2015.
Before I sign off I also wanted to call out the amazing work of the 2015
temporary Election Committee[6]. They were put together in 2015 to do one
thing: run an election. They did that well (with almost 3x the
participation of the next largest year) but then they went well beyond the
call of duty in serving as an advisory body to the board, offering
invaluable feedback on how to fill the empty community selected seats we
saw this year. They did not have to do this, but they did it anyway, and I
hope that everyone can acknowledge the stress and courage that took.
Please join me in thanking the 2015 committee and welcoming the new
standing committee!
Dariusz Jemielniak ("pundit", current Board member)
- [1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee
- [2] See also my disclosure to the BGC on that matter:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commi…
- [3]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-June/084592.html
- [4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commi…
- [5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commi…
- [6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/Committ…
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