Hi, Risker.
Thanks for bringing this up. :) Pulling it out to separate it from the
other topic. You asked for clarification on the role of staff in this
election related to the role of the EC.
The Elections Committee and the Board Selection Task Force have been
involved in all parts of the election planning and implementation process.
They are the decision-makers. The Movement Strategy and Governance team are
supporting them for communication pieces and administrative processes
(setting up SecurePoll, organizing meetings, publishing on Meta-wiki). We
offer similar support to several other committees–volunteer time is
precious, and elections can be a big demand on time. I wonder if it would
help if staff signed off with “on behalf of” to clarify when they are a
conduit versus when they are acting as leads on work; happy to explore that.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Tue, Jun 14, 2022 at 12:42 AM Risker <risker.wp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Just to change the subject for a short minute:
This is a Board of Trustees election. It is supposed to be managed by the Elections
Committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee>,
a Board-appointed committee of community members. Their mandate was
reviewed and updated within the past month by Board resolution. (Yes, I
know this used to be the "affiliate-selected" round, but now that it is an
election, things have changed.)
Is there a reason why every single communication I have seen about this
election has been authored by staff members, none of whom are listed as
staff support for the committee? Did the Elections Committee carry out a
consultation with the community to make this significant change in the
manner in which candidate questions will be handled, as is indicated by
their charter?
There's a reason why these elections have never been managed by WMF staff
- I think anyone could see the conflict of interest if they were to do so -
and the Elections Committee or a committee selected by affiliates has
handled these matters to date. I'd like to know why this does not seem to
be the case in this election.
You may now wish to return to your previous discussions about where to
talk about this election. Please excuse my interruption. /s
Risker/Anne
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Maggie Dennis
She/her/hers
Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.