As we're approaching the end of the year, I wanted to give an update on
where we stand in terms of the appointed seats on the Board of Trustees.
As you may know, we have two positions up for renewal (along with
Jimmy's position as Community Founder Trustee), and two additional
positions open for appointment. The existing seats this involves are
those of Jan-Bart de Vreede, our Vice Chair, and Stu West, our Treasurer.
The Nominating Committee has been working to take a large list of names
- generated by drawing on ideas from the community, staff, and board -
and identify potential candidates for the appointed seats using criteria
developed with the board's guidance. We've worked down to a relatively
short list and are in the process of reaching out to a variety of people
on that list to see which of these possibilities seem like the best fit
for the Wikimedia Foundation. We're not quite at the point of
recommending finalists to the board for consideration yet, as our
ambitious timetable had hoped, but things are moving along and I hope we
can fill one or two of the new positions in the coming months. I think
it's more important that we find suitable candidates, people who bring
appropriate expertise and appreciate our mission, than simply filling
them based on an artificial deadline.
In the meantime, Jan-Bart and Stu's appointments were both set to
expire, but both expressed an interest in serving for another year. The
Nominating Committee felt that their experience would benefit Wikimedia
in addition to any expertise found in the rest of the pool, and that
having some continuity would be valuable to the foundation. So at the
committee's recommendation, the other members of the board voted
unanimously to reappoint Jan-Bart and Stu to their seats for 2009. We
also had a unanimous vote to reappoint Jimmy Wales to his position as
Community Founder Trustee.
Please join me in thanking Jan-Bart and Stu (and Jimmy too, for that
matter) for their efforts and their willingness to continue to serve. I
am glad to be keeping them as colleagues in the coming year, and look
forward to seeing the development of the Wikimedia projects during that
time.
--Michael Snow