Timothy Sandole and (apparently) $53, 690 of WMF funding - Wikimedia-l

1 Apr 2014

Hello All:

I have been following this thread with great interest and a kind of deeply
appreciative fascination.

First to say that I am relatively new to WMF - having been on board for
just a bit over a year.  Previously the jobs that I had pretty much covered
the entire waterfront:

Summer jobs in high school
Jobs while in college (didn't we all do that!)
4 years in a combination of corporations and small businesses
17 years as a volunteer as I raised my two sons
17 years in non-profits (helping to found 3 of them)
2 years in county government
2 years as a scheduler for a Presidential campaign
and most recently, just before I came here,  6 years as a scheduler for a
US Congressman.

"She must be 'old as dirt" you are thinking - well not just yet - and among
other things that set WMF apart - they do not discriminate on the basis of
age :-) :-) :-)

WMF is unique in so many ways from all the other places I have worked, just
to name a few:

Basic operating manual:  Assume good faith!  Look for the truth!  Express
your views in an unbiased way!  (a slight rewording of the "rules" for
editing).

Everything is discussed in the open.

Everyone is welcome to express their opinion.

The leadership (all the way to the "top") openly apologizes when mistakes
are made.

Rather than "dig in" and insist on continuing processes that don't work,
people at WMF put their heads together and look for a different solution.
 Much like the point in the movie "Apollo 13" when they discover that the
air in the stranded capsule is slowly killing the astronauts.  The team is
told to bring everything to a meeting that the astronauts have available
inside the capsule.  They all come into the room shouting and pointing
fingers at each other in an effort to lay blame regarding what went wrong.
 At some point Ed Harris, who plays the White Team Flight Director, yells,
"Let's just work the problem!"  WMF is good at "working the
problem".

When I reflect on the above, I ask, "what if the entire world worked this
way, or even half the world, or even just enough people to get us to the
tipping point.  It would be powerful stuff.

I don't intend to imply that we are looking at perfect - but then, life is
not about perfection of action (we are after all human), it is about
perfection of intention which is not that from "assume good faith."

Take good care, Amy

-- 
*Amy Vossbrinck*
*Executive Assistant to the*
*Chief of Finance and Administration, Garfield Byrd*
*Wikimedia Foundation*
*149 New Montgomery Street*
*San Francisco, CA 94105*
*415.839.6885  ext 6628*
*avossbrinck(a)wikimedia.org &lt;avossbrinck(a)wikimedia.org&gt;*