I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, I agree that we need to work on developing new leaders.
That includes:
* On-wiki administrators
* On-wiki program leaders
* Affiliate board and committee members (including user groups, which IMO
get far too little support from WMF)
* Affiliate project leaders
* WMF Board members
* WMF Board committee members, such as for the Audit, Governance, and HR
committees
* Committees such as for Project Grants, Ombudsmen, FDC, and AffCom
Those roles should get new members on a regular basis, and the new members
should only partially consist of people who transfer among roles. Fresh
perspectives are good.
On the other hand, novice leaders are also prone to making novice mistakes.
Last year, I believe that a WMF Board with more experienced members would
have been faster and more thorough at addressing some of the concerns
related to the previous WMF Executive Director.
So I would like to see more work on developing new leaders, while
continuing cultivation of the wisdom of experienced leaders who have proven
to be effective.
Pine
On Mon, Sep 5, 2016 at 2:41 PM, Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
You clearly have a strong and abiding interest in
movement governance, and
have been asking some good questions. You should have submitted your
candidacy.[1]
To your point, I guess it can be taken as a reminder, but it does not seem
to me that the appointments were made *so as to minimize* influence by less
well-known figures. Rather, it seems to me there was a strong emphasis on
suitability for the work expected from them (as distinct from other
considerations, such as "representation"); it is, of course, easier to
assess that suitability in people known to the people making the decision,
so old hands do have some advantage, but it isn't *because* they've been
around or because they are trusted not to disrupt or challenge the system.
A.
[1] Perhaps you have, of course. I can't tell, since your account is
anonymous, but if you did, it would have been good to disclose that fact as
you were criticizing the process, and I trust you'd have realized that, so
I'll assume you did not.
On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 12:02 AM, Rogol Domedonfors <domedonfors(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
We have seen various appointments to influential
committees within the
WMF
"system" in recent weeks: the Funds
Dissemination Committee and the Board
Governance Committee Volunteer and Advisory members; the Board Election
Committee is being geared up and new Board members will soon be selected
by
the Board itself and via community nomination.
While I am sure that
those
people who have volunteered their time to serve
in those capacities are
well-meaning, conscientious and effective, and well-versed in how things
have been done in the past, it seems to me that the selections have
leaned
too heavily on people already connected with the
movement and its
existing
structures and processes. I suggest that in line
with the
Strategy/2016-17
process
[
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/2016-2017] being
planned,
these committees, and especially the Board itself, needs an element not
predisposed to the mere continuation of the current ways of doing things.
In short the WMF needs to raise its game and to do that it needs
constructive criticism from outside the existing cadres; it may be that
the
movement as a whole needs to see disruptive
change of a sort unlikely to
commend itself to a WMF/Silicon Valley view of the world. I urge those
responsbile for selection of these important and influential groups to
challenge themselves to look more widely and occasionally choose the
uncomfortable option.
"Rogol Domedonfors"
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