[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

[effe iets anders]

Dear all,

As many of you probably already know, one of the major returning
discussions, both on this mailing list as on meetings, is the one concerning
a representative body for volunteers, the Volunteer Council (a.k.a. the Wiki
Council) - being discussed at least since may 2005. In these discussions, I
did not note a significant opposition against the concept.
This is why I thik that, roughly 1.5-2 months since the last discussion
faded out, it is now time to take the next step. Therefore, I drew up a
resolution for the Board of Trustees, after reviewing previous discussions
and discussing (the wordings of) this resolution with Anthere and
Eclecticology.

During the last discussions, it was clear that most of the participants
disagreed on a lot of the details of this Council. The size, shape,
representivity, exact purposes, the authority etc. However, all the time, it
*was* clear that we all agreed at least on the basic concepts, and in
january it was suggested to get things going by just having a preliminary
volunteer council. The members of this preliminary council would be
appointed by the Board. The main purpose would already be defined, see
below, but the execution of it's rights would be limited to giving advice
and setting up internal regulations until a definitive Volunteer Council
could be set up. This preliminary Council would have the main task of
setting up guidelines and rules, exact purposes and all required details,
the relationship with the Board and if required changes of bylaws in a
proposal. This proposal/report should be offered to the Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees by september, which would have the opportunity to confirm
the Volunteer Council in it's status, and accept or refuse the proposed
changes.

Please note that this proposal is a compromise between several views on this
topic, and that it is unlikely that you are 100% satisfied by it. So please
don't shoot on the details you disagree with, because others will probably
in their turn disagree with your views on it. However, I would like to ask
you to state your support if you support the proposal, or state that you
feel there are major flaws if you feel like that. I created a meta
discussion page for this purpose:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikicouncil/Resolution . Please note
that this is in no way a poll or vote.

I hope that the community agrees with the proposal, and that we can ask the
community representatives on the Board to put this resolution on the agenda
of the next Board Meeting, in San Francisco. I cinserely hope that this
proposal will make it finally. It would be three years since the first
proposal was set up on meta.

Finally, a rather practical point. As you can see in the resolution, there
is a statement at the bottom about Names. I chose not to publish a list of
names at all, I have not finished it anyway, as I would not like this to
become a public pig fight with naming and shaming and everything. I will
propose a list of candidates to the Community representative(s) on the
Board, together with the resolution, which will hopefully be a good
representation of all volunteers.
If you feel that you could, or you know someone who would make a good
candidate, and that has time and willingness to serve on this Preliminary
Council, to extensively discuss the report to the Board of september, please
e-mail me privately. I am planning to come up with a shortlist of 10-15
volunteer candidates, with different backgrounds, from different corners of
the communities, and with different views on this matter - of course also
consulting some others. Note that you will most likely have to identify
yourself to the Foundation as any other WMF official (and be 18+ etc),
although the final decision on this matter lies with the Board.

I hope all these processes will run smoothly, and that we will have a real
Volunteer Council up and running by October!

Best regards,

Lodewijk

-----------------------------------
PROPOSAL PROPOSAL PROPOSAL PROPOSAL
-----------------------------------

Whereas,
*The Board recognizes the value of the volunteers in the Wikimedia projects
and that their work is the very reason of their success.
*The Board values the opinions of these volunteers, and takes them into
serious consideration when discussing issues involving the volunteers.
*The Board is of the opinion that these volunteers should have a strong say
in changes in the articles of incorporation and the bylaws of the Wikimedia
Foundation.
*The Board considers a Volunteer Council as a valuable intermediate between
the Communities and the Foundation, and as a good instrument to hear the
voice of the volunteers.

it is hereby resolved that:
* The Board of Trustees hereby creates a Volunteer Council, to serve as a
valuable complement to the Staff, Advisory Board and Board of Trustees.

Without restricting the generality of this provision the purposes of the
Volunteer Council shall include:
1) Offering advice and support on issues relevant to the Wikimedia
Volunteers,
2) Recommanding the opening or closure of Wikimedia projects,
3) Approving changes to the articles of incorporation or bylaws of the
Wikimedia Foundation and
4) Assist in establishing a clear seperation between the legal
responsibilities of the Wikimedia Foundation as an Internet Service Provider
and the community decisions for the Wikimedia Projects.

The members from the Volunteer Council must be volunteers within Wikimedia.

The Provisional Volunteer Council shall report to the Board no later than
September 1, 2008, which report shall include recommendations regarding the
number and composition of the Volunteer Council, and how the members of the
Council shall be chosen. Said report shall also include recommendations
regarding the distribution of rights and responsibilities between the Board
and Council, and any changes in the by-laws that may be necessary to
implement this.

Except where it pertains to its own procedures, no decision of the
Provisional Volunteer Council shall bind any person.

On receipt of the said report the Board shall take such steps as it deems
necessary to confirm and empower the Volunteer Council, and provide for a
transition of operations from the Provisional Volunteer Council.

Members of the Volunteer Council will not be financially compensated for
their activity. On approval by the Board of Trustees expenses of the
Provisional Volunteer Council and Volunteer Council in the fulfillment of
their duties may be reimbursed.

The following people are hereby appointed as member of the Provisional
Volunteer Council:

### (12-20?) NAMES ###

The members of the Provisional Volunteer Council may on a 2/3 vote of all
its members add such additional members as they may deem necessary and
useful to their deliberations.