[Foundation-l] Report to the Board August 2008

[Michael Snow]

Mike.lifeguard wrote:
> I recall that in the interview Sue gave with the Wikipedia Weekly at
> Wikimania, she mentioned that the Foundation staff and Board haven't
> used the advisory council in a systematic way, and that strategies to do
> so should be sought. Has any thought been put into how we can better use
> that expertise, or if rethinking the advisory council is necessary?
> Looking at the wiki, we have a good team of people, but they're only
> useful if we tap that resource, instead of simply having blurbs on
> advisory.wikimedia.org.
>
> I don't know whether this should be addressed in the context of the
> Wikimania postmortem or not, I was simply reminded as that's where the
> interview was given.
>   
The advisory board was one of the major topics of discussion at our 
board meeting. It hasn't been used systematically partly because it 
wasn't organized systematically, being more a collection of people with 
some public profile who would be sympathetic to our objectives. The 
board and staff have benefited from the help of a number of individuals 
on the advisory board, however, and hope to strengthen that by a 
selection process designed for that purpose.

--Michael Snow