[Wikimedia Announcements] Note from the Board Chair

[Ting Chen]

Dear friends,

Today, here in Gdansk,  at the meeting of the Board of Trustees during the sixth annual Wikimania Conference, the Board made some important changes. I'm pleased to share this news with you.  The Foundation will be issuing a public announcement shortly as well.

Every year at Wikimania, the Wikimedia Board appoints its officers for the coming year.  This year we have changes to each of the Officer roles. As of today's meeting, I was fortunate to be appointed Chair of the Board - and I'm grateful to have the support of the Board in this new role.. Stuart West was appointed Vice-chair (and continues as Board Treasurer), and Samuel Klein becomes Board Secretary.

Also, the Wikimedia chapters have made their selections for the two chapters-selected Board seats. Arne Klempert has been reappointed to his seat, and Phoebe Ayers has also been appointed to join the Board. 

This means that Michael Snow will be leaving the Board: he has been invited to join the Advisory Board, and the Board warmly thanks him for his service.

Michael Snow has been a tireless and dedicated leader of this Board, and the whole Wikimedia movement, over the past two years. I want to express my sincere thanks to him on behalf of the Board and all of the Wikimedia community.  I am also excited to congratulate and welcome Phoebe Ayers to the Board, and also to congratulate Arne Klempert for his re-appoitment to the Board in a Chapter-appointed seat.

There are 10 seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and according to the Foundation's bylaws, three members are elected by the Wikimedia community, two members are selected by the Wikimedia chapters, a Community Founder seat held by Jimmy Wales, and four members appointed by the Board itself to provide additional, specific expertise. Currently all seats on the Board of Trustees are filled.

This is the first time that the official Chapters selection process has been carried out. Members of Wikimedia's global chapters, made a call for nominations for new members and voted to elect their two members. In this year's election nine candidates from the Wikimedia community originally stepped forward. Two of those candidates stepped out of the process, leaving seven candidates for selection by the Chapters.

All of the officer appointments are effective immediately, and we are pleased to welcome Phoebe to the Board right away.

I'd like to thank the Chapters for their thoughtful work in convening a process and carrying out their voting process.  I would also like to thank all of the candidates who stepped forward for with their nominations.  

I'm looking forward to an incredible year ahead. We have an ambitious plan for the Foundation and the projects over the next year, and we have a tremendous group to tackle a busy year ahead.

Sincerely,
Ting


-- 
Ting Chen
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
E-Mail: tchen at wikimedia.org