The communications failure and lack of any public consultation before
throwing away the community driven bidding process, was a very good
moment to appoint a new Chair of the Wikimania Committee. The
suggestion at the time was ignored.[1] How can the community force
real changes, if the Committee is in apparent PR lock-down? From my
understanding of the history of this committee, it is long overdue to
appoint a Chair who is not reliant on keeping the WMF executive happy
for their salary.

By the way, 220 Wikimedians took part in the vote that asked for a WMF
trustee to be removed (admittedly, a vote that did not result in the
WMF board changing its mind in any way about their absolute confidence
in their appointment). We probably should expect that level of
participation before announcing that is a significant consensus to
make major changes to something as fundamental to the global community
of Wikimedians as Wikimania.

P.S. The Wikimania Committee appears to have failed to publish minutes
or draft notes of its deliberations since last summer, unless they
have published them somewhere other than Meta.[2] When the Wikimania
Committee looks more secretive than the WMF board of trustees, the
community should be questioning their commitment to openness and
transparency.

Links:
1. https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2015-October/079274.html
- "...starting a public process to ensure some new faces in the next
few months, including a change of the Chairman. This would show the
Committee recognizes this was a real serious failure which should see
proportionate changes of roles on the Committee. If everything stays
exactly the same for the next six months, then this would show the
Committee is more interested in protecting itself, than ensuring
that the unpaid volunteer and community consensus is central to the
way this process *should* be seen to work, and in line with the
original mandate for the Committee itself."
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Committee

Fae

On 9 February 2016 at 17:04, Gnangarra <gnangarra@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On behalf of the Wikimania Committee, I would like to thank everyone who
>
> took part and the Community Resources team for organising this discussion.
>
> The Committee will consider these recommendations and will then come back
>
>> with some changes to our processes.
>>
>
> Ellie started the discussion just 18 hours ago, and now your closing it
>  yet it hasnt even had time for the earth to make one complete rotation, if
> you seriously want opinions at least give it one 24 hour cycle better 7-14
> of them as ideas and thoughts take time to be developed...
>
> All you achieved is proving that Wikimania Committee  isnt interested in
> the community
>
>
>>
>>
>>
> On 10 February 2016 at 00:19, James Forrester <jdforrester@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 8 Feb 2016 at 14:54 Ellie Young <eyoung@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>> > The Community Resources team at the WMF recently held a consultation
>> > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania>
>> > on articulating the value of Wikimedia movement conferences overall, the
>> > unique value of Wikimania, and what new form Wikimania could take to
>> better
>> > serve the movement going forward.  We have completed analysis of these
>> > results and have prepared this report:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania/Outcomes
>> >
>> > I will be working with the community, organizers, committees, and WMF in
>> > 2017 to begin set up and planning for an experimental model for Wikimedia
>> > movement conferences, including Wikimania, starting in 2018.
>> >
>> > Feedback and comments are welcome at the discussion page
>> > <
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania/Outcomes
>> >
>> > Thanks to all who participated!
>> >
>>
>> On behalf of the Wikimania Committee, I would like to thank everyone who
>> took part and the Community Resources team for organising this discussion.
>>
>> The Committee will consider these recommendations and will then come back
>> with some changes to our processes.
>>
>> Yours,
> --
> GN.
> President Wikimedia Australia
> WMAU: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra
--
faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae