Greetings Wikimedians,
We hope you are excited about the upcoming WikiConference India 2023
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2023>. The COT is
working hard to ensure we bring together a conference that is truly
meaningful and impactful for our movement and one that brings us all
together.
As you may know, we have recently extended our deadline for the Program and
Scholarships submission- you can find all the details on our Meta Page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2023>.
As a part of our journey to WikiConference India, we are hosting an Open
Community Call on the *3rd of December, 2022(Tomorrow)*, and plan on
hosting regular calls to help answer any questions, concerns or
clarifications, around the conference and the Program/Scholarships.
Please add the following to your respective calendars and we look forward
to seeing you on the call
[WCI 2023] Open Community Call
Date: 3rd December 2022
Time: 1800-1900 (IST)
Google Link: https://meet.google.com/cwa-bgwi-ryx
Furthermore, we are pleased to share the email id of the conference
contact(a)wikiconferenceindia.org which is where you could share any
thoughts, inputs, suggestions, or questions and someone from the COT will
reach out to you. Alternatively, leave us a message on the Conference talk
page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WikiConference_India_2023>.
Look forward to connecting with you all,
Thank you!
On Behalf of,
WCI 2023 Core organizing team.
Hello all,
The 2021 Board of Trustees election[1] is coming soon. Candidates from the
community are needed to fill the available seats.
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia
Foundation's operations. Community trustees and appointed trustees make up
the Board of Trustees. Each trustee serves a three-year term. The Wikimedia
community has the opportunity to vote for community trustees.
Wikimedia contributors will vote to fill four seats on the Board in 2021.
This is an opportunity to improve the Board's representation, diversity,
and expertise as a team.
For potential candidates:
- *Traits:* Wikimedia is a global movement and seeks candidates from the
broader community. Candidates should think about what experiences and
perspectives they will bring to the Board. Ideal candidates align with the
Wikimedia mission and are thoughtful, respectful, and community-oriented.
The Board would like to find perspectives and voices that are
under-represented and essential for our movement. They should bring what
Wikimedia needs from a new Trustee.
- *Commitment: *Trustees serve a three-year term and can serve up to
three consecutive terms. The time commitment is about 150 hours per year,
excluding travel. This time is not evenly spread throughout the year. The
time is concentrated around meetings. The expectation is that Trustees
serve on at least one of the Board’s committees.
- *Requirements*[2]: English is the language of business for the Board.
Candidates need a basic understanding of English, but support and training
are part of onboarding. Candidate applications will be translated into
several languages to reach a broad audience of voters.
- *Apply*[3]: Candidates from all projects and communities who meet the
needs of Wikimedia Trustee are welcome. If you know someone who could be a
good trustee, encourage them to run for election. Candidates can find
information and submit their nomination on the Apply to be a Candidate page.
- *Resources*[4]: A toolkit has been developed for community members who
are considering submitting their candidacy for the Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees, and who want to better understand what to expect and how
to prepare for the role.
Thank you for your support,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2021/Apply_t…
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/Candidate_Re…
--
Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (he/him)
Board Governance Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation
Greetings,
Today, 28th February 2021 is the last date to receive creative works.
We are still waiting to witness your creative way to celebrate Wikipedia's
20th Birthday celebration, write a poem, sing a song, draw a painting,
click a photograph and more..
For more information, kindly have a look at the event page: *"Wikipedia
20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
We like to thank you for your immense contribution so far to our event
titled *"Wikipedia 20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
To know about already submitted creative work, kindly visit here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_20th_birthday>
Let's all be creative and celebrate Wikipedia20 birthday, *"the way I and
my family feels"*.
If you are interested to contribute please participate. Do feel free to
share the news and ask others to participate.
Namaste,
Rajeeb.
(U:Marajozkee)
Greetings,
Good news!! We have further extended the last date to receive creative
works.
The event is still on till 28th February 2021.
We are still waiting to witness your creative way to celebrate Wikipedia's
20th Birthday celebration, write a poem, sing a song, draw a painting,
click a photograph and more..
For more information, kindly have a look at the event page: *"Wikipedia
20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
We like to thank you for your immense contribution so far to our event
titled *"Wikipedia 20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
To know about already submitted creative work, kindly visit here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_20th_birthday>
Let's all be creative and celebrate Wikipedia20 birthday, *"the way I and
my family feels"*.
If you are interested to contribute please participate. Do feel free to
share the news and ask others to participate.
Namaste,
Rajeeb.
(U:Marajozkee)
Greetings,
Last few days left to receive creative works. We are still waiting to
witness your creative way to celebrate Wikipedia's 20th Birthday
celebration, write a poem, sing a song, draw a painting, click a photograph
and more..
For more information, kindly have a look at the event page: *"Wikipedia
20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
The event is still on till 14th February 2021.
We like to thank you for your immense contribution so far to our event
titled *"Wikipedia 20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
To know about already submitted creative work, kindly visit here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_20th_birthday>
Let's all be creative and celebrate Wikipedia20 birthday, *"the way I and
my family feels"*.
If you are interested to contribute please participate. Do feel free to
share the news and ask others to participate.
Namaste,
Rajeeb.
(U:Marajozkee)
*(long email incoming)*
Dear Bishnypriya Manipuri Wikimedians and language speakers,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is organizing a call for
feedback about community selection processes between February 1 and March
14. Below you will find the problem statement and various ideas from the
Board to address it. We are offering multiple channels for questions and
feedback. With the help of a team of community facilitators, we are
organizing multiple conversations with multiple groups in multiple
languages.
During this call for feedback we publish weekly reports and we draft the
final report that will be delivered to the Board. With the help of this
report, the Board will approve the next steps to organize the selection of
six community seats in the upcoming months. Three of these seats are due
for renewal and three are new, recently approved.
*Participate in this call for feedback and help us form a more diverse and
better performing Board of Trustees!*
*Problems:* While the Wikimedia Foundation and the movement have grown
about five times in the past ten years, the Board’s structure and processes
have remained basically the same. As the Board is designed today, we have a
problem of capacity, performance, and lack of representation of the
movement’s diversity. This problem was identified in the Board’s 2019
governance review, along with recommendations for how to address it.
To solve the problem of capacity, we have agreed to increase the Board size
to a maximum of 16 trustees (it was 10). Regarding performance and
diversity, we have approved criteria to evaluate new Board candidates. What
is missing is a process to promote community candidates that represent the
diversity of our movement and have the skills and experience to perform
well on the Board of a complex global organization.
Our current processes to select individual volunteer and affiliate seats
have some limitations. Direct elections tend to favor candidates from the
leading language communities, regardless of how relevant their skills and
experience might be in serving as a Board member, or contributing to the
ability of the Board to perform its specific responsibilities. It is also a
fact that the current processes have favored volunteers from North America
and Western Europe. Meanwhile, our movement has grown larger and more
complex, our technical and strategic needs have increased, and we have new
and more difficult policy challenges around the globe. As well, our
Movement Strategy recommendations urge us to increase our diversity and
promote perspectives from other regions and other social backgrounds.
In the upcoming months, we need to renew three community seats and appoint
three more community members in the new seats. What process can we all
design to promote and choose candidates that represent our movement and are
prepared with the experience, skills, and insight to perform as trustees?
*Ideas:* The Board has discussed several ideas to overcome the problems
mentioned above. Some of these ideas could be taken and combined, and some
discarded. Other ideas coming from the call for feedback could be
considered as well. The ideas are:
1. *Ranked voting system*. Complete the move to a single transferable
vote system, already used to appoint affiliate-selected seats, which is
designed to best capture voters’ preferences.
2. *Quotas*. Explore the possibility of introducing quotas to ensure
certain types of diversity in the Board (details about these quotas to be
discussed in this call for feedback).
3. *Call for types of skills and experiences*. When the Board makes a
new call for candidates, they would specify types of skills and experiences
especially sought.
4. *Vetting of candidates*. Potential candidates would be assessed using
the Trustee Evaluation Form and would be confirmed or not as eligible
candidates.
5. *Board-delegated selection committee*. The community would nominate
candidates that this committee would assess and rank using the Trustee
Evaluation Form. This committee would have community elected members and
Board appointed members.
6. *Community-elected selection committee*. The community would directly
elect the committee members. The committee would assess and rank candidates
using the Trustee Evaluation Form.
7. *Election of confirmed candidates.* The community would vote for
community nominated candidates that have been assessed and ranked using the
Trustee Evaluation Form. The Board would appoint the most voted candidates.
8. *Direct appointment of confirmed candidates*. After the selection
committee produces a ranked list of community nominated candidates, the
Board would appoint the top-ranked candidates directly.
*Call for feedback:* The call for feedback[1] runs from February 1 until
the end of March 14. We are looking for a broad representation of opinions.
We are interested in the reasoning and the feelings behind your opinions.
In a conversation like this one, details are important. We want to support
good conversations where everyone can share and learn from others. We want
to hear from those who understand Wikimedia governance well and are already
active in movement conversations. We also want to hear from people who do
not usually contribute to discussions. Especially those who are active in
their own roles, topics, languages or regions, but usually not in, say, a
call for feedback on Meta.
You can participate by joining the Telegram chat group[2], and giving
feedback on any of the talk pages on Meta-Wiki. We are welcoming the
organisation of conversations in any language and in any channel. If you
want us to organize a conversation or a meeting for your wiki project or
your affiliate, please write to me. I will also reach out to communities
and affiliates to soon have focused group discussions.
An office hour[3] is also happening tomorrow from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
(IST) to discuss this topic. Access link will be available 15 minutes
before the scheduled time. In case you are not able to make it, please
don't worry, there will be more discussions and meetings in the next few
weeks.
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
[2] https://t.me/wmboardgovernancechat
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…