Hello Pine,

I am happy to speak with you specifically about turn-around time, so that we get your question resolved quickly and find solutions that may improve the process for others.

Overall, we try to be quite responsive. In cases that do take time, it is likely because there are unusual circumstances that require background work or internal and community coordination, and we may need to triage and prioritize appropriately given our resources and other factors. I am not sure that a 14-day turn around timeline makes sense for all cases. In legal, we handle a range of other portfolios with a high level of complexity, so this would result in some variance. Sometimes our responses may take longer than we like, but I think our turn around time is often much shorter than 14 days for most standard questions. Movement role questions often require time for coordination with various stakeholders internally and externally, and that may add to the response time as well. 

As I say, please feel free to email me, and we will try to expedite a response to your specific question.

Best,
Stephen

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 9:15 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Geoff,

In light of the above discussion about quarterly reviews on Wikimedia-l,
can we find a set of quarterly goals for Legal somewhere?

In particular I personally feel that the following would be helpful as
goals for Legal this quarter:

* Establishing timeline commitments for Affcom to respond to requests for
approvals or for Affcom to ask new questions about a requested approval.
Having approval requests stay open for weeks with no communication from
Affcom creates challenges for thematic orgs which are working on our own
timelines that may have dependencies on Affcom action. I have experienced
this myself and have heard about similar issues happening with other
requests. I suggest that Affcom have a commitment that all inquiries will
recieve substantive responses within 14 days of the date of the inquiry, or
otherwise Legal will take over the handling of the inquiry so that progress
of thorgs can continue in a timely manner.

* Similarly, establishing timeline commitments for Legal to respond to
community and thematic org inquiries. I have experiened lengthy  delays on
more than one occasion about what I feel are simple questions. I feel that
a commitment that Legal will respond substantively to inquiries within 14
days would be helpful, and would appreciated by the community and thematic
orgs.

Thanks very much.

Regards,

Pine
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--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation

NOTICE:  As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer.