We're in the middle of our board meeting and a great discussion about
the strategy development process, but I wanted to share some news with
you about the Board of Trustees itself. We welcomed Sam Klein (better
known as Sj) as a new community-elected board member, with many thanks
to Domas for his service. In addition, we're grateful to the candidates
who participated in the election, everyone who voted, and the election
committee for facilitating the process.
We also appointed someone to one of the vacant expertise seats appointed
by the board. His name is Matt Halprin, and in brief, Matt is with the
Omidyar Network and a former eBay executive who was in charge of trust
and safety there. Matt has met with a number of us over the past several
months, and I invited him to join us in Buenos Aires and meet the entire
board. The Omidyar Network is very interested in supporting our strategy
development discussions, and I look forward to having Matt's experience
and insight as we continue with the process. Matt's initial appointment
is for a term until December 31, at which time it will be reviewed like
the other appointed seats.
Jay will be putting out press releases and a Q&A with some more details
about all of this. We still have one more vacant seat we hope to fill in
time, and we have a search consultant who is working with the Nominating
Committee to identify and recommend candidates for that position. The
Nominating Committee also continues to have the role of reviewing
appointed board members for renewal.
Finally, as we normally do at Wikimania, we chose board officers for the
coming year. I will be continuing as chair, with Jan-Bart as vice chair
and Stu as treasurer. Since Domas, who was our executive secretary, is
leaving us, Kat was chosen for that role. I'm excited about working with
them and the rest of the board over the coming year.
--Michael Snow