Dear all,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met for their final meeting of
2022 on December 7. Two members of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee
(MCDC) – Érica Azzellini and Manavpreet Kaur – were invited to join the
meeting as Board Visitors
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Board_visitors>.
== Board Business ==
Quite a bit of regularly scheduled Board business was covered, including:
-
Appointing Mike Peel [1] to the Board and reappointing Shani Evenstein
Sigalov to her second term [2]. Their terms will run from December 7, 2022
until December 31, 2025. You can read more about Mike and Shani here on
Diff [3].
-
Most of the work of the Board is done via its committees. Each year each
Trustee’s committee assignments are approved to serve on individual Board
committees, either as full members or as alternates. The new membership is
listed here [4].
-
The Board also approved the September 8 Board meeting minutes [5].
== Governance Reforms ==
During the meeting, the Board also approved changes to the Affiliations
Committee Charter [6]. Also, the Community Affairs Committee (CAC) is to
oversee the Affiliations Committee on behalf of the board from now on, and
will be responsible for any future revision of the Affiliations Committee
Charter, and for appointing Board Liaisons. CAC will likewise be providing
oversight to the Language Committee [7]. These changes will help CAC to
work more directly with the advising Board committees, to assess and
provide support, and to make changes quicker if needed.
== 2022 Board Selection Review ==
The Board also received an update from the Governance Committee on their
recent meeting with the Elections Committee in November. The past selection
process was challenging because of the lack of clarity on the roles of all
the bodies involved. The Board acknowledges that the process became
overcomplicated, and changes mid-process added more confusion and
frustration. For the next Board selection process, there would be more
clearly defined roles for the Elections Committee, the Governance Committee
/ Board Selection Task Force, and Foundation staff, to avoid slowdowns and
lack of clarity on process. These updated roles and responsibilities will
be made public to help voters and candidates understand how decisions are
being made. The Board agreed with the recommendation from the Governance
Committee to seat Trustees in 2024 at the December board meeting, so that
there is enough time to plan the next selection process, and make all
necessary changes to the SecurePoll software etc.
== Foundation Updates ==
During the meeting the Board also received a report from staff on the
current financial outlook as well as an update on year-end fundraising
revenue: the first week
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising/2022_banners#First_week…>of
the revised banner campaign on the English Wikipedia shows a roughly 50%
decline in donations. As this was information for only one week, the Board
needs more data to understand the implications, and will therefore be
meeting again with staff in January to discuss next steps.
After the Board meeting there was an open Q&A session with Foundation
staff, to discuss the meeting outcomes, and the fundraising data.
== 2023 Meeting Dates ==
The regular 2023 Board meeting dates have been set and the Board will be
meeting:
-
March 9-12, New York, USA
-
June 21 (Virtual)
-
August (Wikimania, Singapore, the exact date(s) TBD)
-
December 6 (Virtual)
== Open Conversation with Trustees on December 15 ==
I hope to see you at the upcoming CAC Open Conversation with Trustees
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…>,
happening December 15, at 12:00 UTC, on Zoom (write to ask.cac(a)wikimedia.org
if you would like to register). As usual, the call will be recorded, and
there will be a live YouTube stream. This call will have interpretation
into Arabic. As communicated before, the aim is to provide interpretation
for any language where there are five or more interested community members,
but as mentioned on the page, the requests should have been made at least 5
days before the event.
[1]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Appointing_Mike_Peel_to_th…
[2]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Shani_Evenstein_S…
[3]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/12/12/the-wikimedia-foundation-welcomes-two…
[4]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Committee_Membership,_2022
[5]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Review,_Ratification,_and_…
[6]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Updating_Affiliations_Comm…
[7]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Updating_Language_Committe…
Best regards,
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working
hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
advance!*
Hi all,
I'm writing to highlight that Wikimedia Ukraine's annual activity report
for 2021 has been publicly available on Meta [1].
In 2021, we continued to execute our multi-year strategy [2], which
includes five directions – enriching content of Wikipedia and its sister
projects, increasing participation in the Wikimedia projects, supporting
and helping develop the existing community, increasing public awareness
about Wikimedia, and advocating for policy changes needed to advance free
knowledge (notably freedom of panorama in Ukraine).
Some of the highlights in 2021 include supporting the Wiki Loves Earth
photo competition on the international scale; holding a big Wiki Loves
Monuments in Ukraine contest; organizing multiple campaigns to bridge
gender gap on Ukrainian-language Wikipedia and Wikiquote; publishing a
handbook on Wikipedia for teachers as part of our Wikipedia in Education
program; holding a hybrid all-Ukrainian Wikiconference; working with news
media publishers & supporting multiple social media channels to spread
awareness of Wikipedia and WMUA's projects.
If you are interested in reading about some of the case studies in greater
detail, we published articles on Diff about our experience organizing the
WikiGap 2021 campaign in Ukraine [3], as well as providing scholarships for
online conferences [4].
All of that happened before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine,
which started in February of 2022. Despite Russia continuing to wage its
war against Ukraine, Wikimedia Ukraine has kept operating in 2022 – both
assisting community members in need and supporting previously planned
projects like Wiki Loves Earth internationally, Wiki Loves Monuments in
Ukraine, and much more.
We will share a detailed report on our 2022 activity in early 2023, but in
the meantime you can review slides from our presentations on the Ukrainian
community during the war [5] and Wikimedia Ukraine's approach to planning
our future activities [6], as well as read some of the personal stories of
volunteers affected by Russia's invasion [7].
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia_Ukrain…
[2] https://ua.wikimedia.org/?curid=7089
[3]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/05/20/wikigap-2021-in-ukraine-results-and-i…
[4]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/03/21/what-wikimedia-ukraine-learned-by-pro…
[5] https://bit.ly/3FpHAT7
[6] https://w.wiki/677V
[7]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine/Stories_of…
Best Regards
Anton Protsiuk
Programs Coordinator at Wikimedia Ukraine
Dear All,
Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia
Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year
term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in
November 2021 [1].
Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft,
a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and
technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large
technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like
Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the
USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across
Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately
involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin
American-based startups.
Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development,
software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering
teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the
Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as
data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved
in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in
that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials
manage and automate their finances.
His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting
diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment
efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors.
Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their
Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to
place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his
involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine,
Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.
Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of
Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of
Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a
proud father and dog lover.
I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz
Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our
Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or
shared their experiences.
You can find an official announcement here [2].
PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on
Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janu…
[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021:
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%…
[2]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedi…
Best regards,
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working
hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
advance!*
Hello everyone,
I would like to invite everyone for this year's last Open Conversation with
Trustees
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…>,
which will take place on December 15th. As promised, we are alternating the
timing of these meetings and this one will be at 12:00 UTC (find your local
time <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1671105652>).
As usual, the call will be hosted by the Board of Trustees' Community
Affairs Committee (CAC), though this meeting is planned to be a bit
different -- more low-key and probably with less topics discussed. The final
agenda will be posted on Meta and shared here closer to the event. We will
be keeping the 90 minutes call duration, and will include both updates from
the Board and an open discussion with your questions.
The call will be held on Zoom with a live YouTube stream
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7lr8jNr1Es>. We’d love to be able to talk
with you directly, so we encourage you to join us live on Zoom if you
can! *Request
the Zoom* link by emailing askcac(a)wikimedia.org. You can also request to
join a mailing list that receives the link automagically whenever we host a
meeting, by emailing us.
You can also email askcac(a)wikimedia.org to *request language interpretation
up to 5 days before the meeting*. We will aim to provide interpretation for
any language where there are five or more interested community members.
Finally, you are welcome to *pre-submit questions* for the Board via the
same email, askcac(a)wikimedia.org. Knowing in advance what is on your mind
will help us give you more informed answers during the call. So for now, save
the date and sign up!.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing as many of you there,
Shani, on behalf of the CAC.
Shani Evenstein Sigalov
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/shani-evenstein-sigalov/>
Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Chair, Community Affairs Committee
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear all,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board has appointed the two
community-and-affiliate-selected trustees, so please join me in welcoming
Mike Peel to the Board of Trustees [1]. I would also like to congratulate
Shani Evenstein Sigalov on her re-appointment to the Board [2]. Their terms
will run from December 7, 2022 to December 31, 2025. You can read more
about them on Diff here [3].
Mike’s first committee assignments will be: member of the Community Affairs
Committee (CAC), alternate to the Audit and Product & Technology Committees
[4]. Shani remains Vice-Chair of the Board, Chair of the CAC, member of the
Governance and Product & Technology Committees [4]. She is also a Board
liaison to the Affiliations Committee and the Movement Charter Drafting
Committee.
Also I would like to thank all who took part in the most recent selection
process – be it as a voter or as a volunteer or staff member supporting the
process. And of course a very special thank you to candidates, who put
their names forward [5].
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Appointing_Mike_Peel_to_th…
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Shani_Evenstein_S…
[3]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/12/12/the-wikimedia-foundation-welcomes-two…
[4]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Committee_Membership,_2022
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_202…
Best regards,
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working
hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
advance!*
Hello Everyone,
We are excited to share that we will be running the 2023 edition of the
WikiForHumanRights campaign between April - June and will be having our
first office hour on 16 January 2023 at 16:00 UTC (Zoom Registration
<https://wikimedia.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RUg8nCsUR2arzMipy-Cl0Q>). We
encourage you to join the coordination channel on telegram
<https://t.me/+tiAL4ru2TeAxZTFh> for access to regular updates on the
campaign. If your community will require funds to run community activities,
we recommend that you apply for the upcoming January - March Rapid Grant
cycle and let us know of your grant application at campaigns(a)wikimedia.org.
We are taking a regional coordination approach in next year's campaign and
are looking for volunteer organizers to help coordinate community
activities in CEE, ESEAP, South Asia and Francophone Africa. If you are
interested in helping coordinate, please reach out to our 2023 Senior
Organizing Fellow, Euphemia Uwandu at euwandu-ctr(a)wikimedia.org or
campaigns(a)wikimedia.org before January 10.
Please refer to this diff post
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/12/09/renewing-wikiforhumanrights-in-2023-a…>for
more information on how we are thinking about the 2023 edition of the
campaign. We will be updating the meta page by Early January with more
information about the upcoming campaign
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights>.
Kind Regards,
Euphemia
Hello colleagues and Wikimedians, we are glad to share with you a
significant amount of work Yoruba Wikimedians User Group has done to
recruit native speakers for Yoruba Wikipedia and a number of pragmatic
approaches we have engaged in that could serve as a model for other small
language communities.
These efforts were mentioned and twitted by Wikimedia Foundation as well.
https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1601682920552513537?t=ipDI_W9PYVTxxBHj…
Here is one of the Yoruba Wikimediams User Group projects implemented to
recruits new editors for Yoruba Wikipedia below.
https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mr_Macaroni_Skit_for_Yoruba_Wikipedia.
Best regards,
Mikaeel Sodiq Adesina
President: Yoruba Wikimedians UG