Hi Maggie,
Thank you for getting back to me. I would have been understanding if the response came
next week, so thanks for the quickness.
I have some additional thoughts to which I hope that you can reply next week.
1. It sounds like WMF intends to centralize the training and leadership development work
that in recent years has largely been done by affiliates and grantees, meaning that
affiliates should probably expect budget cuts, and individual grants that have been used
for outreach work would also probably be reduced as WMF moves to take over this type of
work. Is that the plan, and if so, why? It seems to me that the wikiverse is well served
by having wide diversity in training initiatives that are customized to individual
languages and projects. I do not know what would be gained by centralizing these
functions. I could understand WMF supporting research about effective practices, and
supporting peer-to-peer communications among community members and affiliates regarding
effective practices, but moving toward centralizing training and leadership development
seems like it would do more harm than good.
2. In addition to the practical considerations that I mention above, for political and
wikilegal reasons I am concerned about the idea of WMF centralizing community development
work under itself. I am generally opposed to the idea that WMF should directly train
community members, particularly on leadership subjects. I am aware that WMF provides
financial support for training that affiliates and grantees do, and given the scarcity of
non-WMF funding sources for this type of work I see little choice but to accept WMF
financial support for this work. However, given the differences in culture, values,
priorities, motivations, and ways of working between the WMF and the community, and
WMF's previous demonstrations of its willingness to grab power from the community, I
believe that WMF increasing the centralization of community development work under itself
is inappropriate and unwise.
Pine
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
-------- Original message --------From: Maggie Dennis <mdennis(a)wikimedia.org> Date:
7/13/18 2:04 PM (GMT-08:00) To: Wikimedia Mailing List
<wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Concerns about
WMF's "Manager of Community
Development" job posting
Hi, Pine.
Sorry for my brevity. It's rather late on Friday, and I'd like to give you
a response. This position is output 1.2 of the CE "Strategy" program
discussed on Meta in Community Engagement's plan here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Engagement/Annual_Plan_2018-2019#Program_Name:_Strategy>.
This role consolidates some of the work that is currently distributed in
Community Resources and some that is currently being done in Learning &
Evaluation and also plays a part in the Movement Organizers program. The
full scope of what this team is and what they do will be determined in
conjunction with phase 2 of strategy and subsequent Foundation plans. The
role is designated as "Manager" as they will have staff for whom they are
responsible, just as other manager positions in the Foundation do.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 4:31 PM Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello WMF folks,
I have some concerns about this job posting:
https://boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/1239209
In some ways I appreciate that WMF wants to invest more money and time in
identifying and developing potential volunteer leaders. However, I also
have some concerns.
* This role appears to have multiple redundancies with efforts that are
already being done, or are planned to be done, in areas of WMF such as
GLAM, Community Resources, and Audiences, plus activities that are
undertaken by affiliates and grantees, so I wonder whether this position is
adding unnecessary overhead expense and/or attempting to take over work
that is already being done by community members. Can you clarify what value
this position is adding, and whether WMF intends to take over scopes of
work that are currently generally done by affiliates and grantees?
* Was this position described in the 2018-2019 WMF Annual Plan? I was not
able to find this position, or a scope of work that seemed to fit this
position, in the Community Engagement Annual Plan. I was able to find a
statement that talked about researching the needs of community organizers
(which I think is a good idea!), but this position seems to have multiple
objectives that are outside of that scope of work. Where is this specific
position, or its specific scope of work, articulated in the Annual Plan for
Community Engagement?
* I have a more general concern. The idea of WMF placing itself in the
position of managing community development is problematic. I generally
would not want community organizers to learn directly from WMF how the
Wikimedia community works and/or give new aspiring community leaders the
idea that they should look to WMF for guidance. WMF's purpose is to serve
the community, not to manage it, and generally WMF's idea of managing the
community seems to go something like this: "We will decide what choices you
get to make" (such as with Superprotect) and "We will decide what to fund
and how the trademarks are used" (given WMF's centralization of funding and
its legal monopoly on Wikimedia trademarks). If this position will be
funded then I think that "Community Development Support Specialist" would
be a much better title, and could be aligned with a scope of work that is
more supportive of community goals and respectful of community autonomy.
Thank you for listening to my concerns. I look forward to reading your
response.
Pine(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
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Interim Chief of Community Engagement
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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