Jan-Bart: Spot on. It is always uplifting to see one of your measured
notes come over the wire.
Jan-Bart de Vreede <jan-bart(a)wikimedia.nl> writes:
The Foundation is supposed to be an example of good
Governance for our
entire movement. We (as a movement) have come a long way in the past 20
years (and that is important: as our organisation and budget grows, so do
our responsibilities and the critical questions we get from the world)
It is NOT good governance to have a current board member suddenly resign
and then create a situation where that person receives compensation for a
position that seems to have been created specifically for that board member
(or at least was not publicly posted?).
The impact of this increases as the movement grows, and clear communication
is at a premium. How can we use this moment to model the norms we want for
the future? Any *particular* moment can feel like a special exception when
you are close to it, but the WMF's actions set a standard, translated
across time and context, more instantly and effectively than words.
It is a good practice to create a 12 month waiting
period before board
members of non-profits can become a staff member/paid contractor/consultant.
A few people mentioned that their own orgs or committees have norms or
policies around this (Chris, Philip, Tito); could you describe specifics
that are in place now around the movement?
SJ.