On Sat, Nov 16, 2019 at 6:29 AM Paul J. Weiss <pjweiss(a)uw.edu> wrote:
I find the disbanding of the Community Engagement
department at WMF to be
quite concerning. I will go so far as to say that I view it as a mistake
that will have negative impacts well into the future.
Actually I think the opposite is just as likely to be true. I've been
thinking for a while that actually the best way for the WMF to be good at
working with "the community" (or, indeed, the many other communities that
we should be working with) is not necessarily for the WMF to have a
department called "community engagement". The other departments within WMF
should (and, in many cases, do) have many competencies, projects and areas
of focus that involve working with communities, and it looks like the aim
here is to make 'community engagement' more mainstream within the other
parts of the WMF.
You're right to point out that there are ways that this could go wrong, if
parts of CE end up being put in places where their new managers and wider
teams don't get it or don't prioritise that kind of work. However, it could
also go right, if those other teams/departments broaden in scope in
response to include more goals around working with the community. It all
depends how deeply embedded a culture of community engagement becomes
across the organization.
I did just want to ask about this, though:
Some people may be wondering, what does this mean for ... the planned
restructure of the
Community Engagement department to a new regional approach?
I'd not heard that this was happening, possibly because I'd not been paying
attention or because it's been discussed in other fora but not this one. If
this is still likely to happen in the new structure, can someone tell us
more?
Thanks!
Chris