Hello
Following a conversation started on another mailing list on the meaning
of "fellowship", I am forwarding here a question that I hope will be
answered by someone (I can not help being curious :)).
My original question was
"I have also been wondering myself what the difference is between a
fellow and a staff member. The only difference I could personally figure
out is that the fellow is there for a very specific mission and for a
fixed amount of time, whilst the staff person may have his role and
tasks change over time and is supposingly on unlimited time (until he
leaves or get fired). Am I correct in my interpretation or is a fellow
something different than what I think it is ?"
I got the following answers
"From a communications perspective I have no problem defining what a
fellow is, and what they're doing. They are receiving compensation from
the Foundation to really focus on the work that they do, but I don't
believe would we call them 'staff' of the Foundation, nor contractors.
Creative Commons has fellows as well, but I've generally seen them
communicating and carrying out work within their research or area of
activity focus:
https://creativecommons.org/fellows
I do believe in either case a fellow does work on a specific project or
initiative for a set period of time."
as well as
"See also
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships#What_a_Fellow_is... (and
the following section, "What a Fellow is not...") "
and
"In other contexts, one of the important reasons why a fellow might not
be considered "staff" of the organization providing the fellowship is
because they would remain on the staff of whatever organization they
were affiliated with originally. Somebody at a university who receives a
fellowship to pursue research while on sabbatical is still primarily
seen as part of the university. (Not that Wikimedia fellowships are
designed for purely academic research, but the principle about
affiliation applies nevertheless.)"
Which answers partly to my question indeed.
I would be interesting to have not only a communication/management
perspective, but also an administrative & legal one.
Does the fellowship status implies that the WMF pays for health or
retirement benefits (as it would for a staff member) or does the fellow
receive a lump sum and manages by himself to pay for taxes and benefits
depending on the country he lives in (as would a contractor) ?
Does the fellowship status implies that, should the fellow get in
trouble, he would be considered "staff" (in terms of liability) or is he
on his own ? (which in my terms would be "if as staff", he is covered by
WMF insurrance versus "if as contractor", he has to pay insurrance by
himself).
Anybody knows ?
Florence