Hi Christophe,
You wrote, "This delegates authority, not responsability." Perhaps you could explain the distinction. It seems to me that the two go hand in hand.
Speaking generally, it sounds to me like the Board has good intentions here, but there is a lot of room for error and misunderstandings with this policy, especially given the broad scope of the resolution that MZMcBride mentioned at the beginning of this thread. I would be more comfortable if the delegation resolution was amended to provide greater clarity on what exactly the Board intends to delegate, and the procedure for involving the Board in consultations with the ED when the ED is proposing changes that the Board does not wish to review as extensively as it otherwise would.
Stepping back a little, I am wondering if the underlying problem is that the Board is finding itself overworked, especially keeping in mind that Board members are not compensated for their time on the WMF Board (though they do get some limited perks). If overwork is the problem, I would suggest that there are other ways to address that problem that are less risky.
Pine
On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 12:22 AM, Christophe Henner chenner@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hey,
Sorry, with everything I forgot to answer this thread. So I'll provide a general answer if I may. As I've shared back in June, for this year, some of my goals include building a strong working relationship between the Board and the Executive Director, and helping the Board focus on the most important issues in front of them, like movement strategy. Minor changes to policy do not require the Board's consideration or approval, and so this resolution delegates a certain amount of authority to the Executive Director. This delegates authority, not responsability.
In 2004, the Board of Trustees made a decision that certain "global policies" should be approved by the Board. At the time, the Board did not go into significant detail about what kind of policies they want to approve, or what that approval process should look like. This left some ambiguity around when the Board needs to be involved in policy changes. Since that time, the Wikimedia Foundation Board and staff have also changed and grown significantly. The Board is ultimately responsible for governance and leadership for the Wikimedia Foundation, so we have to be judicious about where we focus.
Under this new resolution, we are explaining that the Executive Director has authority to set and change policies for the organization and its work, without requiring prior Board approval in most circumstances. The baseline is that the Executive Director has authority over policies, unless the Board asks otherwise. In some cases (like any changes to the Conflict of Interest policy), it's considered good governance for the Board to be responsible for these policies. Decisions to change these policies will remain with the Board. Other policies (like the internal staff policies) will be maintained by staff. For policies on the Wikimedia Projects, we may still review and approve them where appropriate. This will be something the Board works closely with the Executive Director to determine as part of the organization's regular work.
A few other questions have come up in this thread, and I hope it's helpful to clarify:
# Who is accountable for policy changes now? The Board has delegated some of its authority to set policies, but it will still remain just as responsible as if it were making the decisions itself. The Foundation and the Board remains accountable, just as they were before.
# How should we be transparent about policy changes? We keep track of the Foundation's policies on the Foundation Wiki [1], and staff will continue to maintain pages similar to this. Major cross-project policies, like the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, will still be updated following an open consultation with notice to the community. Minor changes, however, will not need to be ratified by the Board.
# Does this affect the community policy process on projects? This resolution does not change anything for community policies. Policies that were previously written and enforced by the Wikimedia communities will remain that way. The policies that have traditionally undergone community consultations will also continue to do so, for example, as we have made a commitment to provide advance notice in Section 16 of the Terms of Use.
I hope I answered most of the questions, if there's more happy to answer them.
Oh and if I'm not answering after a few days, please feel free to ping me :)
Have all a good day,
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Policies
Christophe HENNER Chair of the board of trustees chenner@wikimedia.org +33650664739 <+33%206%2050%2066%2047%2039>
twitter *@schiste* skype *christophe_henner*
On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 5:15 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Christophe,
Would you provide us an update on this topic, please?
Pine
On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 2:23 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Christophe,
Now that the end-of-Western-year holidays are behind us, I'm bumping
this
thread in the hope that you'll respond to the points that I made in my email from December 23rd.
Thanks,
Pine
On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 9:31 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Christophe,
Thank you for responding to my questions.
First, the resolution and its context. "Supervising" the ED is
indeed a
board duty, but this supervision must not become micro-management.
That
resolution provides staff the liberty to do their work more
efficiently.
It doesn't remove our duty of oversight.
I feel like you think delegating negates ones ability to provide supervision, I would tend to think otherwise as delegating free time
and
energy to focus on the core roles of a board.
Perhaps you could explain further how a resolution which says:
*"*Resolved, the Board hereby delegates the authority to adopt, alter, and revoke policies to the Executive Director, who may further delegate
such
authority to Wikimedia Foundation staff as they deem appropriate;
"Resolved, the Board may continue to review and approve policies for
the
Wikimedia Foundation upon request to the Executive Director or as required by
law."
amounts to removing micro-management. To me this looks like a sweeping delegation of authority. Under this resolution, policy changes that
the
ED and/or his or her delegates make are not subject to advance review by
the
Board, the Legal Department, the community, or anyone else. This seems highly inadvisable, and I feel that this opens up WMF to legal and reputational risks that are of far greater concern than the value of sparing a few minutes of the Boards' time at meetings to review supposedly minor changes to policies.
I would expect the Executive Director to have the authority to execute plans and manage his/her staff as permitted by the policies and resolutions adopted by the Board and as allowed by law, and to create and modify
managerial
policies for staff (for example, salary schedules and hiring
procedures)
that are compatible with the Board's policies and resolutions and with the law. I wouldn't expect the Executive Director to have the authority to unilaterally change policies that were adopted by the Board, nor to have the
authority
to further delegate the authority to change policies that were adopted by the Board.
Second, the requirements to answer the community. I'm sorry, here I answered quite spontaneously, you are right nothing forces us to.
But, as I've said in my candidacy and in public some time I believe
we
have, as WMF board, a leadership duty. And I also believe you lead by example. I've always believed, in the movement, we are all partners.
We
need each other to push forward our mission. You treat partners the
way
yourself want to be treated by them. That is why I believe it is important to communicate. It doesn't mean we have to see eye to eye on
everything
but that when a question rise we should answer as much as we can. That's something I've said to nearly everyone who reached out to me in the
past
few month privately, my answer perhaps won't be the one you want, but
at
least there will be an answer and an explanation every time I can.
Like
right now actually :D
Thanks for your efforts to communicate and cooperate. You and Natalia have been helpful in improving communications between the community and the Board in 2016. (I agree with Rob that Dariusz was admirably responsive and civil in public in 2015 in difficult circumstances, while others
weren't.)
I would like to see further developments in this area, such as developments that prevent the community from being surprised by Board resolutions
such
as the one that we are discussing here.
Also, I would like to see consideration of changing WMF to a
membership
organization as a part of the upcoming strategy process.
Finally, regarding board governance review, Natalia, as chair of the
BGC,
published minutes of our meetings[1], and that is a key topic we
address
and not push aside. That being said it will be a board review, not
one
on
that specific event. We will be able to provide more information on
that
topic soon I think :)
Thanks, this looks like a promising start.
Doing the governance review in parallel with the strategy process,
while
continuing with regular annual work such as the Annual Plan process, might be a heavy lift for the Board and Katherine, so I encourage
careful
thinking about the timing of this review. My hunch is that it would be good to start and complete this review within 6 months, with the hope that
the
results could then be fed into the strategy process which will be continuing for awhile after that. Perhaps you, Katherine, Natalia or others may
be
able to shed some light on the capacity issue here, as well as the thoughts about the scope, timing, and cost of the governance review.
In the governance review, I would like to see a particular focus on
(1)
a thorough review of the facts of Board members' actions in 2015, (2) an analysis of what can be learned from the facts of 2015, and (3) how WMF governance might become more aligned with and responsive to the community, such as by changing WMF to a membership organization.
I hope I answered your questions.
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ Board_Governance_Committee
Thank you for your interest in trying to align WMF with the community. I appreciate the improvements in Board communications in 2016, and I
look
forward to further developments in communications and governance. I also look forward to hearing your responses to the community's
comments
that have been made in this thread.
I realize that you may be offline this weekend, and I would prefer a thoughtful response to an immediate one, so I hope to hear back from you sometime within the next several days, perhaps after you have had an
opportunity
to
consult with others as you consider how to respond.
Have a nice weekend, and Merry Christmas,
Pine
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