Pine -
I am hardly the best informed person, but even I know that Communications handles the Blog, the twitter feed, the Facebook feed, provides support to the Board, executive and C-levels for communication, and handles thousands of media requests a year. In other words, you're missing about 90% of your workload in your description. They also assist other departments with communication, both internal and external.
Your point #1, with respect to improving internal communication, is primarily handled by other departments within the WMF (Learning, Human Resources), with Communications as a resource rather than the primary messager. Your point #2 is pretty much irrelevant; some of the best communications leaders work for political campaigns, and they're usually "hired guns" rather than true believers. There are a few exceptions, but again, it's irrelevant, and not ethical to screen directly for political affiliation - and possibly illegal to do so.
Risker/Anne
On 27 May 2017 at 23:53, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Joady,
Thank you for publishing this. Overall I like this draft. I would like to offer two comments.
- My impression is that WMF Communications is largely used to support
fundraising, readership, and sometimes legal or advocacy topics. The department seems to be externally focused. I would like to see work by WMF Communications and/or WMF Community Engagement on developing a systematic "internal" communications system among content contributors and WMF departments. There are currently many internal communications flows, and while I think that there have been some noticeable improvements over the past few years (I particularly want to acknowledge the WMF Community Liaisons), there is a long way to go in systematizing and optimizing these communications flows. So instead of looking for a chief communications officer whose main strength is in marketing, sales, PR, or other forms of external communication, I would encourage WMF to seek a chief communications officer who has a track record of facilitating long-term improvement of internal communications in complex and diverse environments.
- For the line in the JD draft which currently reads "A clear, effective
communications style, including experience guiding messaging for major organizations, political candidates, or movements", I would encourage considerable caution about hiring someone into this role who has had a background in political campaigns. I would prefer that the individual have no affiliation with any political party. I can think of some organizations which are not aligned with a specific political party and which support civil rights issues which are likely to be largely compatible with WMF's mission, but I would still be very cautious about hiring someone who has any background in politics. Keeping in mind WMF's recent and controversial annual report, I think it is particularly important to hire a chief communications officer who can guide communications and the WMF organization away from involvement in political matters to the maximum extent possible while still supporting freedom of expression in the limited circumstances in which constraints on freedom of expression would impede Wikimedians' ability to communicate freely about matters of important public interest.
Thank you,
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