On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Michael Snow wikipedia@verizon.net wrote:
phoebe ayers wrote:
Dear Foundation-istas,
It looks like sometime this summer the composition of the Advisory Board changed, with several of the original members becoming former members: http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Advisory_Board&diff=396...
I don't remember an announcement about this. Did I miss it? Is this an annual sort of advisory board restructuring, or something else? Was it discussed somewhere? It's helpful to know who the advisory board members are, and I didn't think they had any specific 'terms of office' -- do they?
Actually, the resolution creating the advisory board (back in 2006) had them being appointed for one year. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Advisory_board By the time we reviewed the situation, the initial term of service had long passed. In the meantime, a few more members had been added, and we recently invited many of the original advisory board to renew their membership, so that's what the change reflects. It's possible that we didn't get a public announcement out; our first priority was contacting the advisory board individually, and we also still have some points to wrap up at the board level as we try to establish a better overall procedure for appointing them and making use of their advice.
Michael & Angela -- thanks for the information & quick replies. I'd forgotten that terms were only supposed to be a year... it would be great to have more public information about the composition/role/appointments of the advisory board (e.g., what are we looking for in advisors?), when those Board discussions do get wrapped up. Since strategic planning is also now actively looking for expert advisors, it seems like this may overlap with and complement the role of the advisory board, at least in the short term.
-- phoebe