Hello,
I hope that we can be candid about problems without becoming deeply
cynical. I think that there are many problems in WMF, but I also don't want
to demoralize good WMF board members, staff, or contractors (imagine what
would happen if the good ones all quit) or any strategy working group
contributors who consistently make sincere and competent efforts to support
the community. I'm willing to criticize, to ban, or to fire people, and to
cut budgets, but I try not to be excessively harsh or to have unrealistic
expectations. The strategy process is complicated and messy, and I am
hoping that some good comes from it regardless of the problems.
Regarding conference travel, while I don't know what happened at this
particular conference, when I attended the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin a
few years ago it was not a vacation. I paid for an extra day before the
conference began for tourist activities and to adjust to the time zone, and
I'm glad that I had the extra day. The conference itself overall was very
interesting, and I think that the vast majority of us who were there tried
to make good use of the time. My guess is that there were some serious
discussions at the strategy meeting.
Pine
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )