--- Erik Moeller eloquence@gmail.com wrote:
The notion that every contract has to be between the Wikimedia Foundation and another organization is also unnecessary -- contracts can be between volunteers and grant-giving organizations, if the grants are small and having the contracts managed by Wikimedia only adds unnecessary bureaucratic overhead. This way, Wikimedia adds organizational credibility for volunteers who deserve it.
I cannot agree with you on this point. Contracts must be with the Foundation if they want the WMF's name attached to it. If Kenniset was willing to give the money to anyone willing to make it happen (Wikimedia or otherwise), I imagine you would have already worked it out. Surely you understand why things must be done in such a way. It is just not acceptable for the Board to not be a party to such a contract. And this is nothing against GeradM. I would say the same thing if the vonlunteer was Ahthere. Bureaucracy is in unfortunate when it slows things down, but it is neccessaary to some degree to ensure oversight.
With regards to the rest of you email. The Board is going to hire an interim executive director. Hopefully it will be soon. This shows me that the Board is addressing your corncerns about their efficiency. I imagine it will be a big and effective change for WMF. Please let us not talk of re-organizing entire commitees when we have not even given this new hire a chance. The job hardly requires solving global hunger! I understand that you are frustrated. I would be too in your shoes. But I see that the concerns are being addressed, so now is an even more appropriate time for patience than two months ago. It would be nice if this deal were already finalized, but now we will have an executive to help see these things through. If we change to many things at once we will not know what helped and what hindered.
Birgitte SB
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com