Hello, all. :)
I’m Maggie Dennis, Vice President of Community Resilience & Sustainability, a division of the Legal Department at the Wikimedia Foundation. I oversee the functions of Community Development, Trust & Safety Policy, Trust & Safety Operations, Human Rights protection, and, now, Movement Strategy.[1]
That last point is the purpose of my outreach. Many of you are aware that our Chief of Staff, Ryan Merkley, has recently chosen to depart the Foundation. Movement Strategy was housed with him. A long time Wikimedian myself - user Moonriddengirl; pretty dormant right now but still very interested! - I am delighted to step in to do all I can to keep the momentum of this critical work going and to support however I can the movement and the Foundation in meeting these strategic goals. Kaarel Vaidla, with whom many of you have connected during this process, will be part of my division, reporting to Quim Gil.
The transition phase was wrapped up last quarter, and it is time to start the implementation phase, looking at which projects can move forward first.[2] Among these, the Movement Charter is an essential tool for the implementation of the Strategy 2030, and it is important to begin its draft.[3] There is also a lot of curiosity around regional and thematic hubs, and also many questions, and we are ready to support resolving some of these.[4]
It has been my goal to do quarterly community meetings, but because of this and other transitions, I’m a little behind. I had hoped to be able today to invite you to meet me on Saturday, April 17, and I may be able to do that in just a few days! If not that week, soon thereafter. There are some details still being worked out. In that meeting, I will be available to talk about all matters related to the work of Community Resilience & Sustainability - which includes Movement Strategy and the Universal Code of Conduct, among others. You can send your questions now (in any language) to answers@wikimedia.org. Please use the term “CR&S” in the subject line so that it is identified as a question for me. :) We will be inviting people to join the meeting via multiple platforms to ask “live” as well. After the event, we will release a video recording and a written summary of the meeting. You can find details of our office hours past, including links to videos and summaries, at the bottom of our Meta page.[1 again!]
I’m very excited about all the implementation work ahead of us! :)
Warm regards,
Maggie
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resilience_and_Sustainability
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transition/Global_Conversations