I'm currently the one in charge of coordinating (on the staff side) the Standing Elections Committee (Greg resigned from the committee when he became a communications department contractor and I'm not sure why you pinged Lane, I assume because of the Affiliate Appointments process but that is not related to the board elections committee).
*As an update on the committee*: I'm hoping to get the standing committee fully up and running before Wikimania. It was delayed given the multitude of other issues recently (for example the resolution actually required us to have the ED taking part and the last time I had a fully breathing moment to start the process we didn't...) but once WikiCon is over we should be able to get that process up and running. We've already started polling the members of the last committee to see if they'd be willing to serve as starting members and will be having an internal meeting right after WikiCon to ensure we do everything right (parts of it can happen very quickly, parts of it will take some time simply because of volunteer schedules etc).
*Regarding your proposal:* Unfortunately I'm not sure that's within the committee's remit from the board https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee at this point and so I'm not sure it will be high on their initial list. That said I would be, at most, an advisor and not a member of either the Election Committee or the Board Governance Committee which oversees them so would wish to speak fully for what they would do in the end :). Also one of their duties is *"As needed, the Committee may assist with other duties as may be assigned by the Board or the Board Governance Committee." *so anything is possible :).
James Alexander Manager Trust & Safety Wikimedia Foundation (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur
On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 4:11 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
I like the idea of a boot camp or orientation for board members, which could be applicable to both affiliate and WMF boards. I believe that the standing Elections Committee, once it is operational, has plans to work on this, along with cultivating a list of good candidates for affiliate and WMF boards.
Greg or Lane, are you able to comment on this?
It would also be nice to get an update on the formation of the standing Elections Committee.
Pine
On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:47 PM, phoebe ayers phoebe.wiki@gmail.com wrote:
On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 4:29 PM, Chris Keating chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com wrote:
If I read Denny's email correctly, this section is broader than
conflict
of
interest:
I discussed with Jan-Bart, then chair, what is and what is not
appropriate to
pursue as a member of the Board. I understood and followed his advice,
but
it was frustrating. It was infuriatingly limiting.
E.g. any comment Denny made on Phabricator now being read in the light
that
he was a board member.
While I'm not sure exactly what Denny meant in his mail, I think Chris' comment is spot on -- every trustee, especially those used to weighing in on community discussions, feels somewhat limited in what they can say and how to say it when they join the board, whether that's proposing a new idea or weighing in on an existing one. (Then, of course, you also get criticized for not speaking up enough!) It can be an awkward balancing act that takes some time to learn, and can indeed be frustrating.
Partly I think it's simply inherently difficult. As a trustee your own interests and areas of volunteering are often not what's best for the WMF overall to focus on -- either because they are too narrow, or too resource intensive, or a host of other reasons -- not least because one contributor cannot possibly speak for a whole area of the movement, and as a movement we value consensus and broad input for every idea. But I also think we're not very good on the board at utilizing people's individual strengths and recognizing that the very reasons why someone is interesting as a trustee (because they are an expert contributor in some area, as all the trustees are) also means that they likely have biases and opinions about strategic directions, and could use those opinions productively to help the organization learn and grow.
As for what we can learn from this situation, I'm intrigued by this proposal:
On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 12:38 PM, Atsme atsme@outlook.com wrote:
Establish alternates who are non-voting members but are in the wings
waiting to fill vacancies. It’s a win-win.
We could certainly vote in alternates; it would be as simple as taking the 4th place winner. Also, we do have a mechanism set up for observers at the board meetings, and have not taken advantage of it recently; 1 or 2 community observers could join. Another idea: what about field training of some sort for candidates or those considering candidacy? It's a big commitment that people make and that the movement makes to those people, and having a week or two immersion and preparation -- it could be done virtually -- wouldn't be the worst thing. Board boot camp, if you will.
Phoebe
--
- I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers
<at> gmail.com *
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