Erik Moeller wrote:
On 4/19/07, daniwo59(a)aol.com <daniwo59(a)aol.com>
wrote:
The problem is that this is not a new issue. It
has been around for a while,
and this just puts it back on the backburner. I can only wonder, why has
nothing been done until now? Why has it not been investigated yet?
As you know, Legal Counsel and Interim ED were one and the same person
from June 2006 - January 2007. Before then, the WMF did not employ a
Legal Counsel _or_ an Executive Director. A lot of work _did_ get done
in this time period, including but not limited to:
- Bylaws reform and Board expansion
- Mission & Vision statement of WMF developed
- Largest fundraiser of WMF to date
- Audited financial statements released
- Hardware purchases and renegotiated contracts
- Identifying a Search Committee to work with on the ED Search
- Hiring several new key staff members
- Progress on international chapter setup and trademark agreements
Then there was the media crisis of the day, legal threats, conflicts
between staff members, the usual stuff -- but it culminated in your
and Brad's resignation for different reasons. I agree that
investigating and implementing a risk management strategy is a very
high priority. It is not necessarily the highest, and in my opinion
will be the result of a process over several months that should
involve chapter representatives and some of the best cyberlaw experts
we can find.
Agreed with everything said.
I might add a couple more important works done
- set up of the advisory board (which will participate to a board
retreat just before Wikimania)
- access to non public data policy (JUST approved) and licensing policy
- hiring an ED-search company (with which Jan-Bart and/or I are in
sub-daily contact)
I note as well that a year ago, the WMF was hardly able to keep with the
traffic growth from a technical point of view. Now, we cope well.
Investigation of the trust is important. But that is certainly not what
is on the backburner.
Current backburner (next 3 months or so)
- hiring several key staff members (in particular ED and legal counsel,
but possibly as well CTO or tech leader)
- changing governance model and setting up a clean situation for board
and ED relationships
- planification of the next fundraiser
- Wikimania
- switching accounting to analytical accounting
- board skills and elections
- setting up back up procedures in the office
- etc...
We can not do it all. We have to set a pace and accept that some things,
however important they seem to be, have to wait till other things, more
critical, are fixed. Going into Trust set up, without having a CEO and a
legal counsel, just is not logical.
Ant