Maggie,
You say, María "did not discuss this role with me while she was on the
Board. She *quite rightly would not. We talked about it after her departure*
."
It seems to me you are paying lip service here to the idea that it's
inappropriate for a sitting board member to negotiate transitioning to a
lucrative consultant's job, for all the reasons others in this thread have
mentioned.
But three weeks ago, when María announced she would be stepping down[1],
she already said:
"The Foundation has asked me to consider an advisory role to support *Movement
Strategy and the onboarding of new trustees* and the new CEO/ED, to help
support leadership and this strategic transition."
This is surely the same job you just announced:
"Maria Sefidari has agreed to consult with the Foundation on *Movement
Strategy and the ongoing Board evolution* for the upcoming year".
So in fact María did discuss this while still on the board. Perhaps not
with you personally, but how is it ethically "quite right" in your mind
that she shouldn't have discussed it with you beforehand, but ethically
fine for her to have discussed it at length with others?
I guess we are supposed to believe that María expressed no interest
whatsoever in such a role, and was entirely surprised and flattered when
everybody else came up to her and suggested it. Right? Did she maybe have
to be talked into accepting money for the role?
I now understand Dariusz' comment in the same thread three weeks ago, when
he said to María[2]:
"This is not a farewell, as I'm confident you will stay in the movement
indifferent roles, be they *formal (like the one you're transitioning to)*
or informal, like always".
With the benefit of hindsight, this did sound like a paid role even then.
And in fact, Amanda's email just now[3] confirms that this was discussed
long before María stepped down.
María, with her wealth of experience, is surely aware that affiliates have
been advised to strenuously avoid such conflicts of interest over the
years. This is very much a case of "Don't do as I do, do as I say".
Why should anyone stand for that? If María wants to give advice, serve the
mission, she can do so as a volunteer, like everyone else.
Amanda, your various explanations as to why a paid role for María is
necessary now that she has left the board, and why it's the best use of
donors' money, fail to dispel the sense of plain *weirdness* attached to
this.
Andreas
[1]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
[2]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
[3]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
On Wed, Jun 23, 2021 at 11:01 PM Maggie Dennis <mdennis(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hello, all.
I’m sorry for my lack of clarity! María is *not* Foundation staff. She is
an independent consultant. She did not discuss this role with me while she
was on the Board. She quite rightly would not. We talked about it after her
departure.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Wed, Jun 23, 2021 at 5:53 PM টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Greetings,
This is an unfortunate situation. In general circumstances I would have
been happy to see the addition.
"to draw clear lines between staff and board members " — I think this has
been a practice in different organisation. In a different organisation I
have seen a director was disallowed to join as a consultant immediately
after his disassociation.
But do we have any documented Wikimedia policy that allows or prohibits
such an appointment? It would be good to know about such guidelines.
ইতি,
টিটো দত্ত/User:Titodutta
বৃহস্পতি, ২৪ জুন, ২০২১ তারিখে ৩:০৩ AM টায় এ Philip Kopetzky <
philip.kopetzky(a)gmail.com> লিখেছেন:
Hi Maggie,
to be honest this is really difficult to understand. While the WMF,
through it's various committees, pushed affiliates to clearly draw the
lines between board and staff by introducing stringent governance measures
(and rightly so), which also include paragraphs about introducing a
cooldown period before switching between board and being employed by the
same organisation, the WMF is ignoring all of that governance advice it has
given over the last few years.
I feel quite silly now having been on the simpleAPG committee for three
years and having advised affiliates who wanted to hire staff for the first
time to draw clear lines between staff and board members, to now have to
see this exact scenario I warned against play out at the WMF. Maria's
departure from the BoT, even before her tenure was over and subsequent
hiring really calls into question what the WMF thinks good governance
should look like, notwithstanding the fact that the BoT now has one
community elected seat less at a critical time in the strategy
implementation process.
All in all I can only call for a governance overhaul at the WMF so that
murky situations like this don't happen again.
Quite frustrated regards,
Philip
On Wed, 23 Jun 2021 at 21:46, Maggie Dennis <mdennis(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hello, all. :)
I hope and trust that everyone is keeping well during these times!
I’m Maggie Dennis, Vice President of the Community Resilience &
Sustainability group of Wikimedia Foundation, within the Legal department.
I wanted to announce with pleasure that Maria Sefidari has agreed to
consult with the Foundation on Movement Strategy and the ongoing Board
evolution for the upcoming year. Many of us know María from her role as the
chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, from which she
provided invaluable leadership in governance, oversight, and fundraising.
Others may know her from her volunteer work as User:Raystorm
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Raystorm>, in which she has a
broad range of experience.
María, based in Spain, commenced her assignment with the Foundation
this week. We intend to tap into her expertise and knowledge of the
Foundation to support a successful implementation of the Movement’s
Strategy and to tap into new opportunities. (With her Board work, she will
be supporting Quim Gil’s team with the Board election and helping Margo Lee
in improving onboarding, documentation practices, and training.) María will
report to me as part of our Community Resilience & Sustainability group.
I’m excited that she accepted our offer for a more hands-on assignment,
particularly given how important all of the work she’ll be supporting is.
:) With more than 15 years of Wikimedia experience, her contributions in
the next phase will be a tremendous benefit to me and my team as we
continue settling into our own work on Movement Strategy.
Those of you who are involved with Movement Strategy are used to seeing
her at related meetings and still will. :) I anticipate María will be
joining one or more of the Movement Strategy global conversations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Updates/June_15,_2021>
this weekend. Advertisement alert: maybe you can, too? Here’s more
detail
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Updates/June_15,_2021>!
I myself will be attending at least one of those sessions and look forward
to seeing some of you there.
Warm regards,
Maggie
--
Maggie Dennis
She/her/hers
Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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