Hello all,

Please accept my apologies if you are receiving this a number of times today. We have sent it out to multiple mailing lists in order to reach as many community members as possible. Please feel free to forward this to any other community mailing lists you believe are relevant.

It's coming close to time for annual appointments of community members to serve on the Ombuds commission (OC). This commission works on all Wikimedia projects to investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, especially in use of CheckUser and Oversight tools, and to mediate between the complaining party and the individual whose work is being investigated. They may also assist the General Counsel, the Executive Director or the Board of Trustees in investigations of these issues. For more on their duties and roles, see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombuds_commission

This is a call for community members interested in volunteering for appointment to this commission. Volunteers serving in this role should be experienced Wikimedians, active on any project, who have previously used the CheckUser tool OR who have the technical ability to understand the CheckUser tool and the willingness to learn it. They are expected to be able to engage neutrally in investigating these concerns and to know when to recuse when other roles and relationships may cause conflict. 

Commissioners are required to sign the Access to NonPublic Information NDA and must be willing to comply with the appropriate Wikimedia Foundation board policies (such as the access to non-public data policy[1] and the privacy policy[2]). This is a position that requires a high degree of discretion and trust. Commissioners must also be over 18 years of age.

If you are interested in serving on this commission, please write me an email off-list to detail your experience on the projects, your thoughts on the commission and what you hope to bring to the role. The commission consists of twelve members; all applications are appreciated and will be carefully considered. The deadline for applications is the end of day[3] on 31 December, 2021. 

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think may be qualified and  interested.

Thank you!

-Karen Brown

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Trust & Safety team

1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy 

2. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy 

3. This deadline is flexible in terms of time zones; as long as your application is in while it's 31 December somewhere in the world, you're fine.