On 6/1/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
There is something hugely upsetting in the comments I read in this thread. It is seeing people complain things are not publicly discussed... but who do not even comments when the issues are raised publicly. It is seeing people complain things are not done... but they do not do things themselves. It is seeing people complain we do not welcome their help... but they say no when we ask them.
Well, my perspective on the above comments:
I complain about the Foundation to many people. I don't do anything about it because the structure of the Foundation is such that I am disenfranchised from actually having any influence other than through backchannel politicking. The bylaws of the Foundation concentrate all power in the Board, and further structured so that a majority of Board members are not responsible to anyone but themselves. This structure makes the Board inherently resistant to change. I am not sanguine that the Board will ever even recognize all of the problems that exist right now, let alone come up with a useful solution. So I complain to my friends and associates, and try to convince them to agree with me (that the Board is going about the business of running the Foundation in the wrong way) with the vague hopes of eventually convincing enough of the Board members to put their personal interests behind their fiduciary duty to the Foundation and, for once, start making decisions that reflect what is best for the Foundation instead of what is best for that individual Board member. (No, I shall not name names. If you are on the Board, it's up to you to decide whether I'm talking about you or not.)
As to being asked to help: The only representatives of the Foundation who have ever asked me to help are Danny Wool and Brad Patrick. (Well, except for when Jimbo asked me to serve on the enwiki ArbCom, but he was doing that as Jimbo, not as CEO of the Board.) Even when I told people that I was ready and willing to help, I never got requested to do anything. So I've concluded that WMF doesn't really want my help. Either this is because the WMF has concluded that my talents are of no use to it, or because the WMF has ignored me when I've offered to help.
So, yes, you may be asking for help, but frankly I find it hard to figure out what help you need or who to talk to about it -- and besides, your volunteer coordinators should be working to match volunteers with tasks that need doing, instead of making volunteers hunt around to find something to do that fits their talents. But then again, that's yet another one of the myriad defects of the WMF: the Foundation appears to have no clue how to manage volunteers, either. (Does WMF even have a volunteer coordinator?)
I imagine I'll anger more than a few people with this email. I hope so; maybe out of that anger will come the desire for change (instead of the desire to kill the messenger, which I fear is more likely to be the result).
With regards,
Kelly