No, you aren't missing anything. The timeline is strange.
As Antanana wrote, *"The conversation about how User Groups may participate in this process has been on for years, it is not a new topic [4]." * So if it isn't a new proposal, why the board jumped to do this change so close to the election instead of a year or so before? On the other hand, if this issue is old enough, so why do the change now, instead of holding the elections and then conduct (without pressure) a REAL discussion and DEEP thinking about how to involve UGs while maintaining equal elections.
*Itzik Edri* Chairperson itzik@wikimedia.org.il +972-54-5878078
On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 8:01 PM effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
As for process.. While I appreciate that this time, the change was at least announced before the vote, and that some board members at least engaged in some conversation - I have yet to see how this was taken into consideration by the board as a whole. It feels like the board already made up its mind.
What is surprising me most, is that it took a month for this announcement to be made - especially considering a time sensitive process being impacted by this decision. Or did I miss a more timely announcement elsewhere?
Best, Lodewijk
On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 3:19 AM Santiago Navarro < santiagonavarro@wikimedia.es> wrote:
In fact, I did not participate in the discussion page on meta about that, because I guessed that my opinion would not be taken in account, neither discussed, and now it seems that, sadly, I was right in that thought.
El 2019-02-19 17:25, Itzik - Wikimedia Israel escribió:
Antanana and the board,
I find it sad and disappointing that after such a long conversation on the talk page, there wasn't any comment on the talk page or in this statement about the problem of double voting by many UG's members. Did the board even discuss that or we just wasted our time giving feedback on it?
Ensuring equality in voting is the basis for every democracy and is trampled here completely without any comment from the board about how to ensure it.
*Itzik Edri* Chairperson itzik@wikimedia.org.il +972-54-5878078
On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 5:18 PM Nataliia Tymkiv <ntymkiv@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Hello all!
The Wikimedia Foundation Board has unanimously approved the changes to the Bylaws [1] during the last Board meeting on January 30, 2019. This will be covered in the minutes, and the resolution will be published in short order.
This change allows the participation of User Groups [2] in the Affiliate-selected Board seats (ASBS) 2019 process [3]. The discussion about this process should start as soon as possible in order to have these two seats selected by Wikimania. This is why we are sending this letter now, before the resolution is published.
There are now over 100 recognized User Groups, covering over 50 countries, several languages and topics, many of whom represent new and emergent communities within the Wikimedia movement. The Board believes that the added perspectives of the User Groups, combined with the voices of Chapters and Thematic Organizations, will lead to a richer collection of guidance for our movement. The conversation about how User Groups may participate in this process has been on for years, it is not a new topic [4].
Once the facilitators of the Selection process are appointed by the affiliates, they should work with María Sefidari, who has been chosen by the Board as the Board liaison for the ASBS process.
Given the potential complexity of organizing a process that now will include over a hundred user groups, the Wikimedia Foundation is offering its support to set up infrastructure and help with communications if requested by the affiliates.
A page for translation can be found at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Wikimedi...
On behalf of the Board
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
Chair of the Board Governance Committee
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_bylaws/December_2018_-_...
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_bylaws/January_2014_-_A...
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