Dear all,
(This message is also available in Arabic, French, Igbo, and more here)
This year, the term of 4 (four) Community- and Affiliate-selected Trustees on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will come to an end [1]. The Board invites the whole movement to participate in this year’s selection process and vote to fill those seats.
The Elections Committee will oversee this process with support from Foundation staff [2]. The Governance Committee created a Board Selection Working Group from trustees who cannot be candidates in the 2024 community- and affiliate-selected trustee selection process composed of Dariusz Jemielniak, Nataliia Tymkiv, Esra'a Al Shafei, Kathy Collins, and Shani Evenstein Sigalov [3]. The group is tasked with providing Board oversight for the 2024 trustee selection process, and for keeping the Board informed. More details on the roles of the Elections Committee, Board, and staff are here [4].
Here are the key planned dates:
May 2024: Call for candidates and call for questions
June 2024: Affiliates vote to shortlist 12 candidates (no shortlisting if 15 or fewer candidates apply) [5]
June-August 2024: Campaign period
End of August / beginning of September 2024: Two-week community voting period
October–November 2024: Background check of selected candidates
Board’s Meeting in December 2024: New trustees seated
Learn more about the 2024 selection process - including the detailed timeline, the candidacy process, the campaign rules, and the voter eligibility criteria - on this Meta-wiki page.
Election Volunteers
Another way to be involved with the 2024 selection process is to be an Election Volunteer. Election Volunteers are a bridge between the Elections Committee and their respective community. They help ensure their community is represented and mobilize them to vote. Learn more about the program and how to join on this Meta-wiki page.
Thank you!
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2021/Results#Elected
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Committee:Elections_Committee_Charter
[3] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2023-08-15#Governance_Committee
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee/Roles
[5] Even though the ideal number is 12 candidates for 4 open seats, the shortlisting process will be triggered if there are more than 15 candidates because the 1–3 candidates that are removed might feel ostracized, and it would be a lot of work for affiliates to carry out the shortlisting process to only eliminate 1–3 candidates from the candidate list.
Best regards,
Dariusz Jemielniak
Governance Committee Chair