Please allow me to "me too!" what Sue said. As she said, she and I have talked about this. I really AM sensitive to it, and fully disclosed the situation to the election committee when my hire was announced. I'm happy to work with anyone who wants to in identifying conflicts and finding ways to mitigate them. For now, though, please know that the election committee is aware of the situation and is actively monitoring it, and both Sue and I are paying a lot of attention and are willing to further discuss. If you have a specific concern, please email me, or (if you're not comfortable emailing me), I'm sure that any other member of the election committee would be happy to talk to you about it.
Philippe
On Jul 14, 2009, at 7:37 PM, Sue Gardner wrote:
Hi Yaroslav,
Yes, it's a good question; Philippe and I have talked about it.
In this instance I think it's okay for Philippe to remain on the committee, for a couple of reasons. 1) As you say, the election is four weeks away: practically speaking, it would be tough to find a replacement for Philippe in that time-frame. And 2) There are lots of safeguards in place to ensure fairness in the election outcome -- for example, the committee doesn't actually administer the vote: that is handled by an independent third party, Software in the Public Interest.
Philippe offered to me to resign from the election committee if I or the Board thought it was best. I personally think the benefit of him fulfilling the commitment outweighs the downside. But I know Philippe's sensitive to the issue: if people want to talk about ways to mitigate or eliminate the conflict, I'm sure he'd be happy to have that conversation :-)
Thanks, Sue
2009/7/14 Yaroslav M. Blanter putevod@mccme.ru:
I can only welcome Philippe's appointment, my congratulations.
Since he is starting in July, and the elections are scheduled for August, I am worried that his involvement as an election committee member could be a conflict of interests?
Cheers Yaroslav
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/ foundation-l
-- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation
415 839 6885 office 415 816 9967 cell
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
____________________ Philippe Beaudette Facilitator, Strategic Plan Wikimedia Foundation
pbeaudette@wikimedia.org
voicemail: 918 200-WIKI (9454) mobile: 918 408-6640
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!