Hi All, and Asaf,
Thanks for the advice Asaf. I've made a mistake and processed steps 1 and 2.
Step 3
- what the mistake was, as precisely as possible (e.g. not "I used bad
judgment" but "I neglected to look at relevant data before deciding to fund
Wikimedia Antarctica");
I failed to welcome incoming directors to the board of the Wikimedia
Foundation and I failed to thank outgoing directors of the same board for
the time and effort they have spent.
- that you are sorry about the harm/damage/waste/confusion your mistake
caused (being specific would demonstrate understanding);
I'm sorry for this unpolite and rude behavior.
- what you have learned from making this mistake;
The Wikimedia Movement depends on volunteers and on the willingness of
capable people to contirbute their time and effort. Volunteers not only to
edit Wikipedia and others projects, and commit to Gerrit but also spend
time on governing bodies like the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia
Foundation. For the diverse communities of volunteering people in the
movement to thrive it is esstential to retain a welcoming culture and show
respect for those who do boring tasks and the janitoral work.
- what steps you have already taken to redress the damage or undo the
results of your mistake;
So far I've done nothing to repair this mistake, except reading the ongoing
discussion on wikimedia-l and thinking about what is going on and preparing
this e-mail.
To repair the damage done:
1. Hereby my welcome to Kelly Battles. Don't be shy to introduce
yourself to this list. I wish you a lot of strength and wisdom while
serving your time on the board.
2. Hereby my welcome to Arnnon Geshuri. You left Google in 2009. I don't
know if you were sacked or that you fled from the illegal practices you
were forced to commit in your position at Google. I sincerely belief you
have learned your lesson over six years ago. You now have a paid position
at Tesla Motors, a company destined to disrupt the automobile industry.
Welcome again to the Wikimedia movement which does not aim to disrupt the
automobile industry. Wikipedia does disrupt a whole range of other
industries, but please be aware that Wikipedia started after most paper
encyclopedias were already out of print. I wish you a lot of strength
and wisdom while serving your time on the board.
3. La bienvenida al movimiento Jaime Villagomez. I wish you a lot of
strength and wisdom while serving your time on the board as CFO. I'll
assume you will going to be or become Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of
the Wikimedia Foundation. You will have a pivotal role in assisting the BoT
in performing a series of 'fiduciary duties'. I wish you a lot of
strength and wisdom in your job.
4. Goodbye James Heilman, and thanks for volunteering your time on the
Board of Trustees. You've been fired. Don't take it personally.
5. Goodbye Stu West, and thanks for volunteering your time on the Board
of Trustees.
6. Goodbye Jan-Bart de Vreede, and thanks for volunteering your time on
the Board of Trustees.
- what steps you are going to take to mitigate or reduce the odds of a
mistake of this sort recurring, including timelines for specific actions,
if possible and applicable; and
My preferred habit of welcoming and thanking people is in real life
meeting, to have the opportunity to shake hands, kiss, hug, whatever, and
hand over a symbolic when I feel like to it. Opportunities for them abound,
including, but not limited to the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin and
Wikimania Esino Lario.
- invite comments on your understanding as reflected in this post,
explicitly encouraging people to tell you if they think you've missed the
point or if one of your intended actions is inadvisable, insufficient, or
can otherwise be improved.
Please comment on my understanding as reflected in this post. Did I miss
the point? Please tell me! What do you think about my intended and
preferred way of welcoming incoming directors, and thanking outgoing
directors? Is there a way to improve on this?
Ad Huikeshoven
P.S.
The board of Wikimedia Nederland will meet on Thursday January 21st.
Wikimedia Nederland is an affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation. It's
mission is to further the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation and the
Wikimedia Movement in the Netherlands. This mail was sent by me without
it's content being read by fellow board members of Wikimedia Nederland,
without the prior consent of the board of Wikimedia Nederland and without
the prior approval of the message by the board of Wikimedia Nederland. So,
I'm taking a deliberate risk.
On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 7:37 PM, Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hello, everyone.
It occurs to me this might be a good time to recycle this piece of advice I
have had some past occasions to offer some newcomers to the movement:
*So you've made a mistake and it's public...*
Step 0:
Understand that there is no point in pretending you have not made a
mistake.
Step 1:
*Think* about the mistake you have made. What led you to make it? Were
you acting on bad information? Without sufficient information? On
intuition? Were you pressed by a deadline or by a strong opinion from
someone else? Were you following a broken process? Did you act on the
basis of circumstances you wish were the case rather than the circumstances
that are in fact the case?
(if it helps, consider writing down your answers to these questions,
privately.)
Then, think about what can be redressed/undone/reverted about your mistake.
Step 2:
*Think* about the prospects of making this mistake, or a mistake of its
kind, again. How likely is it? Based on learning from this mistake, what
steps are you able to take to mitigate or reduce the odds of its
recurrence? Of those steps, which are you *willing* to take? Of those,
which can you take right now, before responding in public? Which are you
ready to commit to, longer term?