Christophe and Pine,
I am glad this loop is getting closed. I agree very much with Pine that eliminating the Founder's Seat as a (virtually) guaranteed position is something that has been suggested by a great many informed people who care about the movement, in a number of venues, and until now (as far as I'm aware) has not been acknowledged. I'm glad to know that the governance review will give it consideration. Wikimedia has recently been doing many good things to address the challenges of the last year or two, but this issue remains -- in my mind -- the single most significant opportunity to get things on track.
One thing comes to mind, which may also be appropriate to the review: perhaps it would be good to have a more structured way of making suggestions to the Board. For tech issues, we have Phabricator; something along those lines might be worthwhile, as it creates a way to assess how many people are interested in a certain issue, and also whether and how it has been seen/acknowledged/is being addressed.
-Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]]
On Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 10:39 PM, Christophe Henner chenner@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hey,
The question is not on the table right now.
We're working to perform a gouvernance audit, board composition will be part of it.
Now, my personal opinion is it's neither urgent nor critical. And on top of that I'm not sure it would be a good idea.
All that being said, I'm sure it will come up during the gouvernance review.
And yes I missed it, sorry. Gérard, no need for such email, just, as Pine did, reask the question :)
Have a nice day
Le 26 juil. 2016 6:54 AM, "Pine W" wiki.pine@gmail.com a écrit :
Hi BGC,
I asked a question earlier in this thread which seems to have been overlooked. Is the BGC (or the Board as a whole) considering whether the Founder's seat will become an elected seat in the forseeable future?
Pine
On Jul 20, 2016 21:20, "Pine W" wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks Daruisz and all who worked on this.
Looking at the bigger picture, the tone and pace of changes in WMF governance over the past few months feel like a breath of fresh air. I
hope
that this direction and pace continue.
Speaking of elections and governance, will the Founder's seat become an elected seat? It may be too early to answer this question, but I hope
that
the BGC gives it some careful thought.
Thanks again,
Pine
On Jul 20, 2016 18:00, "Dariusz Jemielniak" darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
As you know the board passed a resolution allowing for the creation
of a
standing Elections Committee in November of last year [1]. Per the implementing resolution, the Board Governance Committee (BGC) has appointed the initial members from the recommendation of the Executive Director
and
her staff. We will be starting with 6 committee members:
User:Ajraddatz https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Ajraddatz
User:Mardetanha https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Mardetanha
User:Ruslik0 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Ruslik0
User:Philippe <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Philippe
slate
User:KTC https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/KTC
User:Atropine https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Atropine
They will be joined by two official advisors from the Wikimedia Foundation:
James Alexander (Manager, Trust & Safety) from Community Engagement
Stephen LaPorte (Senior Legal Counsel) from the WMF Legal team
They will also be working closely with the BGC as a whole and
especially
Nataliia and me. Because I may consider applying as a candidate in the upcoming community-selection process I will be recusing for any discussions involving that election[2].
The new committee, along with the BGC, will, of course, be able to
choose
how many members and advisors they truly need and how to recruit the
best
candidates. One of the first orders of business for the committee will
be
to decide on a process for expanding its membership through some form
of
open call. While there is an enormous amount of work for the committee
to
do, it can be expected that they will begin looking at:
The selection of a committee Chair
The dates and process for the upcoming community selection process
(and
consider shortening the terms and having community elections in
early
2017, so that the elected members would join the Board at April
meeting[3]).
The method of voting for that process both for the upcoming
selection
and the future and
The composition of the board and how to ensure a steady supply of
good
candidates (in particular, making sure that the candidates have the skills and expertise matching the Board skill matrix while making
sure
that the process is still owned by the community[4]).
Just as the BGC is committed to greater transparency (see for example
our
recent minutes[5]), the committee will likely consult with the wider Wikimedia community in developing and revising election procedures
within
the scope of this charter to the greatest extent possible.
This day has been a long time coming and is the result of requests
made
by
multiple different temporary election committees over the years. I'm
glad
to finally see it come to fruition and hope that it will allow our selection process to continue to expand and improve well beyond the record-breaking election we had in 2015.
Before I sign off I also wanted to call out the amazing work of the
2015
temporary Election Committee[6]. They were put together in 2015 to do
one
thing: run an election. They did that well (with almost 3x the participation of the next largest year) but then they went well beyond
the
call of duty in serving as an advisory body to the board, offering invaluable feedback on how to fill the empty community selected seats
we
saw this year. They did not have to do this, but they did it anyway,
and I
hope that everyone can acknowledge the stress and courage that took.
Please join me in thanking the 2015 committee and welcoming the new standing committee!
Dariusz Jemielniak ("pundit", current Board member)
- [1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee
- [2] See also my disclosure to the BGC on that matter:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commit...
- [3]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-June/084592.html
- [4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commit...
- [5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commit...
- [6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/Committe...
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