Joe,
I think this call might fairly be described as too little too late. Firstly, you describe the votes being held on a regular cycle. So there's no reason for delaying this call until 10 January with a closing date of 19 January (one working week). Secondly, the first meeting is to be held in January, so you've given yourself less than another two weeks to have staff vet the candidates, get the approval of the Board Governance Committee, and then hold the first meeting. Why give yourself and your propsective candidates so little time for a process which you have known will be coming since this time last year? Thirdly, there is some important information missing (and very little time to disseminate it effectively). For example, what are these meetings? Is personal attendance necessary? If so, and any committee members need to get a US visa, it's already far too late, they will have needed to apply back in November or early December. Again, and especially if travel is required, will the Foundation reimburse the out-of-pocket expenses of committee members? Failure to think through these points may explain why certain groups continue to be under-represented.
Henry
On Fri, 10 Jan 2020 at 23:28, Joe Sutherland jsutherland@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello everyone!
*Please disseminate this email to anyone who may be interested.*
As you are probably aware, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees[1] contains three community-selected seats which are voted in by the wider Wikimedia community on a regular cycle. In 2020, we will be hosting another one of these selection processes, which are coordinated by the Wikimedia Foundation in collaboration with the Elections Committee[2].
We are seeking 2–3 new members for the committee to join us in time for the first meetings in January 2020. Applicants will be vetted by Foundation staff and ultimately approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee[3]. The term is three years, though the bulk of the work involved occurs in the buildup to an election.
This role comes with the following responsibilities:
- Attending 3–4 meetings between January and April 2020 with the Foundation
and the rest of the committee
- Setting up the wiki pages for the board election (example from last
cycle)
- Helping to mark pages for translation and potentially import translations
as required
- Working with the committee to fulfill its other responsibilities[4]
Ideally, you would have the following qualities:
- Fluency in English
- Experience with advanced wikitext markup
- Responsiveness to email outreach
We are particularly interested in those who come from a traditionally under-represented background. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please let me know by *emailing me directly before January 19, 2020*.
Thank you in advance for your interest! Please let me know if you have questions; I'm more likely to see these questions if you send them to me directly.
best, Joe
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee [3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commit... [4]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee#Respons...
-- *Joe Sutherland* (he/him or they/them) Trust and Safety Specialist Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe