In addition to the committee reorganizations I mentioned, which are sort
of "internal" to the board (that is, the purpose is to improve the
board's own functioning), something we are starting to work on is to
think systematically about different roles within Wikimedia as a
movement. These roles may be those of individuals as volunteers, or in
groups such as chapters; it may include roles that exist, or those we
determine are needed. Defining these better, so that they can be filled
more effectively, and so that people can be more effective in their
work, could help us build a stronger working community.
Part of this is an outgrowth of the strategic planning project, where we
have a task force on movement roles, and I encourage people to do
further work on the strategy wiki in this area. I would suggest the
board believes this is also a larger ongoing question, one we will be
wrestling with even after the strategy plan is in some sense completed
later this year. We intend to keep this moving beyond that. Arne in
particular has taken a strong interest in this issue, and he and
Jan-Bart have been preparing some thoughts to share with the chapters
leading up to next week's chapters and board meeting. Coming out of
that, I hope we will start to develop a better sense of fundamentally
who we are and what kinds of relationships we should create to better
develop the Wikimedia projects.
--Michael Snow