Thank you to those of you who have volunteered in this role. I have a lot of faith in all of you to improve on the groundwork that was done in the recent past, and am particularly glad that you should have sufficient time to consider and test different voting systems - something that the last two "temporary" election committees did not really have an opportunity to do. I am certain you have all been reviewing the "post mortems" of the last few elections to see what was considered in need of improvement.
It's been six weeks since the appointment of the committee, and I am curious to know who has been selected as the chair, and whether or not the committee has introduced any other members or selected any advisors.
I am also curious whether the committee members (and by extension the WMF staff and Board liaisons) have undertaken to not run in the next election. Given that the Committee is tasked with reviewing and potentially modifying the rules under which future elections will be held, such a public confirmation would prevent the perception of conflict of interest.
While I appreciate that many Wikimedians reduce their activity during the July-August period (myself included, for family reasons this year), I'd like to encourage the Election Committee to seriously consider starting an examination of the voting system in the near future, including some public discussions, and arrangements with the appropriate developers to write out the programs and test voting systems that the committee considers to have potential. I think this is the task that will take the most time because it will need to be incorporated into the workload of already-busy staff/developers, and will also require discussion both with the broader community and within the committee itself.
I wish you all the very best - you have an opportunity to have a significant impact in the governance of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Risker/Anne
On 20 July 2016 at 21:00, 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/Philippeslate
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)
Committee
- [2] See also my disclosure to the BGC on that matter:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ Board_Governance_Committee/2017_Election_Disclosure
- [3]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-June/084592.html
- [4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ Board_Governance_Committee/2016_competence_matrix
- [5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ Board_Governance_Committee/Minutes_07-08-2016
- [6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ elections_2015/Committee#Membership _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines 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