On Sat, 3 Jun 2006, Gavin Chait wrote:
I like the ideas and examples you've shared, though some may be less relevant to WMF than to other s-s n-p sbo's ... Wikipedia is an unusually self-defining, scaled, and vibrant project, and traditional rules of thumb each deserve a second look to see how they might apply.
IIRC, there are a number of people with relevant experience on this list. I hope many more of them will chime in.
It might be worth keeping in mind that the current operation is not really yet quite the equivalent of a huge international non profit like the Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity. We may not actually need a "CEO".
We have a Board of five .... actually I guess they figure they have us. `8)
Some subcommittees .... call it another twenty five?
five to ten currently compensated staff
I saw a number of approximately 50 developers but AFAIK only one local pro ... Brion, at least five to ten others heavily involved with their own sites, rest are regular contributors on the developer's mailing list.
Between fifty to a hundred regular readers on this list interested in the "organizational" issues.
And thousands to tens of thousands of regular/occasional editors who need little to no supervision beyond propagating core policies to the projects approved for the Foundation's wiki/hard drive/bandwidth.
So we have about the equivalent of between 100 - 200 people who need to be productively "managed". Standards roles defined, basic standard procedures implemented, and some knowledgeable strategic planning and documentation and publication of the same after it is approved by the Board.
So we are looking for a low level executive or plant/office manager. Someone who knows how to setup and manage a small factory or a medium sized multi disciplinary professional office with special emphasis on IT and computer operations center.
Have we tried the Florida State Employment office, Kelly Temporary Services, or Monster.com yet?
Last time I checked there was no shortage of MBAs or business managers in the U.S. with some entrepreneurial startup experience. Florida has a lot of retirees. Maybe we could interest one in an "Interim Director" position/contract of three to six months. I would offer my uncle (retired Weyerhauser executive) but he has already accepted a shorterm contract starting up a sawmill in Alaska this summer/fall.
regards, lazyquasar