The way I'm making sense of the timeline is:
Last summer the Board remembered that the ASBS was coming up (in among all
their conversations about the strategy). Probably in July they discussed it
for the first time and they asked AffCom to look at a way of including User
Groups. At the November meeting they looked at AffCom's recommendation and
decided not to accept it 'as is' but to leave the door open to other
solutions. They then started the formal community consultation. At the
January meeting they adopted the still very open proposals they'd consulted
on.
Personally I would have preferred the Board to consult in public back in
July rather than just consulting AffCom at that point, then we might be 3
months in advance. And I expressed my reservations about this change, so
did many other people. But it's the job of any board to make decisions, and
in this case it seems they felt there were good reasons for going ahead in
spite of the objections raised - and to be fair the voices on the Meta page
were a relatively narrow slice of the overall Wikimedia community.
To those who still have concerns, there is plenty of space to still design
a process that meets them.
And if this issue makes people have wider thoughts about the role of
affiliates and the WMF, please hold onto them, because there is much more
movement strategy thinking coming up in the run up to the Wikimedia Summit,
and the strategy process is probably going to work on a scale that makes
this issue seem insignificant.
Thanks,
Chris
On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 8:05 PM Strainu <strainu10(a)gmail.com> wrote:
În joi, 21 feb. 2019 la 16:59, Itzik - Wikimedia
Israel
<itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il> a scris:
No, you aren't missing anything. The timeline is strange.
As Antanana wrote, *"The conversation about how User Groups may
participate
in this process has been on for years, it is not
a new topic [4]." *
So if it isn't a new proposal, why the board jumped to do this change so
close to the election instead of a year or so before?
On the other hand, if this issue is old enough, so why do the change now,
instead of holding the elections and then conduct (without pressure) a
REAL
discussion and DEEP thinking about how to involve
UGs while maintaining
equal elections.
Actually, the timeline (give or take a couple of weeks) seems quite
well chosen to force a timely discussion. Realistically speaking, if a
wiki-discussion has lagged for years, it would have also lagged until
the next round of elections, in 3 years. Also, having a solution in
place for the current election does not prevent another round of
discussions afterwards, based on the then-existing experience.
I understand that the chapters have concerns regarding their ability
to have a say in the board, but the fact that there has been a lack in
new chapters in recent years has given them an unfair advantage over
other organizations in the ecosystem. Most of the objections on the
talk page focused on how the UGs will double vote, skew the elections
etc. without considering that many user groups have established
internal policies and decision-taking procedures on par with smaller
chapters. I urge all of the chapter representatives to give up the
fearmongering and work with the interested parties to make this
dialogue a showcase of openness and collaboration "à la Wikimedia".
Strainu (for himself)
*Itzik Edri*
Chairperson
itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il
+972-54-5878078
On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 8:01 PM effe iets anders <
effeietsanders(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> As for process.. While I appreciate that this time, the change was at
least
> announced before the vote, and that some
board members at least
engaged in
> some conversation - I have yet to see how
this was taken into
consideration
> by the board as a whole. It feels like the
board already made up its
mind.
>
> What is surprising me most, is that it took a month for this
announcement
> to be made - especially considering a time
sensitive process being
impacted
> by this decision. Or did I miss a more
timely announcement elsewhere?
>
> Best,
> Lodewijk
>
> On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 3:19 AM Santiago Navarro <
> santiagonavarro(a)wikimedia.es> wrote:
>
> > In fact, I did not participate in the discussion page on meta about
> > that, because I guessed that my opinion would not be taken in
account,
> > neither discussed, and now it seems
that, sadly, I was right in that
> > thought.
> >
> > El 2019-02-19 17:25, Itzik - Wikimedia Israel escribió:
> > > Antanana and the board,
> > >
> > > I find it sad and disappointing that after such a long
conversation
on
> > > the
> > > talk page, there wasn't any comment on the talk page or in this
> > > statement
> > > about the problem of double voting by many UG's members. Did the
board
> > > even
> > > discuss that or we just wasted our time giving feedback on it?
> > >
> > > Ensuring equality in voting is the basis for every democracy and is
> > > trampled here completely without any comment from the board about
how
> > > to
> > > ensure it.
> > >
> > >
> > > *Itzik Edri*
> > > Chairperson
> > > itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il
> > > +972-54-5878078
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 5:18 PM Nataliia Tymkiv <
ntymkiv(a)wikimedia.org
> >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hello all!
> > >>
> > >> The Wikimedia Foundation Board has unanimously approved the
changes to
> > >> the
> > >> Bylaws [1] during the last Board meeting on January 30, 2019. This
> > >> will be
> > >> covered in the minutes, and the resolution will be published in
short
> > >> order.
> > >>
> > >> This change allows the participation of User Groups [2] in the
> > >> Affiliate-selected Board seats (ASBS) 2019 process [3]. The
> > >> discussion
> > >> about this process should start as soon as possible in order to
have
> > >> these
> > >> two seats selected by Wikimania. This is why we are sending this
> > >> letter
> > >> now, before the resolution is published.
> > >>
> > >> There are now over 100 recognized User Groups, covering over 50
> > >> countries,
> > >> several languages and topics, many of whom represent new and
emergent
> > >> communities within the
Wikimedia movement. The Board believes
that the
> > >> added perspectives of the User
Groups, combined with the voices of
> > >> Chapters
> > >> and Thematic Organizations, will lead to a richer collection of
> > >> guidance
> > >> for our movement. The conversation about how User Groups may
> > >> participate in
> > >> this process has been on for years, it is not a new topic [4].
> > >>
> > >> Once the facilitators of the Selection process are appointed by
the
> > >> affiliates, they should work
with María Sefidari, who has been
chosen
> > >> by
> > >> the Board as the Board liaison for the ASBS process.
> > >>
> > >> Given the potential complexity of organizing a process that now
will
> > >> include over a hundred user
groups, the Wikimedia Foundation is
> > >> offering
> > >> its support to set up infrastructure and help with communications
if
> > >> requested by the affiliates.
> > >>
> > >> A page for translation can be found at:
> > >>
> > >>
> >
>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Wikimed…
> > >>
> > >> On behalf of the Board
> > >>
> > >> antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
> > >>
> > >> Chair of the Board Governance Committee
> > >>
> > >> [1]
> > >>
> > >>
> >
>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_bylaws/December_2018_-…
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> [2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> [3]
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> [4]
> > >>
> > >>
> >
>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_bylaws/January_2014_-_…
> > >>
> > >> *NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal
> > >> working
> > >> hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during
weekend.
> > >> You
> > >> should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off.
Thank you
> > >> in
> > >> advance!*
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> 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(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > >> Unsubscribe:
> ,
> > >> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org
?subject=unsubscribe>
> > >
_______________________________________________
> > > 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(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Unsubscribe:
,
> > >
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org
?subject=unsubscribe>
> >
> > --
> > Santiago Navarro Sanz
> > Presidente
> > Wikimedia España
> >
www.wikimedia.es
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
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(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
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(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
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(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>