Hello folks,
I am delighted to announce that this week, Jennifer Riggs begins work as the Wikimedia Foundation's first-ever Chief Program Officer. She will report to me. Frank Schulenburg, Jay Walsh and Cary Bass now report to Jennifer: as CPO, she is responsible for all non-technical program activities such as volunteer recruitment and public outreach.
As you probably know, we've been searching for a CPO since last fall. Because this is a new and important position for us, we deliberately decided to allow a large pool of candidates to accumulate over several months. We wanted to build in time to think seriously about our needs while meeting with a wide range of people.
Since October, we received applications from more than 150 people with a diverse array of backgrounds including media, academia, the public school system, non-profits, the free software movement and the business world. As we carried out the interviewing process, the hiring committee came to the understanding that Wikimedia is, at its heart, a volunteer-centred organization -- and that what we need most in a CPO is a rich background in facilitating, structuring and supporting the work of volunteers. Enter, Jennifer!
Jennifer comes to Wikimedia from the American Red Cross Bay Area chapter, where, as Manager of Volunteer Resources, she managed the work of more than a thousand volunteers. Prior to the Red Cross, she was Project Director at the non-profit California School-Age Consortium, where she ran a program of train-the-trainer workshops. Before that, she worked for six years in program administration at the Peace Corps, as a Country Desk Office on the Central America Desk, a Country Desk Assistant on the Pacific Islands Desk, and a Training and Technical Coordinator in Togo, West Africa.
Jennifer speaks French, Sango and some Spanish. She has a B.A. in History with minors in Education and Political Science from New York University.
We know that the success of the Wikimedia projects depends upon the 150,000 active volunteers who are our core contributors. Jennifer's wealth of experience recruiting, motivating and retaining volunteers will be enormously useful to us as we aim to better support the volunteers we currently have, and also reach out to new people.
Please join me in warmly welcoming her to the Wikimedia Foundation.
I want to take a moment also to thank Erik Moeller, Michael Snow and Kat Walsh for participating on the hiring committee. This was an important decision, and their experiences and advice were really helpful throughout the process.
Thanks, Sue
Sue Gardner wrote:
I am delighted to announce that this week, Jennifer Riggs begins work as the Wikimedia Foundation's first-ever Chief Program Officer.
I am really happy to endorse the decision to hire Jennifer as Chief Program Officer for the Wikimedia Foundation. Sue asked me to sit on the hiring board for the position, along with fellow board member Kat Walsh, because of the impact this role can have on our future development. It was a good opportunity for the board to participate, even though hiring staff is Sue's area of responsibility, and I think Jennifer is an excellent choice for CPO.
To add to what Sue said in her note - this was a long process and a difficult decision. Each of the candidates we met with had impressive accomplishments and appealing ideas for what to do with the role. We had both the luxury and the challenge of developing that role from scratch, because this is a new position for the Wikimedia Foundation. That enabled us to do some really good thinking about the skills and experience the organization needs the most at this point in its development. And ultimately, Kat, Sue, Erik and I agreed: what the organization really needs now is experience supporting volunteers.
That's because at heart, Wikimedia is a volunteer-centric organization. Volunteers like you and me are the people who create the value in our projects, by collaborating to create free informational resources for everyone around the world. As volunteers, we have done an amazing job of self-organizing, but historically this has happened largely on its own without much active, sustained support from the Wikimedia Foundation. The foundation has been in "keeping the lights on" mode, focused on paying the bills, acting as a host, and doing a little bit of software development.
I would like to change that. I want to see Wikimedia create programs that recruit new volunteers, as well as support, motivate, and retain current volunteers. This is the important work being done by people like Frank Schulenburg, Head of Public Outreach. And it's why we need to add someone like Jennifer to the team.
As an example of what I mean - in February, Sue and the team kicked off the Chapters Funding Request Process (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/WMF_grants), which allows chapters to request funding for mission-related activities. Chapters are invited to ask for money to commission MediaWiki development work, to print up outreach brochures or posters, or to support content liberation activities. (These are just examples, it could be basically any activity that supports our shared mission, or lays the groundwork to better fulfill it in the future.) In future months, Sue intends to expand that project to invite funding requests from individual volunteers as well as the chapters.
That's important work, and I want to see more of it, as I'm sure we all do. Right now it happens sometimes, but only haphazardly. It needs to be better organized and supported, and Jennifer will help us do that.
So please join me, along with the board and staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, in welcoming Jennifer to Wikimedia. With her help, the Wikimedia Foundation will be better able to support all of us in the mission we share.
--Michael Snow
Welcome, Jennifer!
Congratulations to the hiring committee as well for carrying out a successful hiring process. While the Foundation is expanding, I think this and other recent hirings show there's no loss of focus on the power behind the projects, which is the massive base of volunteer contributors, and that enabling them is key to continued success.
Thanks, -Mike
On Tue, 2009-04-14 at 19:17 -0700, Sue Gardner wrote:
Hello folks,
I am delighted to announce that this week, Jennifer Riggs begins work as the Wikimedia Foundation's first-ever Chief Program Officer. She will report to me. Frank Schulenburg, Jay Walsh and Cary Bass now report to Jennifer: as CPO, she is responsible for all non-technical program activities such as volunteer recruitment and public outreach.
As you probably know, we've been searching for a CPO since last fall. Because this is a new and important position for us, we deliberately decided to allow a large pool of candidates to accumulate over several months. We wanted to build in time to think seriously about our needs while meeting with a wide range of people.
Since October, we received applications from more than 150 people with a diverse array of backgrounds including media, academia, the public school system, non-profits, the free software movement and the business world. As we carried out the interviewing process, the hiring committee came to the understanding that Wikimedia is, at its heart, a volunteer-centred organization -- and that what we need most in a CPO is a rich background in facilitating, structuring and supporting the work of volunteers. Enter, Jennifer!
Jennifer comes to Wikimedia from the American Red Cross Bay Area chapter, where, as Manager of Volunteer Resources, she managed the work of more than a thousand volunteers. Prior to the Red Cross, she was Project Director at the non-profit California School-Age Consortium, where she ran a program of train-the-trainer workshops. Before that, she worked for six years in program administration at the Peace Corps, as a Country Desk Office on the Central America Desk, a Country Desk Assistant on the Pacific Islands Desk, and a Training and Technical Coordinator in Togo, West Africa.
Jennifer speaks French, Sango and some Spanish. She has a B.A. in History with minors in Education and Political Science from New York University.
We know that the success of the Wikimedia projects depends upon the 150,000 active volunteers who are our core contributors. Jennifer's wealth of experience recruiting, motivating and retaining volunteers will be enormously useful to us as we aim to better support the volunteers we currently have, and also reach out to new people.
Please join me in warmly welcoming her to the Wikimedia Foundation.
I want to take a moment also to thank Erik Moeller, Michael Snow and Kat Walsh for participating on the hiring committee. This was an important decision, and their experiences and advice were really helpful throughout the process.
Thanks, Sue
Mike.lifeguard wrote:
Congratulations to the hiring committee as well for carrying out a successful hiring process.
To elaborate on this a little bit, I'd like to add some comments that aren't specific to Jennifer or the position of Chief Program Officer. While we were in San Francisco for the CPO interviews, Kat and I also had some time for the staff to review with us the general state of Wikimedia's hiring processes and staffing policies - in general, things that come under the heading of "human resources". Overall, things are well in order and the necessary details are being managed appropriately.
In a sense, this is also a bit mundane, and because personnel matters are confidential, I don't have particular anecdotes to share that would make it more interesting. But some of you will recall that before Sue joined us, there were some breakdowns in this area. We now have various policies and procedures, which I've reviewed to my satisfaction, that should prevent similarly unfortunate circumstances from developing. In addition, we've tied up some loose ends involving staffing so Sue and the rest of the team can proceed with their work.
So, I'm pleased to report that the Wikimedia Foundation is in a solid position in its employment practices. I expect that as a result, we will be able to maintain an excellent staff that continues to accomplish far more than you would normally anticipate from such a small team.
--Michael Snow
Welcome Jennifer. We look forward to work with you.
/Lennart
2009/4/15 Mike.lifeguard mikelifeguard@fastmail.fm
Welcome, Jennifer!
Congratulations to the hiring committee as well for carrying out a successful hiring process. While the Foundation is expanding, I think this and other recent hirings show there's no loss of focus on the power behind the projects, which is the massive base of volunteer contributors, and that enabling them is key to continued success.
Thanks, -Mike
On Tue, 2009-04-14 at 19:17 -0700, Sue Gardner wrote:
Hello folks,
I am delighted to announce that this week, Jennifer Riggs begins work as the Wikimedia Foundation's first-ever Chief Program Officer. She will report to me. Frank Schulenburg, Jay Walsh and Cary Bass now report to Jennifer: as CPO, she is responsible for all non-technical program activities such as volunteer recruitment and public outreach.
As you probably know, we've been searching for a CPO since last fall. Because this is a new and important position for us, we deliberately decided to allow a large pool of candidates to accumulate over several months. We wanted to build in time to think seriously about our needs while meeting with a wide range of people.
Since October, we received applications from more than 150 people with a diverse array of backgrounds including media, academia, the public school system, non-profits, the free software movement and the business world. As we carried out the interviewing process, the hiring committee came to the understanding that Wikimedia is, at its heart, a volunteer-centred organization -- and that what we need most in a CPO is a rich background in facilitating, structuring and supporting the work of volunteers. Enter, Jennifer!
Jennifer comes to Wikimedia from the American Red Cross Bay Area chapter, where, as Manager of Volunteer Resources, she managed the work of more than a thousand volunteers. Prior to the Red Cross, she was Project Director at the non-profit California School-Age Consortium, where she ran a program of train-the-trainer workshops. Before that, she worked for six years in program administration at the Peace Corps, as a Country Desk Office on the Central America Desk, a Country Desk Assistant on the Pacific Islands Desk, and a Training and Technical Coordinator in Togo, West Africa.
Jennifer speaks French, Sango and some Spanish. She has a B.A. in History with minors in Education and Political Science from New York University.
We know that the success of the Wikimedia projects depends upon the 150,000 active volunteers who are our core contributors. Jennifer's wealth of experience recruiting, motivating and retaining volunteers will be enormously useful to us as we aim to better support the volunteers we currently have, and also reach out to new people.
Please join me in warmly welcoming her to the Wikimedia Foundation.
I want to take a moment also to thank Erik Moeller, Michael Snow and Kat Walsh for participating on the hiring committee. This was an important decision, and their experiences and advice were really helpful throughout the process.
Thanks, Sue
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org