Florence writes:
In fall 2006, we did not perform criminal background checks afaik.
Are we doing that now ? From what I understood, Mike took care of this and this is now being done. It is fairly recent, the board did not get any report on this, so I can not further comment.
I can confirm that the Foundation has retained an independent firm that conducts criminal background checks, consistent with state and federal law in the USA.
I asked Mike to work on a policy related to conflict of interest for the staff. We already have made that policy at board level several months ago, and it is successfully implemented. However, the policy at staff level is a bit broken and was never implemented. I told Mike I would like him to work on this.
This is in progress.
There comes a point when we must balance between telling you guys stuff, and shutting up to avoid further troubles. Unfortunately.
I wholly agree with Florence on this point, especially the "Unfortunately" part. My own inclination is to be as upfront and open as possible. So when you see me cautioning against public statements, you should infer that it's for some compelling legal reason, and not out of disregard for the importance of community information and participation.
--Mike
Mike Godwin wrote:
I wholly agree with Florence on this point, especially the "Unfortunately" part. My own inclination is to be as upfront and open as possible. So when you see me cautioning against public statements, you should infer that it's for some compelling legal reason, and not out of disregard for the importance of community information and participation.
Agreed. And I ask people to remember that this is our baby, all of us, and we have literally poured our lives into it. We care about it deeply and we are very saddened and hurt by these shocking revelations.
Of course we are doing soul searching about what we could have done different, and so forth.
I have decided to get out in front of the issue by pledging to cover, personally, any losses due to theft if that turns up in the audit. I do not think that will come to anything, but I stand ready to make sure that it does. It is the only thing I know of that I can do to help at this point in reassuring everyone that this is a non-story in the end.
--Jimbo
On Sat, December 15, 2007 06:53, Mike Godwin wrote:
I can confirm that the Foundation has retained an independent firm that conducts criminal background checks, consistent with state and federal law in the USA.
This is, clearly, good and sensible practice. I am, however, noting that http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings is clearly targeted at a world-wide base of possible applicants. How would a USA-based organisation (such as the firm you have retained) be able to carry out any criminal checks for such applicants outwith the USA? In the case of the UK, and I am sure other European and World countries, such information is not freely available to others than the law enforcement organisations of those countries. Or is it intended that only US-citizens could be accepted for any staff position with the WMF?
Alison
On 15/12/2007, Alison Wheeler wikimedia@alisonwheeler.com wrote:
On Sat, December 15, 2007 06:53, Mike Godwin wrote:
I can confirm that the Foundation has retained an independent firm that conducts criminal background checks, consistent with state and federal law in the USA.
This is, clearly, good and sensible practice. I am, however, noting that http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings is clearly targeted at a world-wide base of possible applicants. How would a USA-based organisation (such as the firm you have retained) be able to carry out any criminal checks for such applicants outwith the USA? In the case of the UK, and I am sure other European and World countries, such information is not freely available to others than the law enforcement organisations of those countries. Or is it intended that only US-citizens could be accepted for any staff position with the WMF?
You can do background checks ("CRB checks") in the UK. I think you need to person's permission to run it, and I don't know how much detail you get, but you can certainly find out if someone has a criminal record. Whether the US company the WMF has hired knows how to do background checks in other countries, I don't know, but it's certainly possible.
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