*Hello, everyone.

I'm writing with information about the Ombudsman Commission (OC), the small group of volunteers who investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, and in particular concerning the use of CheckUser tools, on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees has delegated some of the decisions about the OC (including composition and size) to the Wikimedia Foundation staff.

The application period for new commissioners for 2013 has recently closed. We are extremely grateful to the many dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers who offered to assist with this work. Before announcing the composition of the 2013 commission, however, I would like to let you all know about a trial change in the OC. Although the OC is kept intentionally small due to the high level of trust required of its members, this year we are expanding the commission (on a trial basis) from five members to seven. This expansion has two primary purposes. First, the commission bears a heavy responsibility of ensuring that users are granted the privacy that is their due under the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy. We hope that an expansion of the commission will help them remain swiftly responsive to issues sent to them even when some of the commissioners have pressing matters beyond their volunteer work. Second, commissioners have traditionally been asked to surrender their CheckUser functions on their home wikis during their term on the commission, a request that helps to reduce the potential for conflict of interest between the roles but which may also place an undue burden on smaller projects that have fewer CheckUsers to assist. With a larger commission, we expect that commissioners will be able to continue in this also critical function, only recusing if issues are raised relating to their direct colleagues.

It's important that we carefully balance the need to keep this group small against the requirements that they remain flexible and available. At the end of the year, we will explore the impact of this expansion to ensure that the benefit is sufficient to the functioning of the OC to warrant the growth.

In addition, the Wikimedia Foundation is committing to more closely work with the Commission this year, in an attempt to learn how we can more fully support their work. We will also be working with them to generate more regular reporting to the community in the form of at least an annual report on case load (of course, non-specific due to privacy considerations).

With that in mind, we are pleased to announce the composition of the 2013 OC.

Returning to the commission are three members who have served since 2011:* * *User:FloNight, who primarily edits Wikipedia en (where she is an administrator and a former member of the Arbitration Committee) but who has also contributed to Commons.She is newly editing Wikivoyage and involved with US GLAM. She is also one of the initial members of the Funds Dissemination Committee.

*User:Sir48, who primarily edits Wikipedia da (where he has been a CheckUser), but is also active on Commons and Meta (particularly in translations) along with a number of other language Wikipedias. He took part in vandalfighting initiatives a few years back.

*User:Thogo, who primarily Wikipedia de (where he is currently an administrator and is a former arbitrator). but who has also contributed substantially to Wiktionary de and Meta. He is formerly a steward as well as having served as an administrator on several other projects.

We appreciate their willingness to remain, to bring their familiarity with processes and experiences to the new arrivals.

Joining them are* * *User:Deskana, who primarily edits Wikipedia en. There, he is an administrator, CheckUser and bureaucrat. He is also a former arbitrator.

*User:Erzbischof, who primarily edits Wikipedia de, where he is currently an administrator and formerly an arbitrator.

*User:Huji, who primarily edits Wikipedia fa, where he is an administrator, CheckUser and bureaucrat. He has also contributed substantially to Simple Wikipedia, Wikipedia en and Meta, and is a Wikimedia developer.

*User:Levg, who primarily edits Wikipedia ru, where he is an administrator, oversighter and bureaucrat and where he has twice served as an arbitrator.

Please join me in thanking the following volunteers, who have given substantially of their time to serve on the commission the past years, and who are not returning:* * * User:Mwpnl

* ** User:Dweller

I'd also like to say a hearty thank you to those returning and those coming aboard for a first time, as well as to all those who applied. Again, it was an extremely knowledgeable group of volunteers, and while we believe that this mix of users may best serve the need for this year, I hope that those who applied will consider applying again for future commissions.

Maggie *