On 11 October 2012 22:01, Andrew Turvey andrewrturvey@googlemail.com wrote:

This sets out that the organisation would incorporate first and then recruit the SG, which appears to be a more logical sequence of events. However, I notice that the incorporation step is not part of the process that the interim consultant will help with.

Could you expand on the rationale for this please?

Hi Andrew,

Recruiting a Secretary General is likely to take more than 6 weeks and we would all like to see this done by the end of this year.

Incorporation could be done in a few days in several alternative countries as soon as one is chosen. Unfortunately, discussing where might be the best location for WCA administration may take several months due to the political, tax and financial implications that everyone is keen to worry about. In fact there is no guarantee we would ever reach a conclusion if only volunteers are available to do this analysis in their spare time.

The city/country for incorporation has been a topic of hot debate as many assume that this will also be where any administration for the WCA is likely to be located (not necessarily true). By unlocking the location for incorporation from getting the recruitment process started, I hope to avoid us taking several more months debating locations when it is not clear that this is necessary for an SG to be appointed - the SG can be paid a "competitive market rate" for their country of residence and their employment contract could either be negotiated in their home country or a legal initial incorporation (say, in London) for convenience later to be superseded by a location that the SG can make proposals for.

The Council Members may well end up delaying the recruitment process until 2013 while we continue the (mostly political) debate on WCA office/administrative location if we insist on planning and doing these things sequentially. This would mean that we would struggle to appoint a SG before the Chapters Conference next year. However, a legal or other firm argument as to why the initial stages of recruitment cannot start in parallel has yet to be presented.

So that this is nominally on the recruitment schedule in the resolution, I have added a footnote to step 4 and I suggest we plan to incorporate a body that can employ the SG without that being a commitment to have an office in that same country. Either London or Berlin would be good choices considering we only need to know legal and accounting firms that can help us sort this out and there are no implications for any physical office.

PS I am not going to be available for the next few days due to the CEE conference, so it may be an idea to continue this discussion on the :meta talk page so that Ziko, Stefan and others might pick up and discuss some alternative options.

Thanks, Fae

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 4:50 AM, Fae fae@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:

On 11 October 2012 22:10, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:

...

The consultant has apparently been chosen already based on a recommendation from Pavel. What other consultants were considered? What was the process? Did you get competing quotes?

No, I did not get competing quotes.

On the meta talk page, Tomer says he had two offers.

I have had agencies and consultants approaching me ...

Seriously? HR firms noticed the page on meta and cold called you? Wow.

.. but Pavel's recommendation was solid. Unfortunately Ziko was unavailable on the day for the interview. Considering that Stefan comes with a great recommendation and experience of doing very similar work, this seemed a low risk decision. I have never worked with Stefan before and have no conflict of loyalties in this regard, I am merely going for a low risk pragmatic decision to ensure tangible progress on our first and most important goal for this year - getting a Secretary General established.

The resolution of the WCA is clear that the _first_ important goal is to incorporate. By 15 August 2012. It is a difficult decision, but it is not simplified by WCA's volunteer time being diverted to

If the Council wishes to pause progress and consider a more detailed recruitment process with a number of bids against an open specification, I can ask Stefan to stop or terminate at any time and WMDE will cover those costs.

Has Stefan already started?