Hi Stephen,
Can board agendas, as well as slides and docs which are not security or privacy sensitive, be published 2 weeks in advance of meetings, please? This will allow community members to provide comments and ask questions ahead of board meetings that the board can take into consideration when the meeting occurs.
Thanks, Pine
Pine
On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Stephen LaPorte slaporte@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all,
The agenda for the next Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees meeting on June 16, 2017 is now available on Meta Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia. org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_board_agenda_2017-06
Best, Stephen
-- Stephen LaPorte Senior Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer.*
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
Pine,
I think the first step in this direction is for the Board to decide whether or not they wish to engage with the Community in this way – whether they have the time, energy and bandwidth to handle such communications, and whether they see the reward as commensurate with the investment. So far it seems that their view has been negative on both counts, but that has never been an explicit decision, and perhaps times have changed. I don't think we can ask Stephen as an employee to make such changes to Board practice without their consent. It is probably better for all concerned, however disappointing it may be, for the Board to be explicit and frank about their appetite for this engagement rather than raising expectations in the Community that they are unwilling or unable to meet.
However, a statement from the Board members would be valuable here.
"Rogol"
On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 8:05 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Stephen,
Can board agendas, as well as slides and docs which are not security or privacy sensitive, be published 2 weeks in advance of meetings, please? This will allow community members to provide comments and ask questions ahead of board meetings that the board can take into consideration when the meeting occurs.
Thanks, Pine
Pine
On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Stephen LaPorte slaporte@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all,
The agenda for the next Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees meeting on June 16, 2017 is now available on Meta Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia. org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_board_agenda_2017-06
Best, Stephen
-- Stephen LaPorte Senior Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.
For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer.*
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
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First of all: kudos to Stephen for getting the agenda more or less consistently out before the meeting - that's already an improvement compared to the past.
Of course any advance time would be helpful - but only if the board would actually appreciate input. I believe the meeting schedule is regular enough that community members could already suggest topics (not sure if the chair or secretary would be the best point of entry for that), so there would only be an added benefit if also supporting documents would be shared in advance. I can imagine however that this would come at a very significant cost - it would affect probably a whole lot of deadlines and make it harder to make last minute updates.
Lodewijk
On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 9:05 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Stephen,
Can board agendas, as well as slides and docs which are not security or privacy sensitive, be published 2 weeks in advance of meetings, please? This will allow community members to provide comments and ask questions ahead of board meetings that the board can take into consideration when the meeting occurs.
Thanks, Pine
Pine
On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Stephen LaPorte slaporte@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all,
The agenda for the next Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees meeting on June 16, 2017 is now available on Meta Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia. org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_board_agenda_2017-06
Best, Stephen
-- Stephen LaPorte Senior Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.
For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer.*
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
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@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
I think that given how far in advance WMF Board meetings are planned, it should be possible to know the agenda and have the materials available for publication 2 weeks in advance.
If some last minute item comes up, it can easily be amended to the agenda. Similarly, if for some reason an agenda item is dropped or tabled for a future meeting, that can be done as well.
It is not my goal to box the Board into an unreasonably tight set of constraints. I think it should be possible to achieve the benefits of advance notification while maintaining a little flexibility to accommodate changes. Naturally, those changes should be publicized when they become known.
Pine
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