Hi Florence

I'm sure someone from the staff is going to explain this better later, but I will give it a shot until they do. I fielded questions about this last year, and did some clean-up work on Meta, so I looked up the information about this. I might be wrong on a couple of things, but I will try and explain to the best of my knowledge.

Fellows, and their organizational, administrative roles have been fleshed out much better now than they were before. I believe Siko deserves a lot of the credit, along with other staffers. The delineation are becoming more clearer now than they were before.

As it stands, there seem to be 2 types of fellows- one is, Research fellows and the other, Community fellows.

Research fellows are usually remotely located, who sign on for a limited time and project. Their terms are usually smaller and only for the duration of the project which they sign on for. They are signed on for a specific task or project and supported through it. They are remote contractors, whose purpose is the completion of their research project and WMF supports them through it.

Community fellows, which might be more familiar, are usually community members. They are usually located at the WMF office, and usually have one year terms (in majority of the cases). They may or may not have a specific project, or take on more projects during their fellowship. They are usually community resources/representatives at the staff with some familiarity with the staff and inner-workings. The last 3 community fellows incidentally, moved on to staff positions after their terms - Steven, Maryana and James. As far as I know, no past fellow exceeded the one year term.

To the best of my knowledge, Community fellows are contractors. They are technically separate from staff, and technically not answerable to a direct superior. Traditionally, fellows are independent of the organization that appoints them. (not sure if that is the same in WMF context)

I answered a couple of your questions in-line also.

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 2:15 PM, Florence Devouard anthere9@yahoo.comwrote:

Hello

Following a conversation started on another mailing list on the meaning of "fellowship", I am forwarding here a question that I hope will be answered by someone (I can not help being curious :)).

My original question was

"I have also been wondering myself what the difference is between a fellow and a staff member. The only difference I could personally figure out is that the fellow is there for a very specific mission and for a fixed amount of time, whilst the staff person may have his role and tasks change over time and is supposingly on unlimited time (until he leaves or get fired). Am I correct in my interpretation or is a fellow something different than what I think it is ?"

I got the following answers

"From a communications perspective I have no problem defining what a fellow is, and what they're doing. They are receiving compensation from the Foundation to really focus on the work that they do, but I don't believe would we call them 'staff' of the Foundation, nor contractors. Creative Commons has fellows as well, but I've generally seen them communicating and carrying out work within their research or area of activity focus: https://creativecommons.org/**fellowshttps://creativecommons.org/fellows

I do believe in either case a fellow does work on a specific project or initiative for a set period of time."

as well as

"See also https://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships#** What_a_Fellow_is.https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships#What_a_Fellow_is... (and the following section, "What a Fellow is not...") "

and

"In other contexts, one of the important reasons why a fellow might not be considered "staff" of the organization providing the fellowship is because they would remain on the staff of whatever organization they were affiliated with originally. Somebody at a university who receives a fellowship to pursue research while on sabbatical is still primarily seen as part of the university. (Not that Wikimedia fellowships are designed for purely academic research, but the principle about affiliation applies nevertheless.)"

Which answers partly to my question indeed.

I would be interesting to have not only a communication/management perspective, but also an administrative & legal one.

Does the fellowship status implies that the WMF pays for health or retirement benefits (as it would for a staff member) or does the fellow receive a lump sum and manages by himself to pay for taxes and benefits depending on the country he lives in (as would a contractor) ?

Depends on the type of fellowship. Research fellows don't get other benefits, they are purely contractors. Community fellows are different, the exact nature of benefits was going through a change from what I remember since last year. Since majority of the community fellows have been located in SF, the exact tax and benefit paid, depends on California laws than elsewhere.

Does the fellowship status implies that, should the fellow get in trouble, he would be considered "staff" (in terms of liability) or is he on his own ? (which in my terms would be "if as staff", he is covered by WMF insurrance versus "if as contractor", he has to pay insurrance by himself).

They are not staff. Research fellows truly are remote contractors, while Community fellows might be considered independent contractors working along-side staff. They are technically still not staff. In case of trouble, they would be considered as contractors. Perhaps not legally, but they are still considered representative of the organization that appoints them. I'm guessing, how far WMF takes the relationship or defends a contractor, would depend on the nature of the case.

I hope this helps, I'm sure someone will correct me if I missed anything.

Regards Theo