Dear Wikimedians,
Following up on Katherine’s email from last week[1], we are today opening the call for Working Group members for 9 Thematic Areas (yes, we added one more!).
== Working Group members == The Working Groups will map the present situation of their Thematic Area, the obstacles and opportunities, as well as needed changes to advance our movement in our strategic direction. They will identify possible strategies for making these changes and develop concrete recommendations for the movement on how to ratify and implement them.[2]
Working Group members will need to be able to invest a minimum of 5 hours per week, but that time might vary depending on the workflow that each group agrees upon. Members of the Working Groups are expected to act in the interest of the movement, not in the interest of their own organization or community.
== Selection of members == We are looking for a maximum of 15 members for each of the 9 groups. For best results we will need a diverse set of members from across the movement. We have developed a set of criteria, to ensure the necessary expertise, diversity, and representation.[3] We will assemble a Steering Committee to decide upon membership of the Working Groups in close coordination with the Core Strategy Team.[4]
== Apply to become a working group member == We encourage everyone with an interest in the strategic conversations to apply for becoming a Working Group member in their topic of expertise. We recommend that movement organizations and groups create internal processes for the selection of their candidates to avoid multiple, competing applications.
The call will be open until June 25, 2018. ***Please apply via this application form.[5]*** To prepare your application, you can consult the overview of the questions asked in the form on Meta.[6]
== Next steps == We expect to be able to announce the Working Group members in the second week of July, so that the working groups can be assembled, onboarded and ready to start working before Wikimania. The first step for the groups will be to agree upon their set-up and scope of work. At Wikimania, we plan to convene the attending Working Group members in the Strategy Space to discuss and refine their road to the recommendations and ensure exchange between the groups.[7]
We invite you all to familiarize yourselves with the existing documentation of the Working Group(s) of your interest,[8] add comments, additional input or share your concerns via talk pages Your comments will be then be taken into consideration by the respective Working Groups.
We are looking forward to working and having these long-awaited conversations with many of you!
In the name of the Strategy Core Team, Nicole
[1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2018-June/090417.html [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [5] https://goo.gl/forms/zVElm0hLT9eZvqwF3 [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_...
Hi Nicole,
Generally I like how the groups are organized. I have a few questions and comments.
1. The Product & Technology working group seems like it has a large scope for a single group. Also, the people who are in that working group will probably want to sync with TechCom and with the "Platform Evolution" initiative. Have you considered dividing this group's responsibilities into two (or more) groups, and how to synchronize this group's work with TechCom and the Platform Evolution initiative?
2. It appears that Working Groups page asks for members of the groups to commit to a minimum of five hours per week for nine months. That seems to be a very high commitment to ask from volunteers, especially when people would be adding their WG activities on top of their existing responsibilities and/or de-prioritize other valuable Wikimedia activities in favor of WG activity. Also, if I estimate 10 members per group times 9 groups times 5 hours per week times 39 weeks, then that means that the WG activities would consume 17,550 volunteer hours, which seems excessive. I suggest that you reduce the commitment that you request to an average of one hour per week per person, which would likely result in more people being willing to volunteer and reduce the diversion of people's time from other valuable activities, and that you accordingly make any necessary adjustments to plans for paid staff to support the WGs.
3. Has the budget for the 2nd phase of the strategy process been published? I am not asking for a promise that the process will cost a fixed amount, but I would hope to see detailed cost estimates and explanations of how estimates were made.
Thanks!
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
On Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 6:24 PM, Nicole Ebber nicole.ebber@wikimedia.de wrote:
Dear Wikimedians,
Following up on Katherine’s email from last week[1], we are today opening the call for Working Group members for 9 Thematic Areas (yes, we added one more!).
== Working Group members == The Working Groups will map the present situation of their Thematic Area, the obstacles and opportunities, as well as needed changes to advance our movement in our strategic direction. They will identify possible strategies for making these changes and develop concrete recommendations for the movement on how to ratify and implement them.[2]
Working Group members will need to be able to invest a minimum of 5 hours per week, but that time might vary depending on the workflow that each group agrees upon. Members of the Working Groups are expected to act in the interest of the movement, not in the interest of their own organization or community.
== Selection of members == We are looking for a maximum of 15 members for each of the 9 groups. For best results we will need a diverse set of members from across the movement. We have developed a set of criteria, to ensure the necessary expertise, diversity, and representation.[3] We will assemble a Steering Committee to decide upon membership of the Working Groups in close coordination with the Core Strategy Team.[4]
== Apply to become a working group member == We encourage everyone with an interest in the strategic conversations to apply for becoming a Working Group member in their topic of expertise. We recommend that movement organizations and groups create internal processes for the selection of their candidates to avoid multiple, competing applications.
The call will be open until June 25, 2018. ***Please apply via this application form.[5]*** To prepare your application, you can consult the overview of the questions asked in the form on Meta.[6]
== Next steps == We expect to be able to announce the Working Group members in the second week of July, so that the working groups can be assembled, onboarded and ready to start working before Wikimania. The first step for the groups will be to agree upon their set-up and scope of work. At Wikimania, we plan to convene the attending Working Group members in the Strategy Space to discuss and refine their road to the recommendations and ensure exchange between the groups.[7]
We invite you all to familiarize yourselves with the existing documentation of the Working Group(s) of your interest,[8] add comments, additional input or share your concerns via talk pages Your comments will be then be taken into consideration by the respective Working Groups.
We are looking forward to working and having these long-awaited conversations with many of you!
In the name of the Strategy Core Team, Nicole
[1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2018- June/090417.html [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups#Who_should_join_the_Working_Groups? [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Steering_Committee [5] https://goo.gl/forms/zVElm0hLT9eZvqwF3 [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Apply/Form [7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups#What_is_the_timeline_for_Working_Groups? [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups#What_are_the_key_thematic_areas?
-- Nicole Ebber Adviser International Relations Wikimedia Movement Strategy Process Lead Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin http://wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
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
The number of hours (a minimum of 5 hours, each week) is indeed very significant - especially as a minimum per week (which means that the average will more likely end up around 8-12 hours?). I understand that a significant commitment is necessary (an average of 1 as suggested by Pine will unlikely produce anything more than a few mailing list discussions, I'm afraid).
Just to set expectations clearly: I read that the grants department is scaling back their community facing activities (and I guess also other activities) to free up time to work on the strategy. I read that the FDC is 'skipping' a round to do the same. Is this the general expectation for other volunteers as well?
This is probably all a conscious choice - but I'm afraid it will self-select for a certain type of participants that can make a 9 month commitment for such a time investment. I'm guessing you already considered having working groups with tiers - where you have some people with a large time commitment, and some people with a more reasonable commitment? That may have helped in diversification.
Best, Lodewijk
On Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 1:30 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Nicole,
Generally I like how the groups are organized. I have a few questions and comments.
- The Product & Technology working group seems like it has a large scope
for a single group. Also, the people who are in that working group will probably want to sync with TechCom and with the "Platform Evolution" initiative. Have you considered dividing this group's responsibilities into two (or more) groups, and how to synchronize this group's work with TechCom and the Platform Evolution initiative?
- It appears that Working Groups page asks for members of the groups to
commit to a minimum of five hours per week for nine months. That seems to be a very high commitment to ask from volunteers, especially when people would be adding their WG activities on top of their existing responsibilities and/or de-prioritize other valuable Wikimedia activities in favor of WG activity. Also, if I estimate 10 members per group times 9 groups times 5 hours per week times 39 weeks, then that means that the WG activities would consume 17,550 volunteer hours, which seems excessive. I suggest that you reduce the commitment that you request to an average of one hour per week per person, which would likely result in more people being willing to volunteer and reduce the diversion of people's time from other valuable activities, and that you accordingly make any necessary adjustments to plans for paid staff to support the WGs.
- Has the budget for the 2nd phase of the strategy process been published?
I am not asking for a promise that the process will cost a fixed amount, but I would hope to see detailed cost estimates and explanations of how estimates were made.
Thanks!
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
On Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 6:24 PM, Nicole Ebber nicole.ebber@wikimedia.de wrote:
Dear Wikimedians,
Following up on Katherine’s email from last week[1], we are today opening the call for Working Group members for 9 Thematic Areas (yes, we added one more!).
== Working Group members == The Working Groups will map the present situation of their Thematic Area, the obstacles and opportunities, as well as needed changes to advance our movement in our strategic direction. They will identify possible strategies for making these changes and develop concrete recommendations for the movement on how to ratify and implement them.[2]
Working Group members will need to be able to invest a minimum of 5 hours per week, but that time might vary depending on the workflow that each group agrees upon. Members of the Working Groups are expected to act in the interest of the movement, not in the interest of their own organization or community.
== Selection of members == We are looking for a maximum of 15 members for each of the 9 groups. For best results we will need a diverse set of members from across the movement. We have developed a set of criteria, to ensure the necessary expertise, diversity, and representation.[3] We will assemble a Steering Committee to decide upon membership of the Working Groups in close coordination with the Core Strategy Team.[4]
== Apply to become a working group member == We encourage everyone with an interest in the strategic conversations to apply for becoming a Working Group member in their topic of expertise. We recommend that movement organizations and groups create internal processes for the selection of their candidates to avoid multiple, competing applications.
The call will be open until June 25, 2018. ***Please apply via this application form.[5]*** To prepare your application, you can consult the overview of the questions asked in the form on Meta.[6]
== Next steps == We expect to be able to announce the Working Group members in the second week of July, so that the working groups can be assembled, onboarded and ready to start working before Wikimania. The first step for the groups will be to agree upon their set-up and scope of work. At Wikimania, we plan to convene the attending Working Group members in the Strategy Space to discuss and refine their road to the recommendations and ensure exchange between the groups.[7]
We invite you all to familiarize yourselves with the existing documentation of the Working Group(s) of your interest,[8] add comments, additional input or share your concerns via talk pages Your comments will be then be taken into consideration by the respective Working Groups.
We are looking forward to working and having these long-awaited conversations with many of you!
In the name of the Strategy Core Team, Nicole
[1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2018- June/090417.html [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups#Who_should_join_the_Working_Groups? [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Steering_Committee [5] https://goo.gl/forms/zVElm0hLT9eZvqwF3 [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Apply/Form [7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups#What_is_the_timeline_for_Working_Groups? [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_ movement/2018-20/Working_Groups#What_are_the_key_thematic_areas?
-- Nicole Ebber Adviser International Relations Wikimedia Movement Strategy Process Lead Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin http://wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
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
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Dear Wikimedians,
We are closing the application form for Working Group members later today.[1] Please consider applying, if you are interested in strategic conversations about movement structures in thematic areas like roles and responsibilities, revenue streams, resource allocation, partnerships, capacity building, advocacy, technology and product, diversity or community health. We have received more than 100 applications by now and are looking for more!
I would like to encourage you to also consider applying even if you have not contributed to movement strategy conversations before or feel that you might lack experience or expertise to contribute. Your perspective might still enrich the discussions and we would like to see a broad diversity of voices in the conversations, from each corner of the movement.
We have heard a lot of feedback regarding 5 hours per week that we expect to be the average time investment for members of the Working Group. Time investment will vary depending on the week and progress: there will possibly be weeks with little to do (e.g. reading a one-pager), but there will also be weeks where members will need to read, discuss, design or review research tasks, agree, and communicate with each other and with other groups, have online-meetings or will attend in person events, write and review documents and emails etc. It will all also depend on how the working group decides to work together, and on the members and their individual work and conversations styles. Working groups will be supported according to their needs, for example in terms of facilitation, administration and translation.
If you think you can only invest 2-3 hours, but bring a unique set of experiences or background, please also consider applying! We will take a variety of criteria into account when selecting the members together with our Steering Committee.
Next steps: Selection of Working Group members will happen in the first half of July. The minimum number of members for working groups to be established is 6. That means, we might start with a smaller Working Group, then map the gaps in terms of diversity, representation and expertise and identify profiles of members that we need to bring into the group. Recruiting and selection of additional members will not only happen in July, but also at later stages in the process, depending on the needs the Core Team and the Working Groups identify.
If you are interested in applying but still have doubts, please reach out to Kaarel or me directly. We will work with you all on clarification.
All the best, Nicole
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_...
On Wed, 13 Jun 2018 at 03:24, Nicole Ebber nicole.ebber@wikimedia.de wrote:
Dear Wikimedians,
Following up on Katherine’s email from last week[1], we are today opening the call for Working Group members for 9 Thematic Areas (yes, we added one more!).
== Working Group members == The Working Groups will map the present situation of their Thematic Area, the obstacles and opportunities, as well as needed changes to advance our movement in our strategic direction. They will identify possible strategies for making these changes and develop concrete recommendations for the movement on how to ratify and implement them.[2]
Working Group members will need to be able to invest a minimum of 5 hours per week, but that time might vary depending on the workflow that each group agrees upon. Members of the Working Groups are expected to act in the interest of the movement, not in the interest of their own organization or community.
== Selection of members == We are looking for a maximum of 15 members for each of the 9 groups. For best results we will need a diverse set of members from across the movement. We have developed a set of criteria, to ensure the necessary expertise, diversity, and representation.[3] We will assemble a Steering Committee to decide upon membership of the Working Groups in close coordination with the Core Strategy Team.[4]
== Apply to become a working group member == We encourage everyone with an interest in the strategic conversations to apply for becoming a Working Group member in their topic of expertise. We recommend that movement organizations and groups create internal processes for the selection of their candidates to avoid multiple, competing applications.
The call will be open until June 25, 2018. ***Please apply via this application form.[5]*** To prepare your application, you can consult the overview of the questions asked in the form on Meta.[6]
== Next steps == We expect to be able to announce the Working Group members in the second week of July, so that the working groups can be assembled, onboarded and ready to start working before Wikimania. The first step for the groups will be to agree upon their set-up and scope of work. At Wikimania, we plan to convene the attending Working Group members in the Strategy Space to discuss and refine their road to the recommendations and ensure exchange between the groups.[7]
We invite you all to familiarize yourselves with the existing documentation of the Working Group(s) of your interest,[8] add comments, additional input or share your concerns via talk pages Your comments will be then be taken into consideration by the respective Working Groups.
We are looking forward to working and having these long-awaited conversations with many of you!
In the name of the Strategy Core Team, Nicole
[1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2018-June/090417.html [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [5] https://goo.gl/forms/zVElm0hLT9eZvqwF3 [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_... [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_...
-- Nicole Ebber Adviser International Relations Wikimedia Movement Strategy Process Lead Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin http://wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org