Dear Wikimedians of Sri Lanka,
As a result of the first three weeks of the call for feedback on WMF
Community Board seats, three topics turned out to be the focus of the
discussion. Additionally, a new idea has been introduced by a community
member recently: Candidates resources. We would like to pursue these focus
topics and the new idea appropriately, discussing them in depth and
collecting new ideas and fresh approaches by running four panels in the
next week. Every panel includes four members from the movement covering
many regions, backgrounds and experiences, along with a trustee of the
Board. Every panel will last 45 minutes, followed by a 45-minute open mic
discussion, where everyone’s free to ask questions or to contribute to the
further development of the panel's topics.
Topics and Panels time are:
- Skills for Board work
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…>[1]
- Friday, March 12, 23:30 Sri Lankan time (18:00 UTC)
- Support for candidates
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…>[2]
- Saturday, March 13, 19:00 Sri Lankan time (13:30 UTC)
- Board - Global Council - Hubs
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…>[3]
-
Saturday, March 13, 21:30 Sri Lankan time (16:00 UTC)
- Regional diversity
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…>[4]
- Sunday, March 14, 18:30 Sri Lankan time (13:00 UTC)
To counter spamming, the meeting link will be updated on the
Meta-Wiki pages and also on the Telegram announcements channel
<https://t.me/wmboardgovernanceannounce>[5], 15 minutes before the official
start.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya
Dear Wikimedians of Sri Lanka,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is organizing a call for
feedback about community selection processes
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…>[1]
between February 1 and March 14. While the Wikimedia Foundation and the
movement have grown about five times in the past ten years, the Board’s
structure and processes have remained basically the same. As the Board is
designed today, we have a problem of capacity, performance, and lack of
representation of the movement’s diversity. Direct elections tend to favor
candidates from the leading language communities, regardless of how
relevant their skills and experience might be in serving as a Board member,
or contributing to the ability of the Board to perform its specific
responsibilities. It is also a fact that the current processes have favored
volunteers from North America and Western Europe. As a matter of fact,
there had only been one member who served on the Board, from South Asia, in
more than fifteen years of history.
In the upcoming months, we need to renew three community seats and appoint
three more community members in the new seats. This call for feedback is to
see what processes can we all collaboratively design to promote and choose
candidates that represent our movement and are prepared with the
experience, skills, and insight to perform as trustees? In this regard, it
would be good to have a community discussion to discuss the proposed ideas
and share our thoughts, give feedback and contribute to the process. To
discuss this, you are invited to a community meeting that is being
organized on March 12 from 8 pm to 10 pm, and the meeting link to join is
https://meet.google.com/umc-attq-kdt. You can add this meeting to your
Google Calendar by clicking here
<https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=MDNqcjRwaWxtZThnMXB…>[2].
Please ping me if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Krishna Chaitanya
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
[2]
https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=MDNqcjRwaWxtZThnMXB…