Dear friends,
Today, here in Gdansk, at the meeting of the Board of Trustees during the sixth annual
Wikimania Conference, the Board made some important changes. I'm pleased to share this
news with you. The Foundation will be issuing a public announcement shortly as well.
Every year at Wikimania, the Wikimedia Board appoints its officers for the coming year.
This year we have changes to each of the Officer roles. As of today's meeting, I was
fortunate to be appointed Chair of the Board - and I'm grateful to have the support of
the Board in this new role.. Stuart West was appointed Vice-chair (and continues as Board
Treasurer), and Samuel Klein becomes Board Secretary.
Also, the Wikimedia chapters have made their selections for the two chapters-selected
Board seats. Arne Klempert has been reappointed to his seat, and Phoebe Ayers has also
been appointed to join the Board.
This means that Michael Snow will be leaving the Board: he has been invited to join the
Advisory Board, and the Board warmly thanks him for his service.
Michael Snow has been a tireless and dedicated leader of this Board, and the whole
Wikimedia movement, over the past two years. I want to express my sincere thanks to him on
behalf of the Board and all of the Wikimedia community. I am also excited to congratulate
and welcome Phoebe Ayers to the Board, and also to congratulate Arne Klempert for his
re-appoitment to the Board in a Chapter-appointed seat.
There are 10 seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and according to the
Foundation's bylaws, three members are elected by the Wikimedia community, two members
are selected by the Wikimedia chapters, a Community Founder seat held by Jimmy Wales, and
four members appointed by the Board itself to provide additional, specific expertise.
Currently all seats on the Board of Trustees are filled.
This is the first time that the official Chapters selection process has been carried out.
Members of Wikimedia's global chapters, made a call for nominations for new members
and voted to elect their two members. In this year's election nine candidates from the
Wikimedia community originally stepped forward. Two of those candidates stepped out of the
process, leaving seven candidates for selection by the Chapters.
All of the officer appointments are effective immediately, and we are pleased to welcome
Phoebe to the Board right away.
I'd like to thank the Chapters for their thoughtful work in convening a process and
carrying out their voting process. I would also like to thank all of the candidates who
stepped forward for with their nominations.
I'm looking forward to an incredible year ahead. We have an ambitious plan for the
Foundation and the projects over the next year, and we have a tremendous group to tackle a
busy year ahead.
Sincerely,
Ting
--
Ting Chen
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
E-Mail: tchen(a)wikimedia.org
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