Dear friends and colleagues,

As you know, the FDC Advisory Group met in Frankfurt at the end of May to discuss the past two years of the FDC pilot process and to deliberate on its future. You will be glad to know that they unanimously agreed to advise the WMF Executive Director (ED) that the FDC process should continue, with some suggested modifications and improvements.

Please find the main recommendations and thoughts from the Advisory Group here.[1] The Advisory Group (AG) also decided to share an appendix with the range of thoughts and opinions it had on some key modifications or changes to the FDC; you will find that there was considerable diversity of opinion with some of these ideas, but the AG felt it might be useful for Lila to see the range!

As you know, the next steps will now be for Lila, as ED, to consult with WMF staff and to decide with the Board on the future of the FDC. We hope this decision will be shared with you by the end of July.

Once again, I'd like to thank all the FDC AG members for their extraordinary work setting up the FDC and for their work on these recommendations. As the Framework outlines, the FDC AG will formally disband in September 2014.

The inaugural members of the AG were Richard Ames/Ariconte, Ting Chen (former member of WMF Board), Jan-Bart de Vreede (WMF Board), Thomas d'Souza Buckup/TSB, Peter Ekman/Smallbones, Sue Gardner (WMF ED), Ali Haidar Khan/Tonmoy (WMBN), Crystal Hayling Philanthropy Advisor), Christophe Henner (WMFR), Sydney Poore/FloNight, Kathy Reich (Packard Foundation), Pavel Richter ( WMDE), Osmar Valdebenito/B1mbo (WMAR) and Stu West (WMF Board). With Ali and Sydney on the current FDC, they were no longer part of the AG meeting in Frankfurt, though their thoughts were considered as part of the FDC feedback to the Advisory Group; Kathy Reich and Thomas Buckup were also unable to attend. However, Bishakha Datta and Patricio Lorente as the two Board representatives on the FDC, joined the AG for its deliberations, as did I, replacing Barry Newstead.

Please don't hesitate to add your comments and suggestions on the discussion page of the Recommendations.

Warmly, Anasuya

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Adv...