Those who read the signpost or follow arbcom for whatever reason will
know that “Fæ is indefinitely banned from the English Language
Wikipedia. He may request reconsideration of the ban six months after
the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.”
This is incompatible with him remaining chair and for that matter a
board member.
The English wikipedia is by far the most significant project WMUK is
involved with and having a board member blocked from it causes a
number of problems.
Firstly within the Wikimedia community. Its bit much to ask English
wikipedia editors to work with an organisation who's board members
include someone banned from the project. Other chapters are also
likely to take the pragmatic approach of avoiding dealing with any
other chapter that could be considered to have problematic board
members. While non en.wikipedia projects may continue to work with us
the working with a banned user aspect would in all probability be used
by those members of such projects to assert their “not en-wikipedia”
status. This is something it would be deeply unwise for WMUK to get
involved with.
Outside the Wikimedia community it also present a number of issues.
Obviously there are the public relations issues. It simply doesn't
look good and can be used against WMUK, en.wikipedia and the wider
project. This is not consistent with WMUK's goals. But that aside
consider the Society of Biology Wikipedia workshop on the 29th. Fae is
as a banned user will be limited in the extent he can show people how
to edit en.wikipedia and if the issue does arise it is likely to be
more than mildly disruptive to the session to say the least. Asking
Fae not to attend such sessions isn't really a solution as a chair of
the board we can't be seen in public with isn't a good place to be.
On a purely technical level looking at the Articles of Association Fae
can resign. Alternatively its possible that he could be removed by a
general meeting (although it isn't entirely clear) Since the AGM is 10
months away an EGM would be required. A final option is that the
directors could remove him as a member which has the effect of
removing him as a director. Takes 21 days mind.
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geni