The other option I've been considering recently along those lines, but a little more formal, is an audit committee. It would consist of 3 trusted and experienced members elected by the membership and have a mandate to generally keep an eye on what is going on and to investigate specific complaints. It would then report to the board or, if necessary, the membership (and would have the power to call an EGM so the membership can react to that report).
Is there a role for an advisory board? It was discussed a while back. Perhaps some of the long serving former board members could be invited to be on it (Andrew T., Joe S., Tom D.)?
A little bit of an external check of "are we doing something basically sensible" might help.
And it'd be easier to enforce a hard policy of "no links to the WMF or any commercial organisations even vaguely related to new media" on an advisory board.
T
-----Original Message-----
From: wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Dalton
Sent: 13 October 2012 20:20
To: UK Wikimedia mailing list
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Latest WMUK blog post - message from our Board
The board needs to learn how to write a statement that actually says something...
Apologising for mistakes is meaningless if you don't acknowledge what those mistakes are. This statement comes across as defensive and empty of actual content.
What have you done wrong? What are you doing about fixing the problems caused by those mistakes and making sure similar mistakes don't happen again? That's what people want to know. If you want to wait until the review is complete before going into details, then say that. Don't post this kind of meaningless drivel.
On 13 October 2012 19:43, Stevie Benton <stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I thought I'd drop you a line to let you know that Wikimedia UK has
> just published its latest blog post. The post is a message to our
> community from the Board of Trustees.
>
> You can find the blog post at
> http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/a-message-from-the-wikimedia-uk-b
> oard/
>
> As ever, please do feel free to get in touch with your comments.
>
> Thanks and regards,
>
> Stevie
>
> --
>
> Stevie Benton
> Communications Organiser
> Wikimedia UK
> +44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
> @StevieBenton
>
> Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Company
> Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827.
> Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor,
> Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United
> Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation
> (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
> Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
> control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
>
>
>
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