[Foundation-l] elections and other things

[Anthere]

Dear all,
 
Danny just published final results of Wikimedia Foundation board, so it finally close them...
 
So... first, I would like to thank all those who gave me their trust and hope I will not disappoint them :-)
 
Second, I'd like to thank our election officials plus Tim, who certainly spent a good deal of time organising all this and did it very well.
I think this year elections were fair to all languages, both for candidates and voters, and I am real glad of this. I hope candidates and editors will agree with me, if not, please add comments on the election meta pages, for any suggestions to improve next elections.
 
A few more words about the elections themselves.
I wish it had more been an opportunity to discuss big directions, but I guess this can be done any time; I dearly hope that Wikimania, in 2 weeks now, will offer one of these opportunities.
I am happily surprised to see participation is significantly higher than next year (about twice of last year figures)... but I am also a bit perplex that some projects show less participation than their size would have led us to expect. I do not really need to give figures, it is enough to look at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Election_results_2005/statistics. It would be interesting to confront these values to the number of very active participants each time... but even without doing so, some participation rates, such as the japanese one are obviously very low. According to Britty, this might have deep cultural roots. Possibly.
Or languages such as it:, which already has a local chapter, could be thought to have more awareness than other languages to Foundation issues. Or possibly not.
 
I have been wondering if that matters.
On one hand, I wish that more people feel involved, feel they have a right to be informed, would like to give a hand... feel implicated.
But on the other hand, I suppose most people are perfectly happy not giving too many thoughts on the matter, and do what is most important, create free content, and do not feel concerned *as long as everything is working*. 
 
Still, I think I will work on a small and very readable FAQ, to clarify what the foundation is about. From discussions here and there, I feel there is great confusion about what it is and great confusion about the differences and relationships between Foundation and local chapters. I hope some people will help me on that FAQ :-)
 
 
My next point will be about evolution.
Three huge differences between this year and a year ago are
* We are much bigger (which means more requests, more legal issues to deal with, more financial needs but also more offers of collaboration, more projects and more editors to take care of)
* Jimmy is much more busy outside than he was a year ago. It must be very tiring (and very exciting) for him, but it also means more delays to deal with some issues (in particular paperwork...)
* Angela and I had a lot to discover last year and I think we have found our place better this year.
 
I think we can try to deal with growth by several means, such as more organisation, dividing work much more between us and delegating much more. We already started, I am confident it will improve, with the officers and possibly with the wikicouncil (which I hope we can discuss at Wikimania). The main point I fear right now is related to communication. Within the board, with officers, with editors. I hope that anyone will feel free to make suggestions so that we can improve all this. Right now, we frequently observe information was not passed along, or was passed with so many intermediaries it was unfortunately distorted. Thus resulting in misunderstandings, upsets and just plain mistakes. Please help us find solutions if you want us to keep happy and efficient :-)
 
Yet another point. Most of the board or officers (or semi-officers, because some people just spend most of their time on Foundation issues, even if they have no title, let's not forget this), do work which is not visible. And these might be the most precious people.
Just as the communities on each projects, the Foundation community has its own rules, its own very friendly relationships and its own inimities (which might not be english... right, I mean some people just do not get along well). It is a small community but it has a separate existence (and boy, is it a lively group !).
Please do not confuse it with a set of people of different languages living near one another. These people constitute a group on its own, and as in many groups, there are those who do most of the silent work and those who make a lot of noise but little work and get all the cheers. Please try to see beneath the appareances so as to make it possible for the group to work in harmony.
 
 
Last point.
Given all the pressure around Wikimania, it is unlikely much will seem to be done on the Foundation side in the next few weeks. But if you come to Frankfurt, let us take the opportunity to talk all together. 
All other issues will probably be in sleep till september. On the agenda are issues such as a fundraising (probably necessary soon), a policy on logo use, fixing the bylaws, trademarks, big update on the sponsors, new servers, starting a new Quarto etc... 
We would also like to have several and frequent open board meetings to start the year. Please do not hesitate to suggest topics of discussion you think are necessary.
 
Greetings
 
Ant


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