[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Committees: open meeting, February 1

[Angela]

On 1/30/06, Tim Starling <t.starling at physics.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:

> Some committees might benefit from the guidance of qualified outsiders,
> but the committees should still be dominated by volunteers, either
> selected by a transparent and fair process with Board oversight or, as
> Erik suggests, with open membership.

The processes by which committees select their members have not yet
been worked out. Although some committee organisers have devised lists
of potential committee members, details of how members are chosen, or
whether the membership will be open in any way, has been largely
overlooked.

This is something that needs to be considered before the Board hands
down actual authority to these committees since there is the danger we
will turn from having a partially elected and accountable Board making
decisions to decisions being made in a non-transparent process by the
new committees, which was never my intention when I voted for this new
structure.

Therefore, I would like to propose an IRC meeting be held, for all
committee organizers along with all community members who want to take
an interest in the future running of the Foundation. The aim will be
to find ways the committees can remain accountable, legally and
financially, but also accountable to the Board and community. The
meeting is also to discuss how open and transparent various aspects of
those committees can or should be, including their membership,
processes, and actions. I'm aware there are strongly opposing
viewpoints on this area, but I hope that having a planned discussion
will lead to some consensus on how the committees can be best
directed.

The meeting will be on Wednesday February 1 at 21:00 UTC (4pm New
York, see <http://tinyurl.com/dmdjo> for other timezones). The
#wikimedia-meeting channel is accessible on the web via
http://irc.wikicities.com/meeting/ for anyone who can not access IRC
in the normal way.

Angela.