[Foundation-l] Re : jobs

[Alison Wheeler]

On Fri, June 2, 2006 14:56, Lord Voldemort wrote:
> On 6/2/06, Alison Wheeler <wikimedia at alisonwheeler.com> wrote:
>> For any charitable foundation which expects and *needs* to retain the
freely-donated level of work of its volunteers to engage a COO (as that
is
>> what the description is far closer too rather than a CEO - see next mail!)
>> without (a) advertising the position to its membership and generally, (b)
>> publicising the shortlisted candidates under consideration in some manner,
>> and (c) having an open recruitment process throughout, would seem to be
very contrary to good corporate governance.
>
> Why would a shortlist need to be publicised? Do you mean actually
listing the names of the candidates, or simply stating that "there is a
short list of candidates"?  I am not sure posting the names of those
"still in the running" is that common a practice.  Or are you
> referring to more publicity within the higher-ups of the Foundation?

My own view is both. Whilst it might not be a common practice it certainly
happens in some charities/foundations and WMF / wikiprojects generally are
a special case to my mind in that we have a *very* large number of people
involved at editing and sysop management level, with a very *very* small
fiscal/legal/organising operation trying to co-ordinate it all. That
co-ordination function has, I think everyone realises, not been working as
well as it could have in many ways. There are possible solutions I
believe, and being open about the process of trying to improve the
situation is one of the ways to get the buy-in from the general
wikipedians to the required structure.

We are an open project and, imho, our recruitment at the most senior
positions needs to be as open as possible. Whilst I would not expect to
see wikipedians 'voting' on the appointment - there are too many legal and
capability considerations for that to be at all a possibility - the wider
knowledge of the class of people coming forward for the job, and the
general knowledge that the WMF has chosen the *best* available rather than
the nearest/easiest/cheapest available can only be a good thing for wider
support around our projects.

Alison Wheeler