[Foundation-l] Hiring of Interim Executive Director and Legal Counsel

[Michael Snow]

Erik Moeller wrote:

> On 6/12/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>
>> We intend to hire a fulltime Executive Director following a very careful
>> process of consulting with the community, building support globally,
>> defining what the foundation needs, and a comprehensive search for a
>> good candidate, both *within the existing community* and *outside the
>> community*.
>
> Is there a timetable for this? Failing that, is there a definite
> commitment from all sides that this is, indeed, an interim position?
> When can we expect the first report about the outcome of the search
> process?

I think Jimmy was pretty clear about the interim part in making his 
announcement. Brad has also commented on another list emphasizing that 
point. Executive director and legal counsel are two distinct roles, and 
I don't think anybody would be able to fill both of them simultaneously 
for any significant length of time without a sizable staff at his or her 
disposal (which obviously is not the case here).

Brad hasn't even had his first day on the job yet, so I think it's a 
little early to be asking where the timetables and reports are. This 
isn't even as far along as the process for replacing Tim Shell on the 
Board, and I think Jimmy's response on that issue applies just as well 
here. Let's have less haste and more speed. If you want to speed things 
along, I'm sure an outline of the strategy for conducting the search 
would be welcomed.

To address other questions about the Executive Director position and 
this announcement, I've posted a FAQ on Meta 
(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_FAQ). If people have 
more issues they would like to discuss or questions to ask, I recommend 
posting to the talk page so we can continue the conversation on the wiki.

--Michael Snow