[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Job: Volunteer Coordinator

[Florence Devouard]

Robert Horning wrote:
> Daniel Mayer wrote:
>> --- Carolyn Doran <cdoran at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>   
>>> What reason would we have to be near a consulate?
>>> ~ C
>>>     
>> Any organization that claims to be international in scope, would ideally be based in close
>> proximity to representatives from many national governments. Of course, that is not the only thing
>> to consider.
>>
>> -- mav
>>   
> I hardly consider that to be a major issue for an organization that is 
> founded upon and relies upon electronic communication for most of its 
> activity.  In America (assuming that this means the WMF must stay in the 
> USA) that really leaves just a very limited number of cities you could 
> put it in:  New York City and Washington, DC.  In California, while 
> there are many consulates there, they tend to be split up between Los 
> Angeles and San Francisco in roughly equal proportions depending on the 
> country involved.  And for smaller countries they will only have an 
> embassy or consulate in DC or NYC.
> 
> For those particular situations where face to face meetings are 
> absolutely required, you can easily fly from St. Pete to one of those 
> two cities anyway at a modest cost, or even to the country who you are 
> trying to deal with directly.  I would presume that any such meeting 
> would be a very rare exception anyway and would not be at all necessary 
> in terms of day to day operations of the foundation.  Certainly the cost 
> of an airline flight would be trivial compared to the increased cost of 
> daily living in either of these two cities for what would realistically 
> be of marginal improved value for the foundation.
> 
> -- Robert Horning


Note that currently, the majority of board members live in Europe. Going 
  to the east coast is already a bit of a pain. Going to the west coast 
is  not really going to help. Longer flights.

Another point is time difference. The meeting window is already tough to 
assume (most of my phone calls with the USA take place mid afternoon, or 
after 22 pm my time) due to the 6 hours difference. Time difference with 
the west coast is 9 hours. Which means the mid afternoon time slot is 
not practical.

Amongst the "costs" of moving the west coast, I would add tiredness for 
having to still wake up at 6 am everyday for the family, but work very 
late within the night to keep in touch with the office. Tough.

So, east coast would be preferable certainly. A big city would also make 
travelling easier. But as mentionned previously, it would cost much more 
(higher salaries, higher hosting costs)

I presume it could be an option in the future to move the office (or to 
have several offices). I do not think it is reasonable now to consider that.

ant