[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Paul Williams]

On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 8:19 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede <janbart at wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> As most of you know, the Board of Trustees met at the Foundation's new
> San Francisco headquarters a few weeks ago. At that meeting, we talked
> about how best to represent the full array of community members, and how
> best to provide professional oversight for the work of the staff. As a
> result of those conversations, we're announcing today some changes to
> the makeup of the Board, and to the Board member appointment process. We
> think these are positive changes that will help the Board to safeguard
> the Wikimedia Foundation's ability to fulfill the mission. We hope you
> agree.
>
> I've laid out the most significant changes below.
>
> We are increasing the number of Board positions to 10 overall, comprised
> of the following:
>
> * Three seats elected by you, the community
> * Two seats to be selected by the chapters
> * One Board-appointed 'Community Founder' seat
> * Four 'specific expertise' seats, also to be Board-appointed
>
> The most significant change here is probably the addition of two
> chapters-selected seats. This has been under consideration for a long
> time, and we are glad to finally be implementing it. We want to
> acknowledge that the chapters are an important player in the fulfillment
> of the Wikimedia Foundation's mission, and that they therefore deserve a
> voice in the governance of the Foundation. Please note that the two
> chapters-selected seats are not intended to represent the interests of
> the chapters vis-a-vis the Foundation. The chapters are being asked to
> pick trustees who they feel will represent the interests of the
> Wikimedia Foundation, and help it fulfill its mission as well as it
> possibly can.
>
> We are also specifically naming four seats as designated for "specific
> expertise." The goal here is to add skills and capacities to the current
> board. For example, we might decide to actively recruit board members
> with deep non-profit governance experience, or fundraising expertise.
>
> We are also formalizing Jimmy's role as Community Founder, by
> designating a seat for that purpose.
>
> These changes are effective today, but we will not be filling all of
> these roles immediately. It will take some time -likely several months
> to a year- before all the changes are implemented. Here's how that will
> work:
>
> Nothing changes immediately. The current Board membership will stay in
> place, and will fill out the new roles/positions as follows:
>
> * Three community-elected seats:
> - Florence Devouard (seat up for election July 2008; then, next up for
> election July 2009)
> - Kat Walsh (seat up for election July 2009)
> - Frieda Brioschi (seat up for election July 2009)
> * Chapter-selected seats:
> - Domas Mituzas, Executive Secretary (to be held until chapters make
> their own appointment)
> - Michael Snow (to be held until chapters make their own appointment)
> * Community Founder
> - Jimmy Wales (term expires December 31, 2008)
> * 'Specific expertise' seats
> - Jan-Bart de Vreede , Vice Chair (term expires December 31, 2008)
> - Stuart West, Treasurer (term expires December 31, 2008)
> - Vacant (term expires December 31, 2008)
> - Vacant (term expires December 31, 2008)
>
> The 'specific expertise' seats, and community founder seat, will be
> re-appointed starting in January 2009. The chapter-selected seats will
> be filled as soon as the Chapters appoint representatives. Domas Mituzas
> and Michael Snow, who were originally asked to sit on the Board until
> June 2008, will be extended in their seats until the chapters make their
> choices.
>
> Both the community-elected and chapter-selected seats have a duration of
> two years. These seats will expire in alternating years, which means
> that community-elected seats will be up for renewal on the July 1st
> 2009, 2011, and 2013, and chapter-selected seats will be up for renewal
> on July 1st 2010, 2012, 2014, etc.
>
> In the short-term, the next significant date for the Board is the
> election for the one seat, which expires in July of this year. This is
> the seat currently held by Florence Devouard. The term of that seat will
> last for one year, to July 2009. This is a shorter term than normal, but
> the intent is to have the three community-elected seats all line up to
> one consistent election date in July 2009. You will hear more later
> today from the elections committee.
>
> Once all of these positions are in place, we trust we will have built a
> strong Board that is well-positioned to safeguard the Wikimedia
> Foundation's mission, and our ability to fulfill it. We hope you agree.
>
> We know this is all pretty complicated and hard to follow, so we asked
> Jay Walsh, head of communications, to put together an FAQ and a "board
> makeup" graphic, intended to help make it more understandable. He'll be
> posting both on the Foundation wiki in about an hour.
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board
>
> Thanks,
> Jan-Bart de Vreede
> Vice-chair, Board of Trustees
>
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Interesting changes. Do these changes affect the amount of seats available
for election in the upcoming elections? I was under the impression there
were three, but the graphics appear to indicate only a single seat is up for
election this year.

~ Paul Williams