[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

[Birgitte SB]

--- Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Erik Moeller
> <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> >
> >  I think that is exactly the right direction to
> go, as it's a logical
> >  continuation of what has already happened on all
> levels of the
> >  organization: people's roles and responsibilities
> become more and more
> >  closely aligned with their core competencies. And
> that's a normal part
> >  of organizational growth:
> 
> That is not an obvious corollary to organizational
> growth.  If
> everyone has access to advisors with extensive
> expertise, it isn't
> clear why specialist experience should be more of a
> factor in
> assigning responsibilities than commitment, ideals,
> or openness to the
> good ideas of others.
> 
> >  As a community, we've built one of the largest
> websites of the world
> >  on a shoestring budget, not to mention the
> development of the
> >  MediaWiki software itself, which has become
> adopted by thousands of
> >  sites around the world. We haven't
> commercialized, we haven't
> 
> Hey, you're underselling MediaWiki here :-)
> 
> >  But there are challenges, both on the
> organizational level and in the
> >  community. For example, in the community, we do
> not really have
> >  clarity about
> >  - how we decide that a certain software feature
> can be activated, or
> >  that a particular partnership is OK,
> >  - who the community actually is, and how we drive
> more participation,
> >  - how to properly provide oversight for the use
> of the various
> >  community privileges like "checkuser",
> "oversight", etc.
> >  - what the relationships between chapters and
> communities will evolve into,
> >  - what to do when a community becomes
> dysfunctional, and how to
> >  resolve conflicts beyond the scope of a single
> project becomes
> >  necessary,
> >  - what the future of our smaller projects will
> be, what
> >  reorganizations may be needed, and what new
> initiatives we may want to
> >  focus on
> >  etc. etc.
> >
> >  These are all the kinds of challenges that I
> would hope a V.C. could
> >  address, if not solve. On the organizational
> level, we have the known
> 
> An interesting idea. I see the potential perceived
> disempowerment of
> the community as one more factor inhibiting people
> from resolving
> these issues.
> 
> A V.C. set up to advise and inform and respond to
> the community,
> rather than one to govern or rule or attempt to
> enforce anything,
> sounds like a universally valuable and constrjuctive
> idea.  Then it's
> a matter of finding people willing to commit time
> and energy to better
> informing and organizing the input of others, for a
> fixed term...
> selecting people for their capacity as facilitators
> and ombudsmen.
> How much stronger we would be with clearer channels
> to cultivate and
> thank our great facilitators.
> 
> At its worst, a V.C. would be a channel for people
> who like to
> legislate, to direct others, to decide what is best
> and what is worst.
>  These people would see themselves as saving the
> community, while
> dampening its natural capacity to resolve complex
> problems.  Community
> members who don't recognize that natural capcaity
> might encourage such
> a V.C. to go on to 'take responsibility' for all
> complex issues facing
> the community: the layout and design of Main Pages
> and sidebars,
> categorization and classification techniques,
> filtering policies,
> checkuser policies, &c.  This could easily become a
> nightmare.
> 
> 
> >  In answer to 1), I think Mike's help will be
> critical - we might need
> >  to specify certain limitations in the Bylaws, for
> example. Even with
> >  such explicit provisions, we'll want to be
> careful who the initial
> >  Board members would be - I'd prefer to have at
> least some
> >  professionals who have existing ties to the
> organization, and perhaps
> >  also to have an acculturation process for new
> Board members.
> 
> I confess that I can't think of a single benefit to
> having a
> professional on the Board with no ties to Wikipedia
> and its sister
> projects.  Can you list one or two possibilities?
> 
> 
> Warmly,
> SJ
> 

I wholeheartedly agree with this.  SJ puts it very
well to describe council members as *facilitators*. 

Birgitte SB


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