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

[Ray Saintonge]

Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> Hoi,
> Wikimania is an event where we hope to get something like 300/400 people who
> are really involved in Wikis to come together for the biggest Wiki event in
> the world. It is an event that has proved itself important for the outreach
> of the things we do locally. When you  weight it down with all the policy
> tigers that represent something in the Wikimedia Foundation, there is no
> longer the Wikimania as we know it. It will become a sad reflection of what
> once was the state of the art, the cutting edge of wikidom.
>
> Please let Wikimania be its own thing and PLEASE do not burden it with what
> should not even be a side show to the event.
> Thanks,
>      GerardM
>   
>> When I was thinking about a large body, I was thinking about a virtual
>> body. Maybe, some day in the future, when WMF would be able to pay
>> trips for the whole body annually, it would be able to meet somewhere,
>> possibly during Wikimania.
>>     
Like you, I have attended all three Wikimanias, and hope to make my best 
efforts to attend in 2008.  What struck me most was the absence of 
opportunities to seriously share and work out policy issues.  In Boston 
there were even complaints that the number of people from non-Wikimedia 
projects was disproportionately high.  Of course it's important to know 
what everyone else is doing, but do we travel half-way around the world 
just to visit a trade show?  I would like to see more Wikimania time and 
effort put into improving the projects.

One popular session in Taipei in which Kat represented the Board had a 
number of concerns raised about current problems.  There was a common 
thread to those problems, and yet one left with the feeling that there 
was no mechanism for taking those concerns any further.

In Taipei there was also, before the main event, a meeting of the 
Advisory Board, a body composed essentially of people who are not a part 
of our volunteer communities.  In my mind it would be perfectly 
appropriate for a group of volunteers taken from our communities to meet 
in Alexandria under similar circumstances.

The proposal for a Provisional Volunteer Council is based on having 
between 12 and 20 members.  (I would personally prefer something a 
little bigger, but that is not a point that is a critical issue.)  So 
let's say 20!  How could a meeting of 20 people have the disruptive 
effect that you predict?  While I believe the Provisional Council should 
have at least one person who is aware of technological issues, that 
person could have a conflict between attending Council and Hacking Days, 
but sometimes people just have to make those tough choices.

Ec