[Foundation-l] Working on movement roles

[Michael Snow]

In addition to the committee reorganizations I mentioned, which are sort 
of "internal" to the board (that is, the purpose is to improve the 
board's own functioning), something we are starting to work on is to 
think systematically about different roles within Wikimedia as a 
movement. These roles may be those of individuals as volunteers, or in 
groups such as chapters; it may include roles that exist, or those we 
determine are needed. Defining these better, so that they can be filled 
more effectively, and so that people can be more effective in their 
work, could help us build a stronger working community.

Part of this is an outgrowth of the strategic planning project, where we 
have a task force on movement roles, and I encourage people to do 
further work on the strategy wiki in this area. I would suggest the 
board believes this is also a larger ongoing question, one we will be 
wrestling with even after the strategy plan is in some sense completed 
later this year. We intend to keep this moving beyond that. Arne in 
particular has taken a strong interest in this issue, and he and 
Jan-Bart have been preparing some thoughts to share with the chapters 
leading up to next week's chapters and board meeting. Coming out of 
that, I hope we will start to develop a better sense of fundamentally 
who we are and what kinds of relationships we should create to better 
develop the Wikimedia projects.

--Michael Snow