[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia struggles, Mozilla set for life?

[Florence Devouard]

Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On 10/24/07, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Personally, I really dislike the idea of any advertising on Wikimedia.
>>> This makes a fool of [[WP:NPOV]], [[WP:COI]] and related policies and
>>> guidelines. It should only be considered if things get extremely
>>> desperate. The advert-free site is refreshing and welcoming and that is
>>> something we should strive to keep, pretty much at all costs.
>> 100% in agreement with you. Ant
> 
> My agreement is tempered only by curiousity about what Wikimedia will
> do now that there is a nearly 5 million dollar budget for next year
> when the public will not donate more than 2 million during this
> fundraiser.
> 
> Would selling Davis' seat on the board to the highest bidder be more
> wise than ads?


Which gives me the opportunity to further relay our search for a 
treasurer (board member).

Please see below

Regarding your question... I do not expect we'll bring the entire money 
needed during this fundraising. But we should not under estimate the 
money that could be brought by a couple of rich friends.
There are other venues interesting to test as well. For example, if was 
several times mentionned that it might be interesting to organise these 
fancy dinners with rich potential donors, maybe in SF or in London, with 
Jimbo as featured guest.
Also, I do not know for Jimbo, but I have spent quite a bit of time 
during the year, hanging around with people related to Unesco et al. And 
compared to a year ago, we have a much better image toward these people. 
We are now considered a charity, rather than a corporation ready to sell 
Wikipedia hundred of millions of dollars. I hope that this will start 
paying dividends soon.
I presume business (at least to a certain extent), bringing in royalties 
from logo use might also bring fresh money, though it is tricky in many 
respects.
I also expect our future treasurer to start working a strategy to set up 
endowment...

Speaking of which, here is the treasurer search announcement. Please 
forward this announcement to relevant forums, mailing lists and individuals.


Anthere


The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, is looking to
appoint a new Treasurer to its Board of Trustees, effective December
2007.  The term for the current Treasurer has ended.

The Wikimedia Board of Trustees manages the Foundation and supervises
the disposition and solicitation of donations. The Board of Trustees
is the ultimate corporate authority in the Wikimedia Foundation Inc.

Board members are unpaid volunteers who are excited about supporting
the international charitable mission of the Wikimedia Foundation: to
bring free knowledge to the entire planet.

=== ROLE SUMMARY ===

Required duties include, but are not limited to the following:

* Manage, with the finance committee to be created, the board's review
of and action related to the board's financial responsibilities;
* Work with the chief executive to ensure that appropriate financial
reports are made available to the board. Regularly reviews reports to
board on key financial events, trends, concerns, and assessment of
fiscal health;
* May work directly with the bookkeeper or other staff in developing
and implementing financial procedures and systems;
* Serves as support to the financial officer of the organization and
as chairperson of the finance committee;
* Serves on the audit committee;
* Review the annual budget that is presented to the balance of the
board for approval;
* Review the annual audit and answers board members' questions about the 
audit;
* Provides financial and operational advice and guidance to the board
as required.

===REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS===

* Maintains knowledge of the organization and has a personal
commitment to its goals and objectives;
* Understands financial accounting for American nonprofit organizations;
* Must be comfortable in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented 
environment;
* Accounting and financial background - an accounting or other
financial designation (i.e. CPA, CA, CFA, or other International
equivalent), with a thorough understanding of American GAAP.
* MBA or business degree would be helpful, although not required;
* Some experience with legal frameworks and contracts would be helpful;
* Background or familiarity with fundraising would be an asset;
* Has previously served as a treasurer on another non-profit board (at
least five years);
* Willing to commit time for board meetings, committee meetings and
special events;
* Works well in a group, is able to work with a decentralized
international team, using electronic communication tools.

=== EXPECTED TIME COMMITMENT ===

It is expected that the Treasurer will be able to attend four meetings
per year, which may possibly be held outside of the USA.  In addition,
participation in the Foundation's annual conference would be
preferred. Cost of attending these meetings will be reimbursed. Other
time expectations would be reviewing quarterly reports, budgets, and
policies and helping to oversee the audit process.

=== CONTACT ===

Please contact us at <treasurer-search AT wikimedia DOT org> if you
are interested in this position.

=== ABOUT THE WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION ===

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a US-registered 501(c)(3)
tax-deductible nonprofit charity dedicated to encouraging the growth,
development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to
providing the full content of wiki-based projects to the public free
of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest
collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including
Wikipedia, one of the world's 10 most visited websites, Wiktionary,
Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikinews and the Wikimedia Commons
media repository.

The Wikimedia Foundation relies primarily on donations and other
contributions in order to run its operations.

The Wikimedia Foundation was created in 2003 to manage the operation
of existing projects and is currently based in St. Petersburg,
Florida.  The Foundation will relocate to San Francisco, California in
the near future. Wikimedia has local chapters in the United Kingdom,
Germany, France, Italy, Serbia, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Poland.

http://wikimediafoundation.org