[Foundation-l] Would you consider being on the Board?

[Jimmy Wales]

Brion Vibber wrote:
> I'm curious.
> 
> What can the board and management (whatever its structure) *do* that will be better?

I think there are several things which could be done better, and I very
much appreciate Brion's calling attention to the need for practical
discussions rather than vague statements of dissatisfaction. :)

We have for the past couple of years operated in a fairly unusual way,
in that 4 of the 5 board members have been extremely active in things
that would normally be the functions of executives and employees.  This
is a natural mode of operation for a small club, but it shows a lot of
strain as things grow.

Angela, Anthere, and I have been deeply involved in all aspects of the
projects (and intend to continue doing so).  Michael has been, for the
past year, deeply involved in the business side of things (negotiating
bandwidth, paying bills, doing accounting, etc.).

This is highly unusual.  I am on the board of several nonprofit
organizations, and I am not asked to take part in the day to day
management.  The ability to attract high quality people (from inside the
community, or from outside the commnity as needed) to serve on the board
depends in large part of separating these day to day management
functions from board functions.  Being on the board of Wikimedia should
not be a full-time job.

> What are examples of things a hypothetically ideal management would do *right*
> that the present management is not?

Some of the areas where we have been failing is in the timely
negotiation of partnerships which are consistent with our charitable
mission and which would both reduce our reliance on fund drives, and
increase our abilities to meet our charitable goals.  We are doing a
great job in some areas (English, German, French, Japanese, and several
other European languages), a decent job in some areas (Chinese is not
bad, Arabic shows promise), and a fairly poor job in other areas (Hindi,
Swahili, Bengali, etc.)

> If there's something that management needs to *do* which will actually be better
> served by a new management structure or new board members, then by all means
> let's talk about it, but let's not put the cart before the horse.
> 
> What first, then how.

:)

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