[Foundation-l] Board meeting update

[Michael Snow]

With our last board meeting falling a little later in the year than 
usual, and coming close to holidays, I'm a little late in giving this 
brief report on what happened. As you know, the board approved the 
audited financial statements for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, and those 
were posted on the Wikimedia Foundation website a couple weeks ago.

As the organization has gotten settled in San Francisco, this has become 
a smoother process than in years past. It's not just that we're on solid 
financial ground (that's good, though even in the past we haven't been 
in immediate danger financially), but also as we've established the 
necessary infrastructure, we're better at tracking our finances and 
addressing issues that may need to be resolved in the course of an 
audit. The stress level around the audit is low enough now that although 
I had to miss the audit committee conference call (where I normally 
participate as an observer), I still had confidence that Veronique and 
Stu and everyone else would bring it to a successful conclusion. (That's 
my personal stress level I speak of, I won't claim there's no stress 
involved for Veronique.) Thanks to Veronique and her team, as well as 
the auditors, for their work. Thanks also to the volunteers on the audit 
committee for their service. One other thing the board reviewed out of 
the committee's work was a risks analysis that is being put together of 
the top risks and mitigation strategies for addressing them, which will 
become part of the strategic planning process.

Speaking of which, strategic planning was the biggest single item on our 
agenda, and tended to be a thread running throughout the rest of the 
meeting as well. With help from the Bridgespan team, we worked through 
some preliminary strategy questions to discuss priorities and setting 
goals. We don't have concrete results from that to share, in part 
because the overall process is still in an early stage, but it was a 
good exercise for us in thinking on a strategic level and preparing for 
the more challenging decisions ahead. One thing that did come out of it 
is that we reviewed the guidance that the nominating committee was given 
in the search to fill the one remaining vacancy on the board, and 
provided some additional input for them as a result.

One note I would add is the valuable contributions of the newer members 
of the board in bringing a more complete set of views to the group. SJ 
and Arne many of you know, and their emphasis on the health and 
potential of the community and chapters was important. I also really 
appreciated what Matt Halprin had to offer, especially in two areas: 
One, his capacity for strategic thinking and helping to keep us focused 
on strategy issues instead of drifting off-track, and two, his 
experience with other nonprofit boards and their practices was a good 
perspective to add. Their strengths help compensate for the fact that 
Jimmy wasn't able to attend the meeting, and I anticipate they will make 
us a good working group through the strategic planning process.

The board also conducted a sort of general review and evaluation, not 
just of the financial situation but the state of the organization and 
the work being done by Sue and the staff. We think Sue is great as our 
Executive Director and has done a terrific job getting the organization 
to this point, where we're healthy and have the space to develop our 
capacity for achievement in the years ahead. And I can't say enough 
about the work the staff are doing, so I'll just share this one 
anecdote. Since the board meeting overlapped with the first week of the 
fundraiser, it's fortunate that we have the new office where there's 
more than one meeting room, otherwise I don't know where the board would 
have met. That's because the fundraising team would spend all day 
working together in one of the larger meeting rooms. This would involve 
as many as 6-8 people, and you wouldn't know that they eat or take 
breaks from casual observation, although we did make sure they at least 
got the leftover pizza from our lunch at one point. They've worked hard 
to keep the fundraiser operational, not to mention considering a lot of 
feedback and making improvements. It's easier when you see what things 
are like in the office, but I hope we appreciate the dedicated staff and 
their support for the work of the Wikimedia movement.

--Michael Snow