[Wikimedia-l] Board vote on narrowing focus

[Lodewijk]

Thanks Bishakha,

while I can understand the move of the WMF to do what they are best at, for
me it is always a bit confusing when the Board (or Sue) is talking about
the Foundation, and when about the movement. I hope I'm correct in my
assumption that this narrowed focus is mostly a Foundation thing.

The question I am missing in this analysis (but perhaps it was discussed
orally) is 'which organization/group/individual is best placed to execute
this' and then I definitely agree that many events etc are probably better
executed at a chapter level than by the WMF. I do hope that freeing up
these resources does mean that chapters and other groups will be supported
more in taking over these tasks and where necessary, a transition process
is considered.

I do have one more specific question. In discussions previously on meta,
there were some insinuations (maybe only my interpretation) that the
organizational support (so not just money) for chapters and other
affiliated groups would be reduced as a consequence of this narrowed focus.
I sincerely hope the opposite will be true - and that more effort will be
put in enabling these organizations to take over tasks where possible and
take on new initiatives as much as possible. As long as the Chapters
Association is not active (it seems to me it will be another year before it
will be fully functional) I think it would be a waste to reduce this
enabling capacity (for example the great networking function that is being
provided by Asaf - but he could use some help!) while there is no other
organization yet to take over those functions. Could you elaborate a bit on
this?

Best,
Lodewijk

2012/11/2 Bishakha Datta <bishakhadatta at gmail.com>

> Dear all,
>
> At its in-person meeting on 26 October, the board unanimously agreed to
> accept the recommendation to narrow focus as presented by the Executive
> Director.
>
> This vote has been published at:
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Vote:Narrowing_Focus
>
> Best
> Bishakha
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