[Wikimedia-l] Board vote on narrowing focus

[Lodewijk]

Hi Dariusz and Anders,

Thank you for your replies. It does however not answer my questions -
although I may have worded them poorly. What I'm trying to figure out is
what will happen to the organizational support to the other movement
organizations and individuals. This support is already much lower than I'd
like, but the suggestion on meta was that it might decrease further. Some
examples:

* PR support by WMF PR staff when writing press releases for an
international audience
* Networking support by Asaf (who to approach), specifically for "global
south" countries and chapters to be.
* Tech support for initiatives
* Institutional support for the GLAM related activities in the US (until
the US Federation is fully functional, if ever)
* Layout/design support for education related activities

While I agree on principle that several of these tasks belong at the WCA,
US Federation or individual chapters, I do recognize it needs time to be
transferred. Which tasks will the Foundation (continue to) execute, and
which not? Which will it explicitely transfer? Or will it just drop it -
and then it is up to others to catch them or not?

Best,
Lodewijk

2012/11/2 Dariusz Jemielniak <darekj at alk.edu.pl>

> Hi,
>
> as the newly appointed Chair of the FDC, but expressing my personal
> understanding, I support Anders' view. The narrowed focus means more
> activities done through the chapters, and the community at large. Of course
> the specifics will have to be established, but now WMF applies for their
> non-core activities like everybody else.
>
> Best,
>
> Dariusz
>
> 2 lis 2012 12:28, "Anders Wennersten" <mail at anderswennersten.se>
> napisał(a):
>
> > As a newly appointed secretary of FDC and just back from San Francisco
> after a four days deliberation session, where these thing has been in focus
> I can give you some facts from what I have understood.
> >
> > The Board has earlier decided to give WMF an budget for 2012-2013 for
> 30,3 MUSD for core activities, up from 26,2 the earlier year, mainly
> engineering and thing like fundraising support.
> >
> > The Board has also set a budget of 11,4 MUSD for activities partly to be
> disseminated to chapters and to a part to WMF, where Grants make up big
> part. The total of 11,4 is an increase.
> >
> > The narrowed focus in practice means that The WMF part funded through FDC
> is changed in composition, so less in direct activities by WMF personnel
> and more money in Grants to be allocated to chapters and individuals.
> >
> > The narrowed focus is only a issue for WMFs internal budget. The planned
> funds dissemination to chapters is not effected and the actual result of
> the the implementation of the Narrowed focus is that more money will be
> used by community/chapters via grant then was earlier planned
> >
> > Anders Wennersten
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Lodewijk skrev 2012-11-02 12:05:
> >>
> >> 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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