[Wikimedia-l] Info: 2013 WCA Chair elections

[Fae]

Dear Wikimedians and Chapter members,

Many representatives on the WCA Council are aware of my views on our
Chair election process and it may help current discussions about the
Secretary General recruitment to share my view more widely, and make
the following proposal.

I was prepared to be nominated at Wikimania 2012 for the WCA Chair
position this summer, but I expected a tough competition with several
nominations where the Chapter Representatives could judge my skill and
experience against other quality volunteers. I was surprised and
disappointed to be the only candidate, and I have no intention of
staying in this post "by default" or 1 or 2 years without a better and
visibly democratic election process, particularly as it was the first
time we had tried electing a Chair and would probably all prefer a
more rigorously formal process next time around.

I recommend that we have a well designed process that starts in March,
at least *4 weeks* before the next Chapters Conference in spring 2013
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2013>. This will
ensure that the Conference starts with a freshly elected chair having
gone through a robust election process against several candidates. I
recommend that a page is set up this year on :meta for the election
process, so that we can discuss and agree how candidate nominations
and votes will work, including a questions/answers section in multiple
languages. Having an open and public nomination process may also
encourage new chapters to join the WCA before the Conference in Milan,
and put forward their own candidate for the WCA Chair position. :-)

Hopefully this will also provide sufficient time for our new Secretary
General to get established, before there is a change of WCA chair and
avoid any sense of instability, even though I would have been in post
for only 8 months or so before we have another election.

Cheers,
Fae
-- 
Ashley Van Haeften (Fae) fae at wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia Chapters Association Chair http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WCA
Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/mfae