[Wikimedia-l] Why not everyone have the right to vote in the Board & FDC elections?

[Andrew Gray]

On 28 April 2013 06:15, rupert THURNER <rupert.thurner at gmail.com> wrote:
> also agree to simplify the rules. what i'd really love would be to
> better standardize and with it simplify "volunteer community", for all
> elections and votes. and at least my wish would be that people who
> donate their time by sending code patches to software considered
> essential to run the site are included.

The first elections (in 2004) had a simple "three months in the
community" rule. After that, we added edit count restrictions. The
first election with any "complicated" rules - allowing people in
without passing the edit count limits - was 2008, when WMF staff,
ex-Board members, *and* "Wikimedia server administrators with shell
access" were added. In 2011, this got extended to people who "have
commit access and have made at least one commit between 15 May 2010
and 15 May 2011."

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2008/en
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2011/en

So we've already got those in :-)

I'm ambivalent about whether it's appropriate to have staff members
(those who don't independently qualify as "community members") voting
or not, but I think in principle Itzik has a very good point - either
*both* WMF and Chapter staff should be able to vote, or *neither*
should. I can't see any reason that it's right for a staffer in San
Francisco to participate in the election, but it isn't right for one
in Berlin!

(It may be too late to change anything for this time around, of
course, but it would be great if we could ensure consistency in future
elections)

- Andrew.


> On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 11:49 PM, Asaf Bartov <abartov at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> Also agree with Nathan.  Those chapter board members who are not active on
>> the projects already have a far greater relative weight in selecting the
>> chapter-selected board seats.
>>
>>    A.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 1:10 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Nathan, 27/04/2013 21:34:
>>>
>>>  I would go the other way, and limit the participants in the election
>>>> for the community seat to people who are members of the volunteer
>>>> community. Presumably that would include most members of most
>>>> organizational boards, but only include those staff and other paid
>>>> workers who also participate as volunteers.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I agree with Nathan, simplifying the rules is useful while complicating
>>> them for a few dozens voters is not.
>>>
>>> Nemo
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>     Asaf Bartov
>>     Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
>>
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-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk