Hello dear all,
one of the most memorable moment in my work together with Sue was one
evening in October 2011. As some of you may remember that the years 2010
to 2012 were especially difficult years in relationship between the
Foundation and the chapters. The Foundation experimented a few
approaches and changed again and again its direction. And the discussion
about how to distribute the funds raised on our projects had repeatedly
kindled, sometimes very violent confrontations. On one of the board
meetings earlier of 2011 Sue said to the board that she never considered
this confrontation as a question of who wins. She wanted a good and
sound solution for the problems that are out there. After the Haifa
Wikimania the discussion became even hotter and sometimes it really felt
insulting. I always considered myself as a person who is very ballanced
and who can keep his tempel, but at that point I must say that I was
very unnerved by the dispute. We had our board meeting in San Francisco
and after that Sue asked me to stay for a few days to give a speech on
the All Hands Meeting of the staff. So one evening we went out for a
dinner together and naturally, the discussion came back to the fund
raising and fund dissemination topic. And I asked Sue with a sigh:"Do
you still think that it is not about who wins?" And she said:"Yes, of
cause not." At that moment I felt a trimendous respect for this woman,
and I must confess that I felt also a bit ashamed for myself because I
was on the edge to lost my ballance.
For me Sue is one of the most respectable person I know, not only
because of her achievements and her work, but especially because of her
attitude.
Greetings
Ting
Am 01.06.2014 21:26, schrieb Jan-Bart de Vreede:
Hello Everyone,
As Lila officially takes over from Sue as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia
Foundation after this weekend it really is a moment to not only wish Lila a lot of succes
in the coming years, but also to give a tremendous thanks to Sue for her work in the past
years. Of course I did so last year in March when she announced her departure but it bears
repeating that Sue took us from a small organisation in St. Petersburg Florida, which was
struggling to create impact, to a mature and stable organisation which makes a huge
difference. Building up a professional staff who are dedicated to our mission, incredible
fundraising growth and working through complex situations to create concepts such as the
FDC stand out amongst many other achievements.
It was Sue herself who indicated that it was time to find a new Executive Director,
someone who was more suitable for our focus on Engineering and Grantmaking. As I mentioned
more than a year ago, its hard to imagine the Wikimedia Foundation without Sue at the
helm. However, due in large part to her efforts we have managed to find a new Executive
Director who gives me confidence in the future of the Foundation. I am happy that we
managed to find the “unicorn” that we were looking for, but that didn’t happen by
accident. Most of you know that we concluded the first round of our search in early
december with candidates that we did not feel were ideal for the job. We decided to change
our tactics and this involved both Erik and Sue spending a lot of their (spare) time with
potential candidates and making sure that we were getting the right candidates. As a
result our second round had a great set of candidates, which ultimately led to the
selection of Lila. On the transition team Sue has been very crucial in holding up a mirror
and reminding us what we were looking for.
After a well deserved vacation Sue will be available as a Special Advisor to both the
Lila and the Board of Trustees and we are grateful to her for making herself available to
do this. However, what intrigues me more is what she will end up doing in the coming
years. I am hoping it is in the space of Open Content or the Open Internet, as she will
undoubtedly have a tremendous impact in there, and we need her! I am also happy to inform
you that Sue will attend a part of Wikimania where she will for once not have an packed
schedule, so feel free to take the opportunity to thank her in person if you are so
inclined :)
On behalf of the entire Board and all the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation: thank you so
much all that you have given the Foundation, and especially your efforts in the past year
to ensure that there was both stability within our organisation and a great succesor.
Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees
_______________________________________________
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to
Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information
about Wikimedia-l:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
_______________________________________________
WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list
WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>