Thank you, Ori. +1 to everything you said.
Dariusz, I disagree with you: this *is* a time for "negativity". We have been laboring under significant dysfunction for more than a year now, and are now in crisis. We are losing precious colleagues, time, money, *even more* community trust than we had previously squandered, and health (literally; the board HR committee has been sent some details).
All this makes it a time for looking "the negative" in the eye and taking decisive action, so that the healing can begin. It is not a time for concentrating on the still-wonderful aspects of this movement's work. If I did not know you and know for a fact that cannot be your intent, it would sure feel like attempted misdirection. (Please read the beginning of the previous sentence again if you need to.)
Please act. If for some reason the board cannot act, please state that reason. Signal to us, community and staff, by concrete words if not by deeds, that you understand the magnitude of the problem.
With great sympathy for how unpleasant it must be to be a (volunteer) board member right now,
A. On Feb 18, 2016 11:29 AM, "Sydney Poore" sydney.poore@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 7:47 AM, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
<snipped> > > We need to get a grip, have more transparency, but also more bidirectional > support, and start thinking about the future (I'm not saying this to sound > as "nothing to watch, move on", but to restore some perspective and > proportions). There is way too much blaming/bashing/sour expectations > working both ways - we almost forget how unique we are, irrespective of > many slips and avoidable failures we make (and WMF is definitely leading > here, too! ;)
Dariusz,
While it is important to point out the ways that people can give useful feedback to WMF today and over the next few months (as Liam did), we also need to clearly recognize the deep feelings of concern, frustration, and anger expressed by staff and members of the community.
It is widespread now to the point that unless constructive measures are taken to address these legitimate feeling, we risk having people withdraw from productive venues for engagement.
Most people are likely to think that at least some the staff that resigned didn't go without attempting to improve the situation before they left. And that other staff still at WMF are also frustrated and concerned. We need more validation of concerns that smart and knowledgeable people's advice and counsel is/was overlooked and that is going to change.
The staff and community need to believe that their engagement will influence the outcome.
We need to build confidence that engagement will have an impact on future actions of the WMF BoT and ED's plans.
Dariusz, I know that you have good intentions, but your comments in this thread and other place are still not reassuring that you understand that serious damage has occurred and needs to be repaired before people are going to want to work collaboratively with WMF.
Warm regards, Sydney
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