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(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 7:47 AM, Dariusz Jemielniak
<darekj(a)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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