I just wanted to add my thanks as well as both Jan-Bart and Stu have served
the movement with a huge amount of dedication and commitment for many years
and helped steer the WMF through many challenges. It has been a real
pleasure to work with both of you.
Thank you both for everything you have done and best wishes for the future!
On a more practical note as there is now no Dutch person on the WMF board I
am concerned that there is now no obvious supplier of stroopwafel at board
meetings - has a proper impact assessment been conducted?
Chris
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 8:56 AM, Steven Walling <steven.walling(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Thanks for starting this thread Lodewijk.
Jan-Bart and Stu: Wikimedia has been lucky to have your participation over
these years.
Stu, thank you in particular for helping steer the financial governance of
the Wikimedia movement. Your expertise and professionalism have been deeply
important to making sure Wikimedia is a good steward of the money entrusted
to us by donors.
Jan-Bart, my friend, you are a force to be reckoned with. It is difficult
to sum up the total impact of your leadership in the movement. I find
myself falling back on memories not just of your formal role on the board,
but of your warmth and generosity of spirit. I hope leaving the board (this
time) doesn't mean your Wikimania streak will be broken. ;-)
On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 11:11 PM Lodewijk <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org>
wrote:
While we have long discussions on this list about
board composition, we
seem to almost ignore the fact that two long time veterans are leaving
the
Wikimedia Foundation board, as scheduled.
Jan-Bart de Vreede and Stu West
have been around longer than many regular editors nowadays, and I think
there are not many people who can recall the days that the board didn't
have them on it. I have never had the pleasure to serve on the board with
them, but a little thank-you from our community side, would seem in
place.
Stu joined the board already in 2008 (filling Michael Davis' seat), and
has
been a solid power on the board's audit
responsibilities (I believe he
chaired the audit committee for quite a while) and was a force behind the
accountability of movement affiliates. While we often strongly disagreed
on
affiliate issues, I appreciate the fact that he
always remained
constructive and wanted to think about solutions rather than problems. He
served both as treasurer and vice chair.
Jan-Bart was on the board even longer, since early 2007, and I recall
already working with him through Kennisnet (a Dutch foundation for
education and IT) before that. Jan-Bart is one of those rare people who
went to ALL wikimania conferences, and can be easily recognised there
with
his big smile. I can't remember a theme
Jan-Bart didn't work on in the
past
years (Affiliates, HR, searching a new Executive
Director) and he served
the board in many positions, including as chair.
I'm sure that the WMF communications staff and/or board has a nice
thankyou
coming up - with a more accurate description of
the awesome work they
did,
that I now made up from the top of my head. But
in the mean time, I'd
like
to do it myself: Thank you Jan-Bart and Stu for
all the time, energy and
effort that you poured into our movement. I know that not all of us
appreciate this as much as we perhaps should, and sometimes you may even
have perceived us as hostile. I do sincerely hope that you had fun with
us
though, and I'm confident that you made a big
dent in our impossible
mission of sharing the sum of all knowledge with everyone.
I hope to meet you again soon, at least in Italy at Wikimania, and I hope
to see you around in our movement in many different ways.
Best,
Lodewijk
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