On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 1:06 PM, Christophe Henner chenner@wikimedia.org wrote:
- Time comitment. So on that, we are actively working on trying to reduce
the mandatory time board members have to allocate to WMF. Goal is between this year and next year to lower it down to what we benchmarked as average (and I can't find the number again, I'll dig into that). That work started after a discussion with Guy on the fact that the time comitment was so high we migh scare away high profiles. So working to get mandatory board time down. But there's also "non-mandatory" time comitment. I can only speak for me, but right now, it takes me from 2h in the day up to 6h, almost everyday. I try to have Sundays when I don't work (either for my job or wikimedia). In that I do include reading (scanning for some mailing lists) emails.
Right now, I think that the most complicated thing to handle is travel times as you need to take almost a week off every time we travel abroad. But until we invent teleportation (that would be super cool), I can't see a way to change that.
This resonated so strongly I had to write in. I think you've nailed it -
it's not about money. It's about time.
And not just the mandatory time commitment, but also the non-mandatory time commitment...the expectations we have of ourselves, the extra time we put in not because it's compulsory - this isn't a job after all (although it feels like a part-time one). But because it's hard to be an effective board member without putting in that extra effort.
Much as I loved it, I often felt I was drowning when I was a board member. I often found it really hard to flip my mind space and my mental energies between my paid day job and my wikimedia commitments - and sometimes had to put my day job on the backburner. Or family, friends, life, the universe and everything. None of which is tenable beyond a point.
The other issue is the travel. Now that I'm an FDC member, I can see how two in-person meetings a year versus four makes a huge difference. [And as a related aside, the time commitment as an FDC member is way way more manageable - and takes place in two big chunks, not as an everyday thing.]
It would be great if you'll could rethink the time and travel expected of board members, so that the whole thing is less of a super-human endeavour. :)
Good luck!