[Wikimedia-l] [strategy process] Fwd: I decided to leave the working group

Hi, Two weeks ago I sent this email to my strategy working group (resource allocation). I didn't plan to send a public email, just to share with the rest of the group my reason to leave and just to disappear. I receive feedbacks with many of the group members and also requesting permissions to transfer it with others outside of the group, which leads to more conversations that I had around it. Last week we had our weekly phone call, during which we discussed our feelings and opinions about the process so far. From our long conversation and the conversations with the others, I learned that many of these feelings exist among the other members, as well some ideas on how to make it easier and less demanding and at the same time publishing the conclusions sooner. Yesterday, following a good conversation with one of the WMF's board members about it, I was asked to share these thoughts with the movement's list, so that it may also involve the community's feedback as well. *Itzik Edri* Chairperson (volunteer) itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il +972-54-5878078 ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Itzik - Wikimedia Israel <itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il> Date: Wed, Mar 13, 2019 at 2:08 PM Subject: I decided to leave the working group To: <wg2030-resourceallocation(a)wikimedia.org> Dear friends, For a long time I have been considering leaving the working group but each time I decided to give it another chance. Yesterday, after long consideration, I decided to write this email. I must be honest - I was skeptical from the first moment about this process. The huge amount of money which the board allocated to this process together with the complicated and (very) long process planned for it - make me doubt the ability to really have a real outcome in a reasonable time. For the past two years, it seems to me like the strategy took over almost every movement event and activity. I feel bad for investing millions of dollars from our donations and uncounted hours of volunteer time into this process. I also felt hypocritical in the way the foundation acts - while "freezing" grant programs (such as APG) and holding affiliates from increasing their programs and budgets, "because of the strategy process" while simultaneously approving itself to increase its budget and staff year after year by tens of percentage. Despite my distrust of the chances of this process and the criticism I felt for it, I instructed my organization to give it the full support we been asked, as all our movement did. Later on, I decided to join this working group as I felt we almost reached the final step of the process and I wanted to help shape the recommendations. I was totally wrong. In the first months of the workgroups, I felt it was completely wasted of time. I saw how wonderful volunteers tried to lead the process within each group (thank you Daria!) - but it wasn't their job, nor none of us. I felt like I was returning to university, and every few weeks I received instructions and homework from the lecturer, with assignments to the following week - and in between, that we need to lead it and solve things by ourselves. It took the core team a few months to change it and bring external support, but even after the (right) change, it continues to feel like I came *to work for *the strategic process, not with. I felt like nothing happened for the past year(or years?) before the working groups started to operate. As if we didn't have hundreds of meetings around the world, with a total of tens of thousands of people and an enormous amount of hours of conversations - and aside from a short few sentences of a strategic direction, we started from scratch. A completely new process. and concepts. What is the problem with the current system? What are the challenges? What people shared during the first phase? Information which wasn't available and ready for the group, and still isn't. Eight months after we start, the real conversation about the subject which I joined to discuss about and help shape recommendations around it, is far, far away from even to start. The more I spoke to more and more people who are part of the process, I realized that this despair is not only with me but with many. But we are a real Wikimedians, and we are committed to the things we start. We are bad with stopping things when they don't work or have real reviews of the things we do when we have the belief that this is the right thing. I completely stopped thinking it is the right thing to our movement. Last month, in our in-person meeting in Berlin, one of the opening activities was to sum up the number of years we were all members of the movement. Just think about doing the same, and sum up the number of volunteer (and staff) hours invested until now in this process. We are talking about tens of thousands of hours of work not even taking into consideration the huge amount of money involved. And the end of the process is very far away. In one of our discussions, we doubt if to include volunteers as a resource which can be allocated. We decided at the end it can't as such, but just try to imagine it was, and try to think about a future whatever-will-be the resource allocation body/structure: how he would deal with the decision whether to approve such a huge amount of volunteer time and money in the process. Did the WMF's board even consider and discuss these resources and how it will affect the movement during the process years? I doubt. We tend to say that the movement newest project is WikiData. I think we may need to start address WikiStrategy as the newest project. Just think about what we could do with that amount of resources. The idea to massively involve the wide community within this process was the right decision - but the implementations from my point of view were wrong. If the last strategy process was totally handled by outsiders - we took this one completely to its opposite, without finding the right balance. A strategy process is important, there is no doubt. And our movement needs one, there is no doubt. But a strategy process can't take over the organization' activities for *years.* I want to warmly thank you, my teammates. It is heartwarming to see the commitment and amazing energy of all the members of this process, and of course, the core team which is dedicated to bringing a change. I have no doubt that we all want to secure the future of our movement to years to come and I don't know of such a high level of engagement and commitment anywhere else. But at the same time, I think we should put limits to it and reconsider it - and think how to make it shorter, lighter, less demanding and expensive - both from the perspective of staff/volunteer time and money. Yours, Itzik. *Itzik Edri* Chairperson itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il +972-54-5878078