Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Joe Sutherland]

Hi everyone, just to follow up on this - thank you to everyone who
expressed interest in this role.

The Board Governance Committee has agreed to (re)appoint the following
members of the elections committee:

   - User:AbhiSuryawanshi
   
   - User:Carlojoseph14 
   - User:HakanIST 
   - User:KTC 
   - User:Mardetanha 
   - User:Masssly 
   - User:Matanya 
   - User:ProtoplasmaKid
   
   - User:Ruslik0 

Members and advisors serve terms of two years and are appointed by the
Board Governance Committee, in consultation with sitting members of the
Committee and their advisors.

The committee will also be supported by Board liaison, Esra'a Al Shafei,
and a number of Wikimedia Foundation staff advisors, namely:

   - Stephen LaPorte, Wikimedia Foundation Legal
   - Charles Roslof, Wikimedia Foundation Legal
   - Joe Sutherland, Wikimedia Foundation Trust and Safety
   - Greg Varnum, Wikimedia Foundation Communications

I look forward to working with the new and reappointed committee members,
and again thank all applicants for their interest.

best regards,
Joe

--
*Joe Sutherland* (he/him or they/them)
Trust and Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation


On Mon, 13 Jan 2020 at 14:36, Joe Sutherland 
wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> First of all, many thanks to everyone who has expressed interest in
> joining the Elections Committee. I really appreciate your willingness to
> contribute to a successful election and addressing some of the broader
> questions that have been identified. I'll get in touch with those who have
> emailed me shortly.
>
> As a reminder, please let me know by January 19 if you are interested in
> participating in the Elections Committee.
>
> And thank you for your questions and feedback. I’ll respond inline to the
> questions I believe are still pending an answer.
>
> On Sat, 11 Jan 2020 at 22:31, Peter Southwood <
> peter.southw...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>
>> Joe, What would "experience with advanced wikitext markup" mean in this
>> context?
>> Also "responsiveness to email outreach"?
>
>
> In this context, we are ideally looking for someone who is comfortable
> with things like translation tags, nested templates, and other "advanced"
> markup provided by MediaWiki. One of the tasks the committee has
> historically been involved with has been to set up and organise the pages
> for the election on Meta-Wiki, and this can get pretty complicated (as
> evidenced by the source code
> !).
> This is a nice-to-have rather than a must-have, since it's only one of the
> ways the committee supports these elections - but it's still very useful.
>
> As for responsiveness, the timelines for these elections have historically
> been tight, and so we really would like committee members who are able to
> respond to emails in a timely way so we can make committee decisions
> quickly.
>
> On Sun, 12 Jan 2020 at 10:14, Chris Keating 
> wrote:
>
>> - I can't find any evidence of the Elections Committee having met since
>> the
>> conclusion of the 2017 elections - am I missing something? (The 'Minutes'
>> page seems to only refer to 2015 meetings, which is almost 5 years ago, so
>> hopefully this is a case of the meeting minutes being somewhere else on
>> Meta)
>>
>
> You are justifiably not finding minutes, as the Elections Committee has
> only met intermittently since the last election and maintained some of
> their discussions over email outside of meetings (to the best of my
> knowledge!). I am not able to offer extensive insights on the historical
> practice around the Elections Committee, but I can revisit the process for
> publishing minutes with the new committee. Supporting the committee was not
> in my purview until this cycle. I will however echo the disappointment
> about not having had the opportunity of meeting more frequently and share
> more updates with the community. I look forward to working more closely
> with the new committee once they are appointed.
>
>
>> - Also, part of the mandate of the Elections Committee was meant to have
>> been to do a review of the method of election to the Board of Trustees. I
>> haven't heard anything about this happening. Has either the Board or the
>> Elections Committee done anything about this?
>>
>
> The Elections Committee has had some initial conversation, and I expect
> this topic will be at the top of the Election Committee's agenda once they
> begin.
>
>
>> - Your email says we're looking for 2-3 new members. Does that imply 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Joe Sutherland]

Hello everyone,

First of all, many thanks to everyone who has expressed interest in joining
the Elections Committee. I really appreciate your willingness to contribute
to a successful election and addressing some of the broader questions that
have been identified. I'll get in touch with those who have emailed me
shortly.

As a reminder, please let me know by January 19 if you are interested in
participating in the Elections Committee.

And thank you for your questions and feedback. I’ll respond inline to the
questions I believe are still pending an answer.

On Sat, 11 Jan 2020 at 22:31, Peter Southwood 
wrote:

> Joe, What would "experience with advanced wikitext markup" mean in this
> context?
> Also "responsiveness to email outreach"?


In this context, we are ideally looking for someone who is comfortable with
things like translation tags, nested templates, and other "advanced" markup
provided by MediaWiki. One of the tasks the committee has historically been
involved with has been to set up and organise the pages for the election on
Meta-Wiki, and this can get pretty complicated (as evidenced by the source
code
!).
This is a nice-to-have rather than a must-have, since it's only one of the
ways the committee supports these elections - but it's still very useful.

As for responsiveness, the timelines for these elections have historically
been tight, and so we really would like committee members who are able to
respond to emails in a timely way so we can make committee decisions
quickly.

On Sun, 12 Jan 2020 at 10:14, Chris Keating 
wrote:

> - I can't find any evidence of the Elections Committee having met since the
> conclusion of the 2017 elections - am I missing something? (The 'Minutes'
> page seems to only refer to 2015 meetings, which is almost 5 years ago, so
> hopefully this is a case of the meeting minutes being somewhere else on
> Meta)
>

You are justifiably not finding minutes, as the Elections Committee has
only met intermittently since the last election and maintained some of
their discussions over email outside of meetings (to the best of my
knowledge!). I am not able to offer extensive insights on the historical
practice around the Elections Committee, but I can revisit the process for
publishing minutes with the new committee. Supporting the committee was not
in my purview until this cycle. I will however echo the disappointment
about not having had the opportunity of meeting more frequently and share
more updates with the community. I look forward to working more closely
with the new committee once they are appointed.


> - Also, part of the mandate of the Elections Committee was meant to have
> been to do a review of the method of election to the Board of Trustees. I
> haven't heard anything about this happening. Has either the Board or the
> Elections Committee done anything about this?
>

The Elections Committee has had some initial conversation, and I expect
this topic will be at the top of the Election Committee's agenda once they
begin.


> - Your email says we're looking for 2-3 new members. Does that imply that
> all the existing members are all continuing? (Who in fact are the existing
> members? Is the April 2017 list still valid?)
>

All but four of the existing committee members have indicated they are
interested in continuing their membership. I and the rest of the Foundation
staff supporting this work are more than happy to continue working with
them once the Election Committee is renewed by the Board Governance
Committee. The list is currently valid and will be updated once we'd had
the Board Governance Committee approve these new members.


> - Has the Board, or the Board Governance Committee, done any assessment of
> whether the Elections Committee is the right tool for the job? (Does the
> Board actually review the performance of the committees it creates?)


That'd be a question for the Board Governance Committee, but my personal
understanding is that there hasn't been a need to change things for the
moment.

On Sun, 12 Jan 2020 at 23:16, Henry Wood  wrote:

> Secondly, the first meeting is to be held in
>
January, so you've given yourself less than another two weeks to have staff
> vet the candidates, get the approval of the Board Governance Committee, and
> then hold the first meeting.  Why give yourself and your propsective
> candidates so little time for a process which you have known will be coming
> since this time last year?


I understand that the timeline looks tight, and it is, I should however
mention that it is already an improvement compared to election cycles past.
Of course, there is room for improvement, and the Elections Committee will
be collecting this kind of feedback at the end of the cycle to improve
future elections.


> Thirdly, there is some important information
> missing (and very little time to disseminate it effectively).  For 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Henry Wood]

Joe,

I think this call might fairly be described as too little too late.
Firstly, you describe the votes being held on a regular cycle.  So there's
no reason for delaying this call until 10 January with a closing date of 19
January (one working week).  Secondly, the first meeting is to be held in
January, so you've given yourself less than another two weeks to have staff
vet the candidates, get the approval of the Board Governance Committee, and
then hold the first meeting.  Why give yourself and your propsective
candidates so little time for a process which you have known will be coming
since this time last year?  Thirdly, there is some important information
missing (and very little time to disseminate it effectively).  For example,
what are these meetings?  Is personal attendance necessary?  If so, and any
committee members need to get a US visa, it's already far too late, they
will have needed to apply back in November or early December.  Again, and
especially if travel is required, will the Foundation reimburse the
out-of-pocket expenses of committee members?  Failure to think through
these points may explain why certain groups continue to be
under-represented.

Henry

On Fri, 10 Jan 2020 at 23:28, Joe Sutherland 
wrote:

> Hello everyone!
>
> *Please disseminate this email to anyone who may be interested.*
>
> As you are probably aware, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees[1]
> contains three community-selected seats which are voted in by the wider
> Wikimedia community on a regular cycle. In 2020, we will be hosting another
> one of these selection processes, which are coordinated by the Wikimedia
> Foundation in collaboration with the Elections Committee[2].
>
> We are seeking 2–3 new members for the committee to join us in time for the
> first meetings in January 2020. Applicants will be vetted by Foundation
> staff and ultimately approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance
> Committee[3]. The term is three years, though the bulk of the work involved
> occurs in the buildup to an election.
>
> This role comes with the following responsibilities:
>
> * Attending 3–4 meetings between January and April 2020 with the Foundation
> and the rest of the committee
> * Setting up the wiki pages for the board election (example from last
> cycle)
> * Helping to mark pages for translation and potentially import translations
> as required
> * Working with the committee to fulfill its other responsibilities[4]
>
> Ideally, you would have the following qualities:
>
> * Fluency in English
> * Experience with advanced wikitext markup
> * Responsiveness to email outreach
>
> We are particularly interested in those who come from a traditionally
> under-represented background. If you are interested in volunteering for
> this role, please let me know by *emailing me directly before January 19,
> 2020*.
>
> Thank you in advance for your interest! Please let me know if you have
> questions; I'm more likely to see these questions if you send them to me
> directly.
>
> best,
> Joe
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees
> [2]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee
> [3]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Committee
> [4]
>
> https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee#Responsibilities
>
>
> --
> *Joe Sutherland* (he/him or they/them)
> Trust and Safety Specialist
> Wikimedia Foundation
> ___
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> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Pine W]

Risker makes some good points.

An issue for which no one seems to have a solution is the gap between need
and availability for reliable and skilled non-WMF people in numerous areas
of the Wikiverse. These people can continue to shuffle between various
roles and projects, but I think that having regular outbreaks of stress and
problems which are partially attributable to human resources constraints is
not good.

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Risker]

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election is logically run by the
Wikimedia Foundation, just as elections for other movement entities are
logically run by those specific entities.

The Board of Trustees is responsible for monitoring the election and for
the tasking of and appointment of the Election Committee.  (Similarly,
other movement entities do exactly the same thing.) There are some
constricts built into the bylaws of the organization that identify certain
qualifications for candidates for elected seats.  The WMF staff member(s)
involved in the election are there primarily as facilitators to ensure that
the decisions made by the committee are enacted in a timely way.  They're
there to make sure stuff gets done, in other words.  They're not there to
make the decisions; that responsibility is squarely in the purview of the
Committee.

I confess I am disappointed that the existing Election Committee did not
complete its assigned tasks of reviewing different types of voting, leading
community discussions, and identifying a specific preference.  Given that
the final result of the election will need to be released later than
mid-May 2020, and there is a minimum 10-week period before the polls close
to identify, qualify, and allow questioning of candidates, there is not
sufficient time to carry out much more than preliminary research on
alternate voting methods.  The recent experience with the movement-entity
board member selection process - in which some organizations clearly did
not understand the rules of engagement and had to ask for a "new" ballot -
illustrate the problem with not having sufficient time to really understand
and implement a different voting system.  Bluntly put, the Election
Commission should have completed its work in this regard by now if there
was any chance of changing  voting systems. It's been on the table as
something that needed to be done for at least 4 years, and is in fact the
reason that the Board created a "permanent" Election Commission instead of
one that gets appointed just to run a particular election.

The reality is that people who are good at actually running elections are
usually not the same people who are good at analysing and recommending
election processes.  Thus, it's really hard to find the right mix of
membership for a permanent Election Committee.  Comparatively speaking,
there are a lot more people who are proficient at the mechanics of
organizing and running elections; the only significant difference between
running a board election and running an Enwiki Arbitration Committee
election is scale (and perhaps better familiarity with Meta).

It's also essential that everyone on the committee pulls their weight.  In
the past, Election Committees have suffered from having people on board who
simply disappear after their appointment and don't do anything (or show up
so sporadically that they're more a hindrance than a help), leaving it to
an even smaller subgroup of the committee to make decisions and do the
work.  This is really a problem, and it's almost impossible to fix once the
work of the election has started.  The work for the 2020 election should be
startingwell, it probably already should have started.

Risker/Anne







On Sun, 12 Jan 2020 at 19:44, Pine W  wrote:

> Hello,
>
> As far as I know, there has been no functioning Elections Committee in
> awhile. I think that there should be one, and I am glad to see the interest
> in reviving it. So, thanks for the message, Joe.
>
> In the long term, similar to my opinion about separating the Ombudsman
> Commission from WMF, I would like to have the Elections Committee be
> independent from WMF. However, as far as I know, there is no other
> organization that is able and willing to host community authorities which
> would not be under WMF's control or substantial influence. (WMF can
> exercise significant influence over Wikimedia affiliates by restricting
> their use of Wikimedia trademarks and/or their grant funding.) I hope that
> the possibility of having one or more such legally and financially
> independent organizations is being considered as a part of the 2030
> strategy process.
>
> Pine
> ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
> ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Pine W]

Hello,

As far as I know, there has been no functioning Elections Committee in
awhile. I think that there should be one, and I am glad to see the interest
in reviving it. So, thanks for the message, Joe.

In the long term, similar to my opinion about separating the Ombudsman
Commission from WMF, I would like to have the Elections Committee be
independent from WMF. However, as far as I know, there is no other
organization that is able and willing to host community authorities which
would not be under WMF's control or substantial influence. (WMF can
exercise significant influence over Wikimedia affiliates by restricting
their use of Wikimedia trademarks and/or their grant funding.) I hope that
the possibility of having one or more such legally and financially
independent organizations is being considered as a part of the 2030
strategy process.

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Chris Keating]

Hi Joe,

I have some questions! I don't know whether they are best addressed to you,
or someone else, but

- I can't find any evidence of the Elections Committee having met since the
conclusion of the 2017 elections - am I missing something? (The 'Minutes'
page seems to only refer to 2015 meetings, which is almost 5 years ago, so
hopefully this is a case of the meeting minutes being somewhere else on
Meta)
- Also, part of the mandate of the Elections Committee was meant to have
been to do a review of the method of election to the Board of Trustees. I
haven't heard anything about this happening. Has either the Board or the
Elections Committee done anything about this?
- Your email says we're looking for 2-3 new members. Does that imply that
all the existing members are all continuing? (Who in fact are the existing
members? Is the April 2017 list still valid?)
- Has the Board, or the Board Governance Committee, done any assessment of
whether the Elections Committee is the right tool for the job? (Does the
Board actually review the performance of the committees it creates?)

Thanks!

Chris

On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 11:28 PM Joe Sutherland 
wrote:

> Hello everyone!
>
> *Please disseminate this email to anyone who may be interested.*
>
> As you are probably aware, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees[1]
> contains three community-selected seats which are voted in by the wider
> Wikimedia community on a regular cycle. In 2020, we will be hosting another
> one of these selection processes, which are coordinated by the Wikimedia
> Foundation in collaboration with the Elections Committee[2].
>
> We are seeking 2–3 new members for the committee to join us in time for the
> first meetings in January 2020. Applicants will be vetted by Foundation
> staff and ultimately approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance
> Committee[3]. The term is three years, though the bulk of the work involved
> occurs in the buildup to an election.
>
> This role comes with the following responsibilities:
>
> * Attending 3–4 meetings between January and April 2020 with the Foundation
> and the rest of the committee
> * Setting up the wiki pages for the board election (example from last
> cycle)
> * Helping to mark pages for translation and potentially import translations
> as required
> * Working with the committee to fulfill its other responsibilities[4]
>
> Ideally, you would have the following qualities:
>
> * Fluency in English
> * Experience with advanced wikitext markup
> * Responsiveness to email outreach
>
> We are particularly interested in those who come from a traditionally
> under-represented background. If you are interested in volunteering for
> this role, please let me know by *emailing me directly before January 19,
> 2020*.
>
> Thank you in advance for your interest! Please let me know if you have
> questions; I'm more likely to see these questions if you send them to me
> directly.
>
> best,
> Joe
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees
> [2]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee
> [3]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Committee
> [4]
>
> https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee#Responsibilities
>
>
> --
> *Joe Sutherland* (he/him or they/them)
> Trust and Safety Specialist
> Wikimedia Foundation
> ___
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> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Peter Southwood]

Joe, What would "experience with advanced wikitext markup" mean in this context?
Also "responsiveness to email outreach"?
Cheers,
Peter

-Original Message-
From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of 
Joe Sutherland
Sent: 11 January 2020 01:28
To: wikimedia-l
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for 
volunteers

Hello everyone!

*Please disseminate this email to anyone who may be interested.*

As you are probably aware, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees[1]
contains three community-selected seats which are voted in by the wider
Wikimedia community on a regular cycle. In 2020, we will be hosting another
one of these selection processes, which are coordinated by the Wikimedia
Foundation in collaboration with the Elections Committee[2].

We are seeking 2–3 new members for the committee to join us in time for the
first meetings in January 2020. Applicants will be vetted by Foundation
staff and ultimately approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance
Committee[3]. The term is three years, though the bulk of the work involved
occurs in the buildup to an election.

This role comes with the following responsibilities:

* Attending 3–4 meetings between January and April 2020 with the Foundation
and the rest of the committee
* Setting up the wiki pages for the board election (example from last cycle)
* Helping to mark pages for translation and potentially import translations
as required
* Working with the committee to fulfill its other responsibilities[4]

Ideally, you would have the following qualities:

* Fluency in English
* Experience with advanced wikitext markup
* Responsiveness to email outreach

We are particularly interested in those who come from a traditionally
under-represented background. If you are interested in volunteering for
this role, please let me know by *emailing me directly before January 19,
2020*.

Thank you in advance for your interest! Please let me know if you have
questions; I'm more likely to see these questions if you send them to me
directly.

best,
Joe

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Committee
[4]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee#Responsibilities


--
*Joe Sutherland* (he/him or they/them)
Trust and Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
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[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation elections committee: Call for volunteers

[Joe Sutherland]

Hello everyone!

*Please disseminate this email to anyone who may be interested.*

As you are probably aware, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees[1]
contains three community-selected seats which are voted in by the wider
Wikimedia community on a regular cycle. In 2020, we will be hosting another
one of these selection processes, which are coordinated by the Wikimedia
Foundation in collaboration with the Elections Committee[2].

We are seeking 2–3 new members for the committee to join us in time for the
first meetings in January 2020. Applicants will be vetted by Foundation
staff and ultimately approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance
Committee[3]. The term is three years, though the bulk of the work involved
occurs in the buildup to an election.

This role comes with the following responsibilities:

* Attending 3–4 meetings between January and April 2020 with the Foundation
and the rest of the committee
* Setting up the wiki pages for the board election (example from last cycle)
* Helping to mark pages for translation and potentially import translations
as required
* Working with the committee to fulfill its other responsibilities[4]

Ideally, you would have the following qualities:

* Fluency in English
* Experience with advanced wikitext markup
* Responsiveness to email outreach

We are particularly interested in those who come from a traditionally
under-represented background. If you are interested in volunteering for
this role, please let me know by *emailing me directly before January 19,
2020*.

Thank you in advance for your interest! Please let me know if you have
questions; I'm more likely to see these questions if you send them to me
directly.

best,
Joe

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Committee
[4]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee#Responsibilities


--
*Joe Sutherland* (he/him or they/them)
Trust and Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
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