This meeting is going to start in 10 minutes. You can join at https://meet.google.com/krn-zoac-erb
On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 8:20 PM Krishna Chaitanya Velaga < [email protected]> wrote: > (long email incoming) > > Dear Wikimedians of Bangladesh, > > The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is organizing a call for > feedback about community selection processes between February 1 and March > 14. Below you will find the problem statement and various ideas from the > Board to address it. We are offering multiple channels for questions and > feedback. With the help of a team of community facilitators, we are > organizing multiple conversations with multiple groups in multiple > languages. > > During this call for feedback we publish weekly reports and we draft the > final report that will be delivered to the Board. With the help of this > report, the Board will approve the next steps to organize the selection of > six community seats in the upcoming months. Three of these seats are due > for renewal and three are new, recently approved. > > > *Participate in this call for feedback and help us form a more diverse and > better performing Board of Trustees!* > *Problems:* While the Wikimedia Foundation and the movement have grown > about five times in the past ten years, the Board’s structure and processes > have remained basically the same. As the Board is designed today, we have a > problem of capacity, performance, and lack of representation of the > movement’s diversity. This problem was identified in the Board’s 2019 > governance review, along with recommendations for how to address it. > > To solve the problem of capacity, we have agreed to increase the Board > size to a maximum of 16 trustees (it was 10). Regarding performance and > diversity, we have approved criteria to evaluate new Board candidates. What > is missing is a process to promote community candidates that represent the > diversity of our movement and have the skills and experience to perform > well on the Board of a complex global organization. > > Our current processes to select individual volunteer and affiliate seats > have some limitations. Direct elections tend to favor candidates from the > leading language communities, regardless of how relevant their skills and > experience might be in serving as a Board member, or contributing to the > ability of the Board to perform its specific responsibilities. It is also a > fact that the current processes have favored volunteers from North America > and Western Europe. Meanwhile, our movement has grown larger and more > complex, our technical and strategic needs have increased, and we have new > and more difficult policy challenges around the globe. As well, our > Movement Strategy recommendations urge us to increase our diversity and > promote perspectives from other regions and other social backgrounds. > > In the upcoming months, we need to renew three community seats and appoint > three more community members in the new seats. What process can we all > design to promote and choose candidates that represent our movement and are > prepared with the experience, skills, and insight to perform as trustees? > > *Ideas:* The Board has discussed several ideas to overcome the problems > mentioned above. Some of these ideas could be taken and combined, and some > discarded. Other ideas coming from the call for feedback could be > considered as well. The ideas are: > > 1. *Ranked voting system*. Complete the move to a single transferable > vote system, already used to appoint affiliate-selected seats, which is > designed to best capture voters’ preferences. > 2. *Quotas*. Explore the possibility of introducing quotas to ensure > certain types of diversity in the Board (details about these quotas to be > discussed in this call for feedback). > 3. *Call for types of skills and experiences*. When the Board makes a > new call for candidates, they would specify types of skills and experiences > especially sought. > 4. *Vetting of candidates*. Potential candidates would be assessed > using the Trustee Evaluation Form and would be confirmed or not as eligible > candidates. > 5. *Board-delegated selection committee*. The community would nominate > candidates that this committee would assess and rank using the Trustee > Evaluation Form. This committee would have community elected members and > Board appointed members. > 6. *Community-elected selection committee*. The community would > directly elect the committee members. The committee would assess and rank > candidates using the Trustee Evaluation Form. > 7. *Election of confirmed candidates.* The community would vote for > community nominated candidates that have been assessed and ranked using the > Trustee Evaluation Form. The Board would appoint the most voted candidates. > 8. *Direct appointment of confirmed candidates*. After the selection > committee produces a ranked list of community nominated candidates, the > Board would appoint the top-ranked candidates directly. > > *Call for feedback:* The call for feedback[1] runs from February 1 until > the end of March 14. We are looking for a broad representation of opinions. > We are interested in the reasoning and the feelings behind your opinions. > In a conversation like this one, details are important. We want to support > good conversations where everyone can share and learn from others. We want > to hear from those who understand Wikimedia governance well and are already > active in movement conversations. We also want to hear from people who do > not usually contribute to discussions. Especially those who are active in > their own roles, topics, languages or regions, but usually not in, say, a > call for feedback on Meta. > > You can participate by joining the Telegram chat group[2], and giving > feedback on any of the talk pages on Meta-Wiki. We are welcoming the > organisation of conversations in any language and in any channel. If you > want us to organize a conversation or a meeting for your wiki project or > your affiliate, please write to me. I will also reach out to communities > and affiliates to soon have focused group discussions. > > An office hour[3] is also happening tomorrow from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm > (Bangladesh time) to discuss this topic. Access link will be available 15 > minutes before the scheduled time. In case you are not able to make it, > please don't worry, there will be more discussions and meetings in the next > few weeks. > > Regards, > Krishna Chaitanya > > [1] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call_for_feedback:_Community_Board_seats > [2] https://t.me/wmboardgovernancechat > [3] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call_for_feedback:_Community_Board_seats/Conversations/2021-02-02_-_First_Office_Hour >
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