Hi everyone, The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, following the recommendation of staff, has resolved to pause the Movement Brand Project until the next calendar year.[1] We recognize that much of the Wikimedia movement’s activities, events, and key collaborations have been put on hold or restructured due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have received formal requests to pause Movement Brand Project activities to reflect this need.[2]
The Board remains persuaded that there is potential value in making change to our branding system in service of our goals of engaging more people in our mission. However, we also know that change moves at the speed of trust. We have asked staff to meaningfully engage with community concerns and address the request for equitable decision-making within the process. We also ask members of the community to use this pause to consider how equity may ask us to let go of some aspects of our past, in order to create space for what could be. Making these decisions together, with so many passionate perspectives, will be challenging, but building this capacity is essential for how we grow together as a thriving global movement. In the meantime, we will establish a small ad-hoc Board committee to liaise with staff, and develop a process of collaboration and decision-making appropriate for the Movement’s brand. This committee will constitute Trustees James Heilman, Raju Narisetti, and Shani Evenstein Sigalov. We hope and intend for this committee to include a small number of community representatives from affiliates, open letter signatories, and emerging communities, and Foundation staff to be designated by the Executive Director. We’ll update you with more details on the committee soon. In 2021, using insights and recommendations gleaned through the ad-hoc committee, the Brand Project team will restart collaboration and communicate next steps accordingly. This resolution was ratified on September 24, 2020. Kind regards, María Sefidari [1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Pause_of_Brand_Development_Work [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_open_letter_on_renaming -- María Sefidari Huici Chair of the Board Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: 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, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
