Dear Ad, Thank you for being a part of Affiliate-Selected Board Selection 2019 facilitators — organising a selection process is not an easy task. And thank you for sharing your concerns about the process so far. I would like to clarify and explain some things below.
First, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, as a board of a legal entity, must decide how we select board members. Legally we cannot let a third party decide for us, even if that third party is the Wikimedia movement. This is why we are involving the movement in this call for feedback, to inform the decision that the Board will make. The Board believes requesting community feedback about how to fill Board seats is the right thing to do, as is sharing our reasoning for why we are changing our approach. After the Bylaws community review last October, we committed to organising another feedback round with more time, focusing on the trustee selection pathways [1]. This is that other round. It is also important to note that deciding deep changes in how the Board selects members is not in the scope of the Elections Committee mandate [2]. We count on them, but we cannot delegate this task to them completely. Also, just for clarity, the Affiliate-Selected Board Selection 2019 (ASBS 2019) facilitators were organised for a specific purpose, which all of you completed successfully by the end of that election. But there is no ASBS standing committee — and there never was. The debrief of ASBS 2019 that you shared has been informative and appreciated as well, and was the end of your work. It was therefore inappropriate and misleading to offer your personal opinion “on behalf of the ASBS committee”, I assure you, we respect your opinion as it is, without you trying to add additional weight to it. About the current process: volunteers (the Board) are leading it, the staff is supporting it. The staff does not decide, the board will make a decision based on the feedback. The Board has requested to have more venues for collecting feedback, thus a team of multilingual facilitators connected with the communities in multiple regions is reaching out to wiki projects and affiliates to ensure that their perspectives are captured in this call for feedback. As a key stakeholder, we are inviting the Elections committee to participate as well. We think that input is important. Volunteers who served in the 2019 Affiliate-Selected Board Selection are also important, and we invite you to participate as well. This call for feedback has started and conversations have begun; many more conversations are being scheduled. We invite you to join these, and take advantage of its process and its facilitators. Bring your ideas, mobilise your peers, and help promote this call among volunteers, projects and affiliates who haven’t been involved in governance conversations before. We are hoping to gather input widely from across the movement to ensure that ideas are shared and considered from community members with diverse experience and backgrounds to help build a strong Wikimedia Foundation Board. [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/January_2021_-_Approval_of_Bylaws_amendments_and_upcoming_call_for_feedback_about_the_selection_of_new_trustees [2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Elections_Committee Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Vice Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees *NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!* On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 12:17 AM Ad Huikeshoven <ad.huikesho...@gmail.com> wrote: > Members of the Board of Trustees and staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, > > Please WMF Board of Trustees grant control of the WMF Board elections to > the Wikimedia community, especially to the two existing committees. The > Wikimedia community can manage its own values and ethics and has no need of > non-volunteer, non-community members to assist with the fundamentals of > designing the election. > > On behalf of the ASBS committee I request you > * remove the "problems to solve" section from that page, > * remove the "ideas discussed with the board" section from that page, > * remove the 8 subpages with "ideas" > * include a section with words like: > "The Board asks the Election committee and ASBS election facilitators to > work together to set up a process, define rules, and hold a (s)election > process for six community- and affiliate sourced board seats. The board > asks the joined committee to pay respect to the strategic direction of the > Wikimedia Movement and the strategy recommendations. The board would like > to welcome a diversity of candidates. The board oversees an organization > with an annual budget over one hundred million dollaras and a staff of over > 500 people. The board would like to welcome candidates with governance > experience in non-profit organizations of the same magnitude." > > The ASBS election facilitators published their debrief of lessons learned > in 2019.[1] We as a committee are committed to act upon them. The ASBS > committee is prepared to collaborate with the standing election committee > for this process.[2] > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee> > > Regards, > > Ad Huikeshoven > On behalf of the ASBS election facilitators. > > [1] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Debrief > . > [2] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee > > On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 9:01 PM Jackie Koerner <jkoerner-...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > >> Hello all, >> >> I am reaching out because the Call for Feedback for the >> community-and-affiliate board seats officially began today and runs through >> March 14. [1] 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. >> >> On February 2 we have three options for office hours. [2] >> >> 2021-02-02 at 12:00 UTC >> 2021-02-02 at 18:00 UTC >> 2021-02-02 at 23:00 UTC >> >> Access links will be available 15 minutes before each session. >> >> Please let me know if you would like to schedule another time for your >> community or group to provide feedback. >> >> I look forward to hearing from you. >> >> Best, >> >> Jackie >> >> -- >> *Jackie Koerner* >> >> *she/her* >> Communication Facilitator, Board Governance >> *English language communities and Meta* >> >> [1] >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call_for_feedback:_Community_Board_seats >> [2] >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call_for_feedback:_Community_Board_seats/Conversations/2021-02-02_-_First_Office_Hour >> _______________________________________________ >> 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> >> > _______________________________________________ > 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> >
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