Hello, All,
I’m Amanda Keton, the General Counsel of the Foundation, and I’d like to
clarify some of the questions and comments that have been raised over the
engagement of María as a Foundation consultant. I want to assure you that we
carefully followed our policies, compensated this in line with similar
consultants, and legitimately assessed her as the best person for the role.
The need. Maria’s engagement comes at a time of transition for both the Board
and the Foundation executive staff. This is also a time where the Community
Resilience & Sustainability (CR&S) unit is setting up mechanisms to ensure that
the Foundation provides seamless service to our growing community in its areas
of responsibility. As many of you know, that team has taken on Movement
Strategy due to the transition along with maintaining their support of Board
elections, the Universal Code of Conduct, and leading our cross-departmental
approach to supporting a Thriving Movement.
As a unit, CR&S undertook a needs assessment of the workload ahead. This needs
assessment revealed gaps in implementation of the Foundation’s Movement
Strategy and in supporting staff with the ongoing Board selection process,
upcoming onboarding, and supporting a smooth transition. The team currently
supporting the Board expansion is quite stretched, monitoring multiple channels
in many languages. Having another person who can step in immediately is
tremendously helpful to these efforts. Based on this, CR&S considered the
necessary skills and expertise for assistance in executing this work. While
seeking this expertise, numerous factors were considered. Some of these factors
included experience with the Board, volunteers and management. We also
considered the qualifications with respect to the criteria and role at hand.
The unique blend of circumstances at play and the importance of moving forward
strongly at this time led us to carefully assess our needs and explore creative
solutions.
The role. In developing the scope of work for this role, we determined that
María was a very strong candidate to support this critical work. With the
transition at the executive level, and at the Board level, Maria brings
long-term familiarity with the strategy process and strategy conversations that
is crucial for the Foundation and the movement. Furthermore, she has been a big
believer and a promoter of the Movement Strategy. We believe she can help
ensure continuity in that work and can also support Maggie and others in the
Foundation working to help expand the Board in service of bringing additional
expertise, representation and capacity.
Managing a potential conflict of interest. Maria first considered stepping down
months ago, but she wanted to help navigate the transition at the helm of the
Board. I followed our Conflict of Interest policy and brought this staff idea
to the Transition Committee, the Human Resources Committee, and ultimately
discussed this idea in principle in the last executive session of the Board of
Trustees -- without Maria. The Board does not generally discuss individual
contracts, but I wanted to make sure that the Board knew about it to respect
the spirit of the conflict of interest policy even if that would be shortly
mitigated by her stepping down from her trusteeship for unrelated reasons. I
appreciate the concerns that were raised about Affiliates receiving different
advice. I'm not aware of this, and because I want to respond timely, I can't
check with all the relevant staff. However, I have not found reference to this
in internal or Meta documentation and would appreciate more information on
where this policy can be found so we can review it when we next update our
policies, and ensure we consistently uphold our policies throughout the
movement. I agree we want to be consistent, and I appreciate that this was
pointed out.
Fair compensation. I understand that a lot of questions have been raised
pertaining to Maria’s remuneration. As many of you already know, we do not
discuss remuneration of staff or consultants in public forums, although we do
disclose appropriately as we are required to as a US nonprofit on our Form 990.
It can be difficult to balance transparency and privacy, and we find it best to
adhere to a general approach that balances our values of transparency and
privacy as well as possible. However, all consultant compensation is reviewed
according to our standard rates and market comparables. María’s compensation
was set by the same process, and this is in line with how others are paid for
similar work in similar regions.
I hope this clarifies any questions and doubts that you may have.
Best,
Amanda
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