Mailing List Archive

On 9/24/06, Erik Moeller <eloquence@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I am waiting for the result to be certified, I would like to ask
> all of you to send me your thoughts -- privately or publicly -- on
> what you think the key priorities should be for my work as Board
> member.

Hi Erik,

congrats for the results of this election. You are entering a board
that has already been established with people committed to Wikimedia.
Your key priorities should be a friendly and cooperative integration
into that board. It is my understanding that you can count on the
assistance of many people working in different projects. I wish you
all the best for this task.

Mathias
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On 9/24/06, Erik Moeller <eloquence@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I am waiting for the result to be certified, I would like to ask
> all of you to send me your thoughts -- privately or publicly -- on
> what you think the key priorities should be for my work as Board
> member.

A few thoughts - I realise there are lots of things missing from this
list, but this should provide a starting point:

Make the press aware that there's more to Wikimedia than Wikipedia.
Make sure committees aren't going astray.
In conjunction with the chapter's committee, make sure every chapter
is allowed official recognition and have a clear process for obtaining
that (Wikimedia UK is still denied this recognition).
Expand the Board via election (possibly Wikicouncil style elections)
and not via appointment.
Add an advisory Board.
Make sure there's clear guidance and process for people wanting to use
Wikimedia logos internally and externally, including derivatives on
the projects.
Update and revise the bylaws with community input.
Ensure the tech committee have the authority to buy necessary hardware.
Ensure all Board members have full access to private wikis and mailing
lists when needed (this isn't the same as expecting them to follow all
of those lists).

Angela
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On 24/09/06, Angela <beesley@gmail.com> wrote:

> Make the press aware that there's more to Wikimedia than Wikipedia.


Lots of luck on this one. I find it hard enough when talking to
non-English-speaking journalists to get across to them that there's a
Wikipedia in their language and it's not all in English ...


> Make sure committees aren't going astray.


Process should follow fairly obviously from basic policy/principles or
it's too hard to follow. Committees are process on top of the core
policies. Process needs to be reasonably obvious (or at least easily
derived).


> In conjunction with the chapter's committee, make sure every chapter
> is allowed official recognition and have a clear process for obtaining
> that (Wikimedia UK is still denied this recognition).


That's because we're not a charity as yet - Wiki Educational Resources
Limited is still legally a private company run by Alison, James, Jon,
Andrew and me, and that's not really a suitable vehicle for the
"Wikimedia UK" brandname.

*twiddles fingers waiting for Charity Commissioner*


> Ensure the tech committee have the authority to buy necessary hardware.
> Ensure all Board members have full access to private wikis and mailing
> lists when needed (this isn't the same as expecting them to follow all
> of those lists).


This shouldn't require new rules - a simple "wtf" should be adequate
when carefully applied.


- d.
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Angela wrote:
> On 9/24/06, Erik Moeller
<eloquence@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>As I am waiting for the result to be certified, I would like to ask
>>all of you to send me your thoughts -- privately or publicly -- on
>>what you think the key priorities should be for my work as Board
>>member.


I do not think what is currently lacking is ideas of what *a* board
member should be working on.

What is currently lacking is that the community takes a MUCH more
pro-active attitude, and engage not only in endless discussion, but also
actually work on proposals.


> A few thoughts - I realise there are lots of things missing from this
> list, but this should provide a starting point:
>
> Make the press aware that there's more to Wikimedia than Wikipedia.

Interesting thought.
Is there ?

> Make sure committees aren't going astray.
> In conjunction with the chapter's committee, make sure every chapter
> is allowed official recognition and have a clear process for obtaining
> that (Wikimedia UK is still denied this recognition).

As David extremely well explained, the next step is in the UK
organisation hands. Not a board member hands.

> Expand the Board via election (possibly Wikicouncil style elections)
> and not via appointment.

The bylaws state extremely clearly that the election concept is under
the responsability of the community. Not the board. It is up to the
community to decide whether their representants should be elected by
direct means, or indirect means.

It is not a board member responsability to decide how the community
should decide who its representants are. The community itself should set
up a wikicouncil.

Angela, you might have a proposal, please go ahead.


> Add an advisory Board.

The advisory board was agreed upon already, so do not need to be added
again. Fill up the advisory board would be best :-)

BUT, mostly, see how the advisory board should be working. And we are
far away from that.

> Make sure there's clear guidance and process for people wanting to use
> Wikimedia logos internally and externally, including derivatives on
> the projects.

Agreed
This is already on the legal todo list.

> Update and revise the bylaws with community input.


Sure, it is here.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bylaws_update

You may want to have a look at the history
http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bylaws_update&action=history

Good luck Erik (the "toto" addition was mine as well)

> Ensure the tech committee have the authority to buy necessary hardware.

Since Brad has arrived, this is working pretty well. The biggest
priority is now to ensure that we have the financial means.

Fundraising drive, anyone ?



Ant

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On 24/09/06, Anthere <Anthere9@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Angela wrote:

> > Make sure committees aren't going astray.
> > In conjunction with the chapter's committee, make sure every chapter
> > is allowed official recognition and have a clear process for obtaining
> > that (Wikimedia UK is still denied this recognition).

> As David extremely well explained, the next step is in the UK
> organisation hands. Not a board member hands.


I am now told by more than one person that this is not the case at all
and to stop spreading misinformation. Which would require me to have
the non-misinformation. Presumably there's some reason a press contact
shouldn't have that in the first place. I'll leave the rest of the
world to work that out and get back to me.


- d.
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- Anthere <Anthere9@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Ensure the tech committee have the authority to buy necessary hardware.
>
> Since Brad has arrived, this is working pretty well. The biggest
> priority is now to ensure that we have the financial means.
>
> Fundraising drive, anyone ?

The FundCom is still being set up. We have already had two meetings and will soon have a third. So
far we are still going over organizational and procedural issues. But before we have a fundraiser
we should have a budget but at least need a report on the current financial situation so we can
create a fundraising plan that will meet and exceed our revenue needs.

A budget will be passed at the retreat, no? How about a financial report? Who is working on this
stuff now that I'm no longer CFO? It was my understanding that a staff person was hired to do
this. If not, then the responsibility reverts to the board.

-- mav

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On 9/23/06, Erik Moeller <eloquence@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I am waiting for the result to be certified, I would like to ask
> all of you to send me your thoughts -- privately or publicly -- on
> what you think the key priorities should be for my work as Board
> member.

1. Long term goals. What are the foundation and the various projects
aiming for in 5 years or longer?
2. Mid term goals. What are the foundation and the various projects
aiming for by Summer 2007?
3. Financial transparency and more regular reporting.


--
-george william herbert
george.herbert@gmail.com
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On 9/24/06, Daniel Mayer <maveric149@yahoo.com> wrote:
> - Anthere <Anthere9@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > Ensure the tech committee have the authority to buy necessary hardware.
> >
> > Since Brad has arrived, this is working pretty well. The biggest
> > priority is now to ensure that we have the financial means.
> >
> > Fundraising drive, anyone ?
>
> The FundCom is still being set up. We have already had two meetings and will soon have a third. So
> far we are still going over organizational and procedural issues. But before we have a fundraiser
> we should have a budget but at least need a report on the current financial situation so we can
> create a fundraising plan that will meet and exceed our revenue needs.
>
> A budget will be passed at the retreat, no? How about a financial report? Who is working on this
> stuff now that I'm no longer CFO? It was my understanding that a staff person was hired to do
> this. If not, then the responsibility reverts to the board.

I'd like to echo this. I've heard on this list that there is half a
million sitting in Wikimedia's bank account. (1) There seems to be
plenty of money for basic operating costs. This is not to say that
fundraising is unnecessary, but before the fundraising is done the
public should have up to date financial reports and a budget which
shows what the money is needed for. Brad has stated that these
financial reports are forthcoming and that one the audited reports are
certified and published Wikimedia will resume publication of
financials on what he anticipates will be a monthly basis. (2)

The fundraising committee still has a lot of preparation it can do in
the mean time, and I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for
missing the last fundraising committee meeting. My son was born
September 17, 2006, and during the meeting I was either still in the
hospital or had just gotten out.

I'm going to think a little more before responding to Erik's RfC, but
for now I will say that financial reports are in my top 2 list of
things which are immediate priorities for the board. This is not to
say the board needs to personally produce the financials, but they
need to make sure that it gets done.

(1) An email from Anthere entitled "Isn't it getting to be time...",
May 25, 2006
(2) An email from Brad entitled "Professional bookkeeping in the
office", August 28, 2006
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On 9/23/06, Erik Moeller <eloquence@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I am waiting for the result to be certified, I would like to ask
> all of you to send me your thoughts -- privately or publicly -- on
> what you think the key priorities should be for my work as Board
> member.

As was correctly pointed out by Ant, you phrased the question as what
*your* priorities should be as *a* Board Member. However, I'm going
to answer in terms of what I think the priorities should be for the
Board as a whole.

In terms of immediate priorities, the board needs to reconcile the
bylaws with reality, and the board needs to resume publication of
financial reports. I'm not going to get into details in terms of how
the bylaws should be reconciled with reality other than to suggest
that the community should be involved at all steps in the process. In
terms of the financial reports, it appears that Brad is already
working on this, so hopefully this will be an easy task.

In terms of short-term priorities, communication between the board and
the rest of the community is still, in my opinion, lacking. I hope it
won't be necessary to hire anyone to fix this situation, but if the
committees and other volunteers can't reconcile this maybe it'll have
to be squeezed into someone's job description.

Longer term (but still on the order of less than a year), I'd like to
see the board press hard to ensure that the projects are better
integrated. Single sign-on has been talked about for years now.
Frankly, I don't think single sign-on is all that important, what's
much more important is integration of user talk pages, watch lists,
etc.

The other longer term issue is facilitating new projects. Wikinews
and Wikimedia Commons have been progressing nicely in my opinion, and
I think they are a good example of projects which were set up after
the Foundation came into being. As the board gets more and more away
from the day-to-day operations of the projects, which it seems they
will be doing, I'd like to see the Foundation churning out more
successful projects like this. While it's true that there has to be a
certain level of community interest before there can be a new project,
I believe the board has a lot that it can do in facilitating the
organization of such interest.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of things. Especially in terms of longer
term issues, I've only mentioned a couple that stood out in my mind.
One of the priorities for the longer term is for the board to define
just what it's priorities are going to be :).

Anthony
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