[Wikimedia-l] REMINDER: Invitation to the April 2019 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday 25 April, 18:00 UTC / Call for future proposals

[Greg Varnum]

Reminder that this meeting will begin in 15 minutes.


> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Gregory Varnum 
> Subject: Invitation to the April 2019 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: 
> Thursday 25 April, 18:00 UTC / Call for future proposals
> Date: April 24, 2019 at 3:04:43 PM PDT
> To: WikimediaAnnounce-l 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> As you perhaps noticed, the email for this month's meeting is coming out 
> late. We had some last minute cancellations, are forging ahead, but need your 
> help with this and future meetings.
> 
> *Next meeting*
> 
> For tomorrow's meeting, we are going to try a small experiment. We are asking 
> people in the audience to share 1-2 activities you are working on and excited 
> about, as well as 2-3 activities others are working on and you are excited 
> about.
> 
> You do not need to share details on the activities, it can be as simple as 
> the name of the activity or a quick one sentence description. We will collect 
> these via IRC, attempt to do so from the YouTube chat, and from people 
> attending in person. You may also email them directly to us if none of these 
> options work for you: activitiesmeet...@wikimedia.org 
> 
> 
> The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday 25 
> April 2019 at 18:00 UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
> #wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net 
> , and the meeting will be
> broadcast as a live YouTube stream:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMZWX0bvnw 
> 
> 
> *Future meetings*
> 
> For future meetings, a reminder that the agenda of this meeting is meant to 
> belong to all of us, and we need your help to do that! If you (yes you!) have 
> a 3-15 minute presentation or update you would like to share with the 
> movement, please sign up on Meta-Wiki:  
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up 
> 
> 
> *Agenda:*
> 
> Facilitator: Gregory Varnum, Communications Strategist, Wikimedia Foundation
> 
>- Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
>- Movement update - 3 minutes
>- Call for proposals for future meetings - 5 minutes
>- Movement strategy update - 15 minutes
>- Experiment activity (see above) - 15 minutes
>- Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
>- Wikilove - 5 minutes
> 
> Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
> the meeting and how to participate:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings 
> 
> 
> The May 2019 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday
> 23 May starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). To sign up
> to participate, please visit:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up 
> 
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> -- 
> 
> Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
> Communications Strategist 
> Wikimedia Foundation 
> 

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[Wikimedia-l] Invitation to the October 2018 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday, December 6th, 19:00 UTC

[Greg Varnum]

Hello everyone,

The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday, 
December 6th, 2018 at 19:00  UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is 
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be 
broadcast as a live YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEIAaeTJmJ. 
We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.

During the November/December 2018 meeting, we will have end of year lighting 
talks from staff and community members to update us on various Wikimedia 
projects and initiatives.

Meeting agenda:

• Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
• Lightning talks - 2-5 minutes each
• Questions and discussion - 5 minutes
• Wikilove - 5 minutes

Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about the 
meeting and how to participate:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

The January 2019 monthly activities meetings will will take place on Thursday, 
January 31st, 2019, starting at 19:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). If you 
would like to sign up to participate, please visit:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation 
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

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[Wikimedia-l] REMINDER: Invitation to the October 2018 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday, October 25th, 18:00 UTC

[Greg Varnum]

Hello everyone,

Reminder that this month’s Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting will begin in 
approximately 30 minutes.

The “To be determined” slot will be an "Update from the Wikimedia Foundation 
Executive Director”.

I hope that you are able to join us, or watch the video on Wikimedia Commons 
(or YouTube) later.


---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation 
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Gregory Varnum 
> Subject: Invitation to the October 2018 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: 
> Thursday, October 25th, 18:00 UTC
> Date: October 22, 2018 at 10:46:48 PM PDT
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List , 
> WikimediaAnnounce-l , "Staff (All)" 
> 
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday, 
> October 25th, 2018 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is 
> #wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net 
> , and the meeting will be broadcast as a live 
> YouTube stream:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86J8N1gExk 
> . We’ll post the video recording 
> publicly after the meeting.
> 
> During the October 2018 meeting, we will have an update on the movement, 
> Wikimedia 2030 status update, a presentation on values, principles and 
> methods, and more.
> 
> Meeting agenda:
> Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
> Movement update - 3 minutes
> Values, Principles, and Methods, oh my! - 10 minutes
> Wikimedia 2030 status update and opportunities to participate - 20 minutes
> Update from the Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director - 5-10 minutes
> Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
> Wikilove - 5 minutes
> 
> Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about the 
> meeting and how to participate:
> 
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings 
> 
> 
> The November 2018 and December 2018 monthly activities meetings will be 
> combined and will take place on Thursday, December 6th, starting at 19:00 UTC 
> (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). If you would like to sign up to participate, 
> please visit:  
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up 
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> 
> -- 
> Gregory Varnum
> Communications Strategist
> Wikimedia Foundation 
> gvar...@wikimedia.org 
> Pronouns: He/His/Him

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[Wikimedia-l] Sign up to share your knowledge with others in the movement!

[Greg Varnum]

Greetings!

As you may have heard, the signup process to present at the Wikimedia monthly 
activities meetings (the meeting previously known as the Wikimedia Foundation 
metrics and activities meetings) has been opened to all within the movement!

Sign up page:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

If you were hoping for an invitation to present - here it is! Please head over 
to Meta-Wiki and sign up to present if you have an exciting project update to 
talk about or have some helpful lessons from past projects to share.

This meeting is an opportunity to share our work and progress with each other 
in a visual format. For more information about the meeting itself, please visit 
it’s Meta-Wiki page: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings 


Thank you in advance for your interest!
-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation 
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on Wikimedia vs. NSA

[Greg Varnum]

ce and ask each other questions
>> about their claims. We have requested information and documents from the
>> government, and they have made similar requests from us. The entire phase,
>> which will also involve research and reports from experts, is expected to
>> last the next few months.
>> 
>> As part of our commitment to privacy, I want you to know about what this
>> stage of the case means for our data retention practices. Our goal in
>> bringing this lawsuit was to protect user information. In this case, like
>> other litigation in which we engage, we may sometimes be legally required
>> to preserve some information longer than the standard 90-day period in our
>> data retention guidelines. These special cases are acknowledged and
>> permitted by our privacy and data retention policies.[14]
>> 
>> As always, however, we remain committed to keeping user data no longer than
>> legally necessary. We never publish the exact details of litigation-related
>> data retention, as part of our legal strategy to keep personal data safe.
>> And we defend any personal data from disclosure to the maximum extent,
>> taking both legal and technical measures to do so. We are keeping sensitive
>> material encrypted and offline, and we have the support of the experienced
>> legal teams at the ACLU and Cooley in ensuring its safety and integrity.
>> Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA is currently one of the only freedom of
>> expression and access to knowledge cases being prosecuted against
>> government surveillance overreach. Unfortunately, the recent extension of
>> these surveillance practices by the U.S. Congress[15] demonstrates that the
>> courts may well be the only venue to stop or restrict these practices.
>> 
>> The nature of litigation means that we will not always be able to discuss
>> certain details of any case in public. For example, deliberations about
>> tactical or strategic decisions will need to remain confidential in order
>> to preserve the attorney-client privilege.[16] In such situations,
>> particularly in a sensitive and important case like this, we are always
>> balancing the need for confidentiality with our commitment to transparency.
>> So while some information will not be public, we want to be available to
>> address your questions, should you have any. Please direct them to Greg
>> Varnum gvar...@wikimedia.org <mailto:gvar...@wikimedia.org>, who can help 
>> provide answers.
>> 
>> We will continue keeping you updated on our progress and anything that
>> might affect our communities and visitors to the Wikimedia sites.[17]
>> 
>> I would like to thank Tilman Bayer, Nuria Ruiz, Faidon Liambotis, Andrew
>> Otto, James Alexander, Brandon Black, Byron Bogaert, Dan Foy, Grace
>> Gellerman, Aeryn Palmer and Jim Buatti for their extensive dedication to
>> this case.  And thanks to the C-levels supporting this work, Eileen
>> Hershenov, Victoria Coleman, and Toby Negrin.
>> 
>> Yours,
>> Katherine
>> 
>> [1] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/06/23/wikimedia-v-nsa-present-future/ 
>> <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/06/23/wikimedia-v-nsa-present-future/>
>> [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency>
>> [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice>
>> [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bono 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bono>
>> [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Liberties_Union 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Liberties_Union>
>> [6] https://knightcolumbia.org/ <https://knightcolumbia.org/>
>> [7] https://www.cooley.com/ <https://www.cooley.com/>
>> [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_collection 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_collection>
>> [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_backbone 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_backbone>
>> [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeals 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeals>
>> [11] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/05/23/wikimedia-nsa-appeal-standing/ 
>> <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/05/23/wikimedia-nsa-appeal-standing/>
>> [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_(law) 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_(law)>
>> [13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(law) 
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(law)>
>> [14] https://meta.wiki

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Audit and Audit FAQ for year ending 30 June 2016

[Greg Varnum]

Apologies if you got this twice. The announce list had a little hiccup. :)

-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation 
gvar...@wikimedia.org 
> On Oct 20, 2016, at 12:23 PM, Gregory Varnum  wrote:
> 
> Sent on behalf of Tony Le and Jaime Villagomez. 
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> The audit report of the Wikimedia Foundation and frequently asked questions 
> about the audit report for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2016 are now 
> available at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports 
> 
> 
> The audit is conducted annually as a part of our financial oversight, and 
> provides an overview of basic information about the organization's financial 
> position and its overall financial health. This audit report has been 
> approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Audit Committee -- a board subcommittee 
> -- and presented to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees for their 
> review.
> 
> Please contact us via email if you have any questions.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Jaime Villagomez, Wikimedia Foundation Chief Financial Officer 
> (jvillago...@wikimedia.org )
> 
> Tony Le, Wikimedia Foundation Controller (t...@wikimedia.org 
> )
> -- 
> Gregory Varnum
> Communications Strategist (Contractor)
> Wikimedia Foundation 
> gvar...@wikimedia.org 
> ___
> Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately 
> directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. 
> For more information about Wikimedia-l:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
> ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Board appointment of Executive Director

[Greg Varnum]

This message is also available on Meta-Wiki for translation:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/24_June_2016_-_Board_appointment_of_Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director

-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation 
gvar...@wikimedia.org 
> On Jun 24, 2016, at 11:15 AM, Patricio Lorente  
> wrote:
> 
> Dear all, 
> 
> It is our great pleasure to share that during the Board meeting at Wikimania 
> 2016 in Esino Lario, we unanimously voted to appoint Katherine Maher as 
> Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. This is effective as of our 
> resolution dated Thursday, 23 June. 
> 
> Katherine served as interim Executive Director for the past three months, 
> during which time she consistently and repeatedly demonstrated the kind of 
> leadership our organization needs. She is deeply committed to our movement’s 
> values, and brings expertise in civic technology and international 
> development that will be an asset to the Wikimedia Foundation and the 
> movement.
> 
> We came to this conclusion after an intensive discovery process led by the ED 
> search committee. Our decision was also informed by direct feedback from 
> staff and community, and our own experience working closely with Katherine. 
> 
> In March, we assembled an Executive Director search committee[1] consisting 
> of four Board members¹ who were chosen to represent different perspectives 
> and capacities.² Additionally, the Board asked the Foundation’s Chief 
> Advancement Officer Lisa Gruwell to represent the executive team, and 
> Foundation staff member Katie Horn was selected by her peers as someone who 
> could represent staff perspectives. The committee was charged with keeping 
> the process on track and on time, engaging important stakeholders, and 
> facilitating transparency in communications. Their first tasks were to 
> identify a search firm, and define the position description. You can review 
> the committee’s updates on Meta.[2]
> 
> The committee recruited Viewcrest Advisors,³ to identify our leadership needs 
> and design a hiring process. Kathleen Yazbak of Viewcrest worked with the 
> committee to conduct interviews with every Foundation department, the 
> executive, the Board, and nearly 20 additional one-on-one interviews with 
> staff. Kathleen attended the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, collecting 
> feedback from community members and affiliates. The committee launched a 
> community survey in June, receiving more than 1,600 responses about the 
> qualities needed in the next ED; they also asked for feedback on Meta.[3] 
> Taking all of this into account, the transition team developed a profile and 
> requirements for the next Executive Director that reflect our values and our 
> communities.
> 
> Throughout this process, the Board and the transition team received very 
> clear and often unsolicited feedback from both staff and community members 
> that Katherine embodies the values of our movement and the traits needed in 
> our next ED. This feedback was only reinforced by the latest Foundation 
> engagement survey results, which showed a strong shift toward renewed trust 
> in leadership. After taking this all into account, and considering what the 
> organization needs at this moment of transition, we moved to appoint 
> Katherine now. 
> 
> In just three months as interim ED, Katherine worked with the organization 
> and community to make huge strides in management, execution, and 
> transparency. She brought much-needed clarity to our strategic direction, and 
> mobilized the organization to clearly communicate that direction through this 
> year’s annual plan. 
> 
> After her appointment, she worked with the leadership team to swiftly 
> identify the organization’s priorities during the transition period and 
> execute against them, setting ambitious but reachable targets. Under 
> Katherine’s leadership, the Foundation submitted its annual plan to the Funds 
> Dissemination Committee, leaving ample time for community feedback and 
> discussion.
> 
> Katherine is an excellent fit for our movement. She is longtime advocate for 
> global open communities, culture, and technology. She was the Foundation’s 
> Chief Communications Officer from April 2014 until she was appointed interim 
> ED in March. Throughout her career she has focused on freedom of expression, 
> access to information, and digital rights; supporting the efforts of people 
> around the world to deepen participation, advance transparency, and 
> strengthen their communities through her work with UNICEF, National 
> Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the World Bank.  If you 
> don’t already know Katherine, you can learn more about her on Meta.[4]
> 
> With this appointment, we feel strongly that the Foundation has the 
> leadership and clarity to 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

[Greg Varnum]

Greetings,

Apologies for our delay in this response. In addition to the holiday weekend, 
questions related to HR issues require extra care and verification on our part. 
But again, I do want to apologize for that process taking all week.

Regarding Lodewijk's questions about Sue's special advisor role, including the 
timeline and how compensation was set, Sue served as a special advisor until 
May 31, 2016. Her pay included compensation for her extended role during the ED 
transition, and to match market rates for a role of this nature in 
organizations of similar size to the Wikimedia Foundation. Our Board Chair, 
Patricio Lorente, gave a response to the Signpost that provides more 
information[1].

John asked about filing and other fees paid by Jones Day, and if the fees were 
separate from consulting costs. Unfortunately, we don’t have an easy, quick way 
to divide the Jones Day expenses into registration fees and legal fees, but we 
can provide more information about where the costs came from. Each trademark 
application costs about $1,000–5,000 (sometimes more), including filing fees 
and attorney’s fees. The cost for each application depends on the country’s 
application fees, the country’s administrative hurdles, the breadth of 
protection we are seeking, whether we can reuse materials prepared for previous 
applications, and whether we encounter resistance from trademark offices or 
other trademark holders. 

Finally, regarding John's question about non-program service investment in 
Europe (page 35), this represents our foreign currency bank accounts with JP 
Morgan in the UK. The purpose of this holding is to retain donations received 
in EUR, GBP, CAD and AUD in their original currency to minimize currency 
exchange risks.

I hope that clarifies the remaining questions, and again, thank you for your 
questions and feedback both on this list and elsewhere.

-Gregory Varnum
Wikimedia Foundation

1. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2016-05-28/Special_report


> On May 31, 2016, at 12:01 PM, Greg Varnum <gvar...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I just wanted to verify that we will be sending out answers to these 
> additional questions. This past weekend was a holiday in the United States, 
> and so we have not yet finished gathering the information to give accurate 
> response.
> 
> Thank you for your patience, and please let me know if you have any 
> additional questions.
> Gregory Varnum
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 
> 
>> On May 31, 2016, at 4:16 AM, Lodewijk <lodew...@effeietsanders.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Unfortunately I haven't seen an answer to my questions. Could you please
>> acknowledge the receipt of the question if you're investigating? Or could
>> you just say it is a ridiculous question and that you refuse to answer, if
>> you think so? From the more elaborate answer on the Signpost questions, I
>> understand that the role continues to this day - which makes it probably
>> more relevant.
>> 
>> Please don't retreat in silence again.
>> 
>> Lodewijk
>> 
>> 2016-05-25 14:39 GMT+02:00 Lodewijk <lodew...@effeietsanders.org>:
>> 
>>> Thanks Greg for the responses.
>>> 
>>> As for the ED team, that answers part of my question. That Sue was
>>> appointed as special advisor, was indeed public knowledge - but for what
>>> duration was that? And was that a full time position (or anything near full
>>> time), given that her compensation was as high as that of the ED herself?
>>> People suggested that this included compensation for earlier years - was
>>> that the case? That would explain again a bit more.
>>> 
>>> Also part of the question was why the raise was so steep - was this simply
>>> matching the reality of the current job market, or was there something else
>>> behind it (i.e. a bonus mechanism etc).
>>> 
>>> It would be great if you could clarify! Thanks!
>>> 
>>> Lodewijk
>>> 
>>> 2016-05-25 12:45 GMT+02:00 John Mark Vandenberg <jay...@gmail.com>:
>>> 
>>>> On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 6:31 AM, Gregory Varnum <gvar...@wikimedia.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> Greetings,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the
>>>> Wikimedia Foundation's Form 990.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Regarding Lodewijk's first question about the legal services (totalling
>>>> US$1.7M) which were conducted by Jones Day (page 61 - Part VII): As our
>>>> global reach has grown over time, we felt it was important to strengthen
>>>> the trademark portfolio and solidify th

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

[Greg Varnum]

Greetings,

I just wanted to verify that we will be sending out answers to these additional 
questions. This past weekend was a holiday in the United States, and so we have 
not yet finished gathering the information to give accurate response.

Thank you for your patience, and please let me know if you have any additional 
questions.
Gregory Varnum
Wikimedia Foundation


> On May 31, 2016, at 4:16 AM, Lodewijk  wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Unfortunately I haven't seen an answer to my questions. Could you please
> acknowledge the receipt of the question if you're investigating? Or could
> you just say it is a ridiculous question and that you refuse to answer, if
> you think so? From the more elaborate answer on the Signpost questions, I
> understand that the role continues to this day - which makes it probably
> more relevant.
> 
> Please don't retreat in silence again.
> 
> Lodewijk
> 
> 2016-05-25 14:39 GMT+02:00 Lodewijk :
> 
>> Thanks Greg for the responses.
>> 
>> As for the ED team, that answers part of my question. That Sue was
>> appointed as special advisor, was indeed public knowledge - but for what
>> duration was that? And was that a full time position (or anything near full
>> time), given that her compensation was as high as that of the ED herself?
>> People suggested that this included compensation for earlier years - was
>> that the case? That would explain again a bit more.
>> 
>> Also part of the question was why the raise was so steep - was this simply
>> matching the reality of the current job market, or was there something else
>> behind it (i.e. a bonus mechanism etc).
>> 
>> It would be great if you could clarify! Thanks!
>> 
>> Lodewijk
>> 
>> 2016-05-25 12:45 GMT+02:00 John Mark Vandenberg :
>> 
>>> On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 6:31 AM, Gregory Varnum 
>>> wrote:
 Greetings,
 
 Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the
>>> Wikimedia Foundation's Form 990.
 
 Regarding Lodewijk's first question about the legal services (totalling
>>> US$1.7M) which were conducted by Jones Day (page 61 - Part VII): As our
>>> global reach has grown over time, we felt it was important to strengthen
>>> the trademark portfolio and solidify the protection of Wikimedia’s marks
>>> globally. In December 2013, we began working with Jones Day on our global
>>> trademark filings, registrations, and oppositions. During the 2014-2015
>>> fiscal year we filed 1,500+ new trademark applications for 35 different
>>> trademarks in 100+ countries. A significant portion of the legal services
>>> expenses in 2014-2015 went toward the mandatory government trademark
>>> application filing fees.
 
 These new trademark applications contained expanded coverage and
>>> revised descriptions to ensure better protection of Wikimedia's marks and
>>> projects, including countries where readership was growing through targeted
>>> programs or distribution (such as Wikipedia Zero and mobile readership).
>>> Going forward, we anticipate (and are beginning to realize) a decrease in
>>> trademark expenses year over year, now that we have this initial foundation
>>> is in place. This investment immediately benefits Wikimedia and its
>>> communities by ensuring that our trademark portfolio reflects the maturity
>>> and breadth of the Wikimedia movement, and protects us against certain
>>> forms of infringement or misuse.
>>> 
>>> Hi Gregory,
>>> Just to confirm, the stated US$1.7M stated on page p.61 includes
>>> filing and other fees paid by Jones Day to relevant government bodies
>>> around the world?
>>> If so, any chance you can separate it into such fees paid *through*
>>> Jones Day, vs the consultation fees of Jones Day.
>>> You say it was a 'significant portion', but that is very vague
>>> terminology, meaning very different things to different people; it
>>> would be nice to have a ball park figure.
>>> 
>>> Also there was a USD ~5.2 M investment in Europe listed on p. 35 as
>>> not being program services.  I didn't see any reference to it in the
>>> FAQ; apologies if I missed it (It would be lovely if the source
>>> document was posted on meta for easier navigation, etc.).  Could we
>>> have a little more info about this line item?
>>> 
>>> --
>>> John Vandenberg
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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[Wikimedia-l] 2016 call for Audit Committee observers

[Greg Varnum]

Forward on behalf of Kelly Battles.



Hello All -
 
My name is Kelly Bodnar Battles and I am honored to have joined the Wikimedia 
Foundation Board of Trustees in January of this year.
 
Professionally, I am a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and a material part of my 
near term Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) Board responsibilities will be to chair 
the Audit Committee.  Currently, the voting members of the Audit Committee are 
myself, Alice Wiegand, María Sefidari and Denny Vrandečić.  WMF’s CFO and 
Treasurer Jaime Villagomez is also an important stakeholder on this committee 
as well.
 
As you may know, we have the precedent of having non-voting members (please see 
role definition below) from outside the board participate in the Audit 
Committee as well.  Toward that end, I would like to:

-  First and foremost, thank Matt Bisanz, Michael Snow, Abhijith Jayanthi, 
Ben Creasy and Florian Gerl for participating in this committee as non-voting 
members in the recent past.

-  Request that if you are interested (or know of other volunteers in the 
community who may be interested) in serving in this capacity for this next 
cycle (from selection through June 2017), please send to me at this email 
address (kbatt...@wikimedia.org ) your resume, 
the top 3 reasons why you want to do this and the top 3 things you will add to 
the Audit Committee.

-  Propose the following steps and timeline for the selection process:
-  Candidates submit their interest and the above information to me no 
later than April 15
-  The Audit Committee will interview top 4 candidates by May 10
-  The Audit Committee will select the top 2 candidate by May 15
-  Selected candidates join the Audit committee by June 1 and attend 
July Audit Committee meeting

-  Outline the following important preferences for candidates interested in 
this role:
-  5+ years of operational finance and or accounting experience
-  Solid understanding of the mission and operations of WMF
-  Prior executive or board experience
-  CPA (Certified Public Accountant) or MBA (Masters in Business 
Administration), or equivalent earned
-  Capacity to commit an estimated 20-30 hours annually to attend both 
quarterly and other ad-hoc meetings, prepare or review required materials, and 
interact with committee, staff and/or board as required.
 
Once again, I am thrilled to be part of this amazing organization.  Thank you 
for the warm welcome I have received so far.
 
Best,
Kelly
 
See link for Audit Committee charter
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Audit_Committee_charter 

This message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Audit_Committee/2016_call_for_Audit_Committee_observers
 

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