Hi. Is there a community consultation period built in to the selection process for a new Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director? If not, should there be?
In trying to figure out what the selection process may look like, I re-reviewed some of the relevant FAQs and timelines: * https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/90968 * https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/91132 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/7127367 As I understand the basic process, the Transition Team will ultimately find a suitable candidate and will make a recommendation to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. (Please correct me if this description is mistaken... this is largely unchartered territory for Wikimedia.) When this recommendation is made and prior to the Board voting, should the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to weigh in on the candidate Selection prior to final approval? If so, in what way? These questions are not meant to suggest that the Wikimedia community and the Transition Team have not been working together already (e.g., in creating a connectors list, drafting interview questions, etc.). While nobody would reasonably argue that every Wikimedia Foundation employee be vetted by the Wikimedia community, it seems to me that this particular position is unique given its enormous influence in shaping Wikimedia's course. As I understand it, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is (s)elected to ultimately make the choice of who oversees the daily operations of the Wikimedia Foundation as Executive Director. However, I believe that ensuring that the community is adequately consulted is important. Relatedly, I've asked the Executive Director Transition Team on-wiki about the possibility of more regular status updates on its progress in some form (mailing list posts, wiki page updates, etc.). MZMcBride _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
