Hi Brion, these signals indeed worry me a bit. The fact that they bring it up so directly, probably indicates they have struggled with it. If we indeed want some kind of overarching body for the movement as a whole, and the current board feels incapable to be that, there are I think a number of remedies, of which you mention one. Some are less likely (or desirable) to occur though:
- select different board members who are capable of mixing the two (this only works if one believes that the board members are imagining boundaries that are not there) - Changing the WMF to change this dynamic (i.e. changing it to a membership organisation, changing the mission, etc.) - Creating an additional body inside the WMF that can take up this movement role better - Creating a non-legal entity (a council without any standing) - this would only work for some moral authority - creating a separate body that would become the umbrella (or creating another WMF, which will take over most activities from the current organisation, allowing the umbrella to hold the trademarks etc) The question is indeed what we're trying to accomplish. Some of these work well for community matters, but if I read the temperature well, it seems rather that people are looking for a way to impact what the WMF does. A representation without any actual powers would become quickly moot. But there is another side to community representation, and that is to ease communication. I have suggested before that some kind of council or body with community representatives (probably informal in a way) might make communication with the community in a constructive way easier. Maybe that would make it less likely that things are kept hidden, that the community is not consulted. Because having a channel that will actually have a conversation with you instead of shouting back no matter what you do (and that is definitely how it must have felt to some staff members in the past years) is no fun, and not a warm encouragement to involve the community early on. It is oh so easy to wait it out a bit, until you have solid numbers to proof your story. And before you know, it's basically too late to turn back. For this role, the WMF board is definitely unsuitable, if only because its members are very unrepresentative for the community (albeit they come /from/ the community for a big part) due to their international nature, and often they stopped editing altogether.. Lodewijk On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 3:53 PM, Brion Vibber <bvib...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > I just want to split out a concept that came up in the big threads of the > last few days: > > Some members of the WMF Board of Trustees are giving strong signals (like, > saying it outright) that the BoT can't fully take on the role of movement > leadership or community representation. Not because they think it shouldn't > happen, but because structurally and legally and practically the board of > Wikimedia Foundation Inc has different roles to fill. > > I think we should consider what roles and structures we *do* want as > members of the Wikimedia movement community. And I think we should think > about that and talk about that carefully before rushing into details like > board reform. > > Perhaps we should explicitly accept WMF as a "first among equals" org > within the movement, with specific roles like tech development and > fundraising (or other emphases as well) while other orgs concentrate on > different specific issues. Or even just "one among equals" that happens to > have specialized in those roles. > > This probably means we should think about "umbrella" structures to > coordinate and represent and look forward. > > And that's something we should *definitely* not rush into. If a mismatch in > hopes for what the WMF BoT can and should do has been a factor in > communication and leadership issues in the past, then it's very important > we not make the same kinds of mistakes in any new structures that might be > needed. > > Dream big. > Act with passion. > Talk with thought. > Don't run with scissors. > > -- brion > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > 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 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>
