On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 6:50 PM, MZMcBride <z...@mzmcbride.com> wrote: > Patricio Lorente wrote: >>We’ve heard your questions and want to address them broadly, as well as >>provide more information about the breakdown of Sue’s compensation during >>this time. > > Thank you for this e-mail. > >>One point of confusion is for the period this compensation covers. This is >>reasonable, this confused even some of us involved in preparing this >>response. Although the majority of activities reported on the Form 990 >>cover the Foundation’s fiscal year (specifically, the six months between >>July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015), the IRS requires that details about >>compensation for certain highly-paid individuals are for the full calendar >>year in which the fiscal year begins or ends. > > This parenthetical confused me. Six months from July 2014 to June 2015? > >>(2) Retention bonus to compensate Sue for lost opportunities during the >>transition period: $165,000. > > This is the key piece that I think most people didn't understand or > realize. Was this information published anywhere previously (e.g., in the > Board minutes)? I wouldn't expect to see an exact amount, of course, but > this is a pretty substantial amount of donor money, so I'd expect at least > a "we approved a retention bonus for special advisor Sue Gardner"-type > notice somewhere, typically on wikimediafoundation.org. > >>Sue’s special advisor status with the Foundation ended on May 31, 2016, >>and she is no longer on contract with the Foundation or receiving any >>compensation from it. > > I can't help but think about the tempestuous past year that the Wikimedia > Foundation has had, including issues with Sue's immediate successor.
I left the board in the middle of this process, so I was present for part of the discussions around what would happen but not all of it, and my understanding may be out of date. The understanding I left with is that the Special Advisor role would be created and would be paid regardless of whether she was actually being consulted--so that the outgoing ED would continue to reserve time to be available, and the new ED would not have a financial incentive to end the relationship early. However, this doesn't guarantee that the relationship would continue to any significant degree, only that the consulting time was already reserved and paid for. -Kat _______________________________________________ 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>
