Great question, Tomer. Generally, I think the whole
Board views
itself as having the obligation to follow-up on performance against
plan. Specifically, our HR Committee has the task of collecting
feedback and preparing the annual evaluation of our executive
director. Much of the ED's review is performance against the
organization's annual plan. Additionally, Sue has a process for
evaluating staff performance and much of that is also performance
against the goals in the annual plan.
More broadly, sorting out goals within a given year is hard. We have
the strategic plan which has a set of objectives for 2015. What we all
try to do at the beginning of the year is identify the things we need
to do to get there in two areas:
- Operational goals. Here we try to develop "SMART" objectives.
That's a handy acronym for goals which expands into Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Result-focused, and Time-driven. That set of
objectives for the current year is on page 28 of
.
- Financially. Here we develop high level revenue and spending targets
we believe are necessary to achieve these objectives. See p. 29 of
the plan for those.
-s
WMF
On Jan 1, 2012, at 3:46 AM, Tomer Ashur wrote:
Hi Stu,
I have a question:
You mention that staff prepare the work plan and the board review and
approve it. Who's in charge to verify that the goals in the plan were
met. I mean, it's a good idea to have a plan but someone should also
verify that people actually try to achieve it? Is that something the
board does? if so, does it meet in order to do so?
Tomer
WMIL
On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 12:29 AM, Stuart West <stu(a)wikimedia.org
<mailto:stu@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
To begin sharing ideas and best practices, let's start threads on
the governance/accountability/transparency practices at each
of our organizations. I'll go first with my views on the
Wikimedia Foundation. A few others from the WMF are on this list
too. Please add new thoughts or help answer questions!
I want to thank Thierry for his note to Foundation-l in
late August covering many of these issues for Wikimedia France.
That was fascinating for me and helped inspire my interest in
this list. Thierry, maybe you could update that email and send it
around to this list on a new thread?
This will be long, and may be repetitive for many of you. But I
think it is important to share a thorough overview. It would
be great if others could aim for the same level of detail /
section headings when introducing their own organizations. I'm
really interested in learning from what you all are doing.
WMF Overview
The Wikimedia Foundation is a U.S.-based non-profit corporation
created in 2003 <tel:2003>. It received tax-exempt status in 2005
<tel:2005>. Its primary governing document is the bylaws at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Bylaws. The Foundation is
the holder / owner of the trademarks, including Wikimedia
and Wikipedia, and the operator of most of the websites used by
the projects.
Governance
The Foundation's governing body is its Board of Trustees. As
a U.S. non-profit, the Foundation has some flexibility setting
size and composition of its Board. We decided in early 2008
<tel:2008> to have 10 members. The editing community (mostly)
elects three seats in odd years (e.g. 2009 <tel:2009>, 2011
<tel:2011>). The Chapters as a group appoint two seats in even
years (e.g. 2010 <tel:2010>, 2012 <tel:2012>). The founder seat
is for Jimmy Wales. The Board itself appoints the four remaining
members to bring necessary expertise to the Board. Board member
serve for two years terms.
With appointed members, we attempt to identify gaps between the
existing membership and the skills we need to fulfill our
duties. For example, the Board identified financial, auditing,
and organizational governance experience as an important skill to
have. Since we have not typically found that in the community
elected/appointed members, the Board sought out someone with that
background. That's me.
Not all Board seats have been filled at all times, but we
currently do have the full 10 members. There's a lot of work to
do, and a lot of perspectives to consider, so having a full Board
is really good.
Each year at Wikimania, the Board elects four officers: A Chair,
a Vice-Chair, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. A few years ago we
wrote detailed definitions for three of those roles:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Chair,
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Treasurer, and
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Secretary. The Vice-Chair
role is mostly to be backup to the Chair and is
typically included on all communications with the Chair.
We try to have different trustees in each officer role. Last year
I was both Vice-Chair and Treasurer. It got to be too much work
for one person, though, and we are sensibly back to one-person,
one-office this year.
It can sometimes be challenging to have everyone focus on
something at the same time, so we've experimented with another
informal role of "whip." That's a term I've heard in U.S. and
U.K. politics to describe someone who is responsible for
collecting votes, keeping us on schedule, etc. We've had mixed
success with that role, though. It's hard for someone to always
be the "bad guy."
The Board has delegated duties to three formal Board
committees: an Audit Committee which I chair, a Human Resources
committee responsible primarily for evaluating the Executive
Director and for overseeing compensation, and a Board Governance
Committee responsible for assisting in governance matters. We've
only written a formal chatter for the Audit
Committee (
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Audit_charter) but
I wish we had more because it is really helpful to set clear
expectations.
The Audit Committee was, at first, quite small and comprised
mostly of Board members. But we found that fairly few trustees
from the community had both the experience and the time to focus
on its work. So for the 2009-2010 year we switched to a model
where one trustee leads the Audit Committee (me), and then we
reach out broadly to the community for members. We've had great
success with that model, and continue to have really valuable
participation from community members. Membership history is at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Audit_committee. The Board's
Chair and the ED sit in on meetings.
Because of early investments in movement-wide fundraising,
the Board has been able to hire a staff. It no longer plays an
operating one. We do not get involved day to day in the
operations of the foundation. We do not hire staff, other than
the executive director. We do not interact with staff in
a governance or management role, though we do often in community
work.
The Board really has two primary duties: fulfill our governance
obligations and hire/evaluate the Executive Director. Most of us
also view us as having an additional less-defined but really
important third role as one of the movement-wide
leadership/decision-making bodies for Wikimedia.
All Board members are volunteers. The time commitment is less
than it used to be but is still quite significant. I estimate
it's about 5 hours a week just for board work (excluding
editing/community work), plus 10-12 days of meetings/travel each
year. The Board meets in person three or four times a year and on
IRC a few more times a year.
We maintain a Board manual with lots more information at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_manual. We use this
regularly as a reference for ourselves. We also use it to
introduce potential new trustees to the role.
Finance/governance/legal staff
Currently we have a chief of finance and administration
(Garfield Byrd), a Controller (Tony Le), and a small finance
staff. We also have a General Counsel (Geoff Brigham) and a small
legal staff. More details on staff are at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff_and_contractors.
Transparency
The two primary vehicles we use for transparency are the
Foundation's website at
http://wikimediafoundation.org
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/> and of course Meta. The
staff publishes activity and technology reports each month at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Foundation_reports. The staff also
publishes semi-annual financial reports and government filings at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports. The
Board publishes its minutes at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Foundation_reports and its
resolutions at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolutions.
Financial audits
In the U.S., independent auditors focus on the
financial statements and controls behind them, testing
management's draft results against transaction records and
against U.S. GAAP. The WMF's Audit Committee has engaged the San
Francisco office of global auditors KPMG in 2008 <tel:2008>.
Previously, the WMF had worked with a small Florida auditing firm
called Gregory, Sharer & Stuart. KPMG's latest audit is at
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/a/ac/FINAL_10_11From_KPMG.….
Like many U.S.-based non-profits, our fiscal year ends on June
30, mostly because it's cheaper to get auditors in the off-cycle
and it gives more time to catch up on end-of-year fundraising
paperwork.
Government regulation
The primarily federal regulator of non-profits in the U.S. is the
Internal Revenue Service, which grants non-profit status
and requires annual public filings of our activities. This Form
990 is due about nine months after the end of our fiscal year and
the WMF usually file in March or April. The most recent Form
990 is at
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1c/WMF_2009_2010_Form_99….
The WMF is also subject to the state laws of Florida (where
it is incorporated) and California (where it is headquartered).
There are also registration requirements around fundraising in
many of the 50 states in the U.S.
Mission oversight/planning/accountability
The financial audit and IRS filings cover financial reporting,
controls, and transparency. They do not substantially address
whether the Foundation's activities are consistent with
the mission. IMHO, no one from outside our community could have a
big impact in this role.
So this duty falls to the Board. Here's a summary of
the framework we use.
First, a few years ago the Board commissioned a five-year
strategy plan to identify top focus areas. We did this through a
fantastic community-driven process. The result was the plan at
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summary,
which continues to be a guide on priorities and objectives.
Second, each year in the early Spring the Executive Director and
her staff put together an annual operating plan. The ED typically
gives the Board a high-level summary of her thinking sometime in
January or February. The she and her team prepare a detailed
plan. As Treasurer, I review this thoroughly with the ED and give
extensive feedback both on high-level issues and, since I
have experience budgeting, on planning issues.
Third, we then have a series of increasingly detailed
reviews with the full Board. We typically focus on whether the
high-level objectives of the annual plan are a) consistent with
the mission and the strategy plan and b) achievable. We each try
to reach out to people in the community to collect feedback/ideas
as part of our reviews. As Treasurer, I give my recommendation to
the Board on the plan. Then we have a vote. Typically, the Board
approves the annual plan in late June and the staff publishes it
around the July 1 beginning of our fiscal year. The plan for
this year is at
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/3/37/2011-12_Wikimedia_Fou….
Finally, each year the Board reviews the performance of the
Executive Director against the mission
objectives/deliverables laid out in both the annual plan and the
strategic plan.
Wrap-up
OK. That's all i can type today. Thanks for your patience with
the long note. I wanted to get us all off to a good start on
sharing different approaches on these issues. I'm happy to answer
any questions. And I'm excited to hear similar overviews for
other organizations. Who's next?
-s
ps -- In case others are interested, I'll cross-post to my blog
wikistu.org <http://wikistu.org/> when I have a chance.
===============
Stuart West
Board member
Wikimedia Foundation
stu(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:stu@wikimedia.org>
===============
Stuart West
Board member
Wikimedia Foundation
stu(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:stu@wikimedia.org>
_______________________________________________
Treasurers mailing list
Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<mailto:Treasurers@lists.wikimedia.org>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers
_______________________________________________
Treasurers mailing list
Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:Treasurers@lists.wikimedia.org>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/treasurers
_______________________________________________
Treasurers mailing list
Treasurers(a)lists.wikimedia.org