As many of you are aware, it's always been difficult to navigate information about the proceedings of the Board of Trustees: minutes, agendas, specific resolutions, notes, and commentary are split across Meta Wiki, WMF Wiki, various mailing lists, etc. So, I spent the last few days building a set of navigation templates on Meta, tidying up page names, summarizing the Board's activities in recent years, etc. I hope you will take a look at the before[1] and after[2] pages on Meta. (There's still work to be done -- any help appreciated! Speaking of which, thank you to MZMcBride and Rillke for helping get a useful gadget up and running.) == The most useful part == In addition to the navigation boxes (which I hope are helpful in themselves to Trustees, staff, and any volunteers interested in governance issues), I think perhaps the most useful pieces are the Annual Summary pages I put together for 2014 [3] and 2015.[4] These aim to capture every resolution passed in each year, separated according to those focused on Board governance and more general votes. I have also included brief narratives about issues that have been widely discussed (e.g., the absence of any Advisory Board-related votes in 2015, and the implications of that). I have tried to keep this very factual, to keep it short and useful for for anybody interested in tracking the information. It could use additional eyes, and probably additional links (to significant email messages, etc.) == Curious observations == This is the deepest dive I've taken into Board proceedings, and as such, a few interesting points struck me: * Yesterday, for the first time, minutes and resolutions from the two December 2015 Board meetings were published. As far as I know there was no announcement of this; I wonder if in these tumultuous times, this has slipped through the cracks. As you will see, there are several significant pieces of information in there, and three months is a long time to wait for it. * December 2015: For the first time, we learn that Guy Kawasaki was appointed to the Board Governance Committee (BGC). Ordinarily, a committee appointment might not be of great interest; however, in this case, the appointment came during the same meeting as the one where the BGC nominated Arnnon Geshuri and Kelly Battles. If I'm not mistaken, those were the only two candidates presented to the full board for a formal vote, meaning that the members of the BGC had tremendous influence in appointing those two seats. I think it would be worthwhile to hear from the Board whether or not Guy had a role in deciding what candidates were presented to the Board. Was this appointment fully forward-looking, or was it recognizing work that he had already done with the BGC? Did Guy have a role in the formal decision of who to present to the full Board? * December 2015: The resolution establishing the Endowment Fund, which was announced in a press release in January, is now referred to on the WMF Wiki. However, the text of the resolution has not been published. I suspect this is a mere oversight and will be corrected shortly; but this is a significant development, and it will be good to see what was actually decided. * December 2015: As we knew, the Board approved the FDC's recommendation. But the text in the Minutes and in the Resolution are interesting: (a) Many staff and volunteers have praised the FDC's diligence in identifying the WMF's performance in relation to the Annual Plan Grant standards. It would be interesting to hear from the Board how it takes those comments, but there is no mention of that in the Board resolution. (b) There are, however, comments about the FDC's take on Wikimedia Germany's request for restricted funds for Wikidata. I'm not as familiar with this issue, but it appears there is a bit of a power struggle going on between the FDC, WMF, and perhaps WMDE over this issue. This is something I hope we can all hear more about, as it seems significant to the future of an important Wikimedia project. * January 2016: (No big surprise) Kelly Battles has been added to the Audit Committee, and Jaime Villagomez has been appointed Board Treasurer. * Going way back to August 2014, I noticed an interesting detail. Many who follow the Board are aware that Alice Wiegand, who had previously been a Chapters-nominated Trustee, lost her bid that year for a new nomination. Frieda Brioschi was nominated in her place, and was appointed; Frieda had previously been a Trustee some years before. And the Board immediately appointed Alice anyway, succeeding Ana Toni, who resigned mid-term. Now, for the part I had not noticed before: In the same meeting where she was herself appointed, Frieda cast the sole dissenting vote for both of the resolutions to reappoint Alice. (One to fill out the 2014 term, and another for a new term starting in 2015.) This strikes me as highly significant: Frieda surely knew that the vote would be successful, and that she would then be faced with serving alongside a colleague who she had publicly opposed. I do not know Frieda at all, but this strikes me as an action few people would take unless there was a strong reason. I am curious what the rift was between the two, and especially whether it is over an issue or philosophical difference related to the Wikimedia movement. == Closing thoughts == Overall, I hope these navigation templates, and especially the annual summaries, can facilitate various parties in navigating complex information, and help us all develop a better understanding of how the Board has been supporting the Wikimedia vision. Perhaps there are further improvements that I haven't thought of -- so of course I welcome others' contributions to how the information is presented. Please let me know (on- or off-list) if you have any feedback for me. Happy editing, -Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]] == Footnotes == [1] Before the new templates: https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Foundation_board_mee… [2] Current version: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_board_meetings#2016 [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_board_summary,_2014 [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_board_summary_2015 [5] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_celebrates_15… _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>