I've given a few initial thoughts at
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Talk:Volunteer_strategy_consultation_2015 but
I'll leave a copy here to see if we can attract list members to the wiki to
participate.
I welcome all attempts to bring more volunteers into the charity's
activities and I'm glad that the Board and Office are taking steps to
encourage that.
However, as I was a strong proponent of non-board committees as a means of
attracting more volunteers into regular activity in liaison with the Board
and Office, I am naturally disappointed to see the suggestion of replacing
them with working groups. Working groups are, by definition, made up of
subject specialists, focussed on singular objectives, and time-limited by
nature. When a working group has accomplished its task, it disbands. I
would suggest that those features are precisely the features that we do not
want if we are to encourage greater participation by volunteers. We need
volunteer groups to be open, so that nobody feels they don't have the
expertise to contribute; we need them to be responsive to change in their
focus; we need them to have the ability to consider multiple topics in
their area of interest; and we need them to have a continuous existence,
preferably independent of the Board and Office, to allow them the
additional role of "critical friend" of each of those.
--
Rexx
On 5 June 2015 at 14:38, Michael Maggs <Michael(a)maggs.name> wrote:
Wikimedia UK needs your help. We want to transform
the way we work so
that we can bring volunteering right into the heart of the charity.
We plan to:
- Establish a new volunteer engagement panel
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_engagement_panel> or steering
group, focusing specifically on volunteering and volunteer engagement
- Embed members into our day-to-day decision making via a new evaluation
panel <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Evaluation_panel>
- Encourage the setting up of volunteer special-interest working groups
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Working_groups> to replace the existing
non-board
committees
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Committees#Non-board_committees>
- Set up cultural/GLAM
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Cultural_and_GLAM_advisory_board> and
educational
outreach
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Educational_outreach_advisory_board>
expert advisory boards to advise the WMUK main board on high-level strategy
- Change our Articles of Association
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/2015_Annual_General_Meeting/Resolutions#.281.29_Enabling_non-trustees_to_become_full_members_of_Govcom.2C_ARC_and_any_other_board_committees_that_may_be_constituted>
to allow volunteers to be appointed full members of board committees
- Provide more effective support for volunteers via the new project
coordinator <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Project_Coordinator> staff
roles
- Move toward project-based
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Project-based_working> working
practices to improve efficiency and to enable better self-evaluation of our
work
These draft plans follow on from the excellent feedback we received from
our last Volunteer Strategy Gathering
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_Strategy_Gathering/July_2015>.
They deliberately don't attempt to answer all possible questions about
implementation, as we think it best that both further questions and the
answers to those questions should come out of collaborative discussions.
The plans are not set in stone, and with the community's help they can be
improved, strengthened and fleshed out.
We would like your feedback, either online or in person at our next Volunteer
Strategy Gathering
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_Strategy_Gathering/July_2015> on
Saturday 25th July 2015, in London. For more information, see the links on
the right.
Feedback, comments and discussion are more than welcome on the discussion
page, or you can email chair[image: at]wikimedia.org.uk if you have
feedback you would prefer not to make public.
To read the full details on wiki see here:
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_strategy_consultation_2015
Best regards
Michael
_______
Michael Maggs
Chair, Wikimedia UK
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