[Foundation-l] Funding for the newly elected Board Members

Mon Jun 21 08:48:08 UTC 2004

hcheney wrote:
> If the Wikimedia Foundation starts giving the trustees
> "perks" I feel that fundraising could be quite a bit
> harder. 

Firstly, phone calls made for Foundation business are hardly "perks".
Secondly, I don't see this sort of expense coming out of the normal
donation funds. People have given those expecting they will be used on
hardware and related purchases, so that is exactly what should be done
with them.

However, not all of the money in our account is from donors. We
already have €10,000 from the Ars Electronica award, and one of the
things Anthere and I plan to do over the coming year is to find funds
from alternative sources. We can't rely purely on donations from
within the website, so there is no need for actual donor money to be
spent on board expenses.

I expect the vast majority of our communication to be carried out over
IRC. However, there are situations where this is not plausible. As
well as the press contacts Anthere mentioned, applying for grants is
one example where face to face contact, or at a minimum, phone
contact, is far more likely to result in success.

Delirium wrote:
> As for internet connections, I assume anyone involved
>  in the project already has one …

I agree. I don't see my internet costs as being something the
Foundation should be paying for.

Anthere wrote: 
> In about 2 weeks, there is a meeting in Paris, for many french speaking
> wikipedians. I will meet Jimbo there. Jimbo made the great suggestion
> that Angela meet us there as well. It will allow her to meet with french
> wikipedians AND it will probably be the first and the last opportunity
> for the whole year, for the board to meet face to face for really low cost.

I have mixed views about this. It is a great opportunity for the three
of us to meet, and probably the only opportunity over the following
year. However, I am not entirely comfortable about having to take the
Foundation's money for it, as Jimbo has suggested I do. On the other
hand, I recognise that starting the year with a real life meeting is
likely to be very beneficial, so if the community supported the idea
that some of the award money (not donor money) could pay for this,
then I would be delighted by that. However, I absolutely do not want
this to happen if it is going to cause a huge controversy. People have
expressed views against board expenses, and so this issue needs to be
treated sensitively. I have no intention of upsetting the people who
so recently voted me into this position.

Anthere wrote: 
> Danny added to possible official positions, 
> the possibility of having an ombudsman. 
> I personally think it is premature right now…

I don't think this is premature at all. I think it will ease a lot of
the concerns surrounding the idea we're about to jet off to Florida
each week. :) Having an outsider monitoring the spending within the
project sounds a very beneficial idea to me.

Angela.