Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024

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In 2024, the term of 4 (four) Community- and Affiliate-selected Trustees on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will come to an end. The Board invites the Wikimedia movement to participate in this year’s selection process and vote to fill those seats.

The Elections Committee will oversee this process with support from Foundation staff.

Voting method and platform

Single Transferable Vote on SecurePoll will be used in this year's election.

For candidates

Apply to be a candidate

Main page: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Candidate application

Shortlisting process

In 2024 there will be four open seats. In a previous cycle when there were four open seats, there was an overwhelming number of candidates for voters to review. The Elections Committee and Board of Trustees determined 12 candidates would be a reasonable number for voters to review. If there are more than 15 eligible candidates as determined by the Elections Committee, a shortlisting process will occur. The process will aim to shortlist 12 candidates, and these 12 candidates will be running in the community voting phase. If there are 15 or fewer candidates, there will be no shortlisting process. The process would be a lot of work for Affiliates only to eliminate three or fewer candidates for community voting round.

If there is a shortlisting process, the following process will be followed:

  • Each Affiliates will be asked to designate 1 (one) representative that will represent them in the shortlisting process. The representative could be the default contact point for that Affiliate or anyone else acting in official capacity representing the Affiliate. The support team will send a message to all Affiliates to ask them to name their representative.
  • The Affiliate representatives will select up to 12 (twelve) from all candidates determined eligible by the Elections Committee in a voting platform designated by the Elections Committee. Their decision should be based on the candidates’ alignment with the Board’s requirements and desired criteria for candidates.

The results of the shortlisting process will be announced in the manner described below, to balance the commitment for public transparency and considerations about improper influencing of the community vote:

  • After the shortlisting process concludes, the 12 candidates who receive the highest number of votes will be announced by the Elections Committee, but without publicly mentioning their ranking.
  • After the community voting, the data about how many Affiliates participated in the shortlisting process and for which candidates they voted for will be shared publicly.

Community questions for candidates

Main page: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Questions for candidates

In each selection process, the community has the opportunity to submit questions for the Board of Trustees candidates to answer. The Election Committee selects questions from the list developed by the community for the candidates to answer. Candidates are only required to answer these selected questions. This year, the Election Committee will select five (5) questions for the candidates to answer. The selected questions may be a combination of what’s been submitted from the community, if they’re alike or related. Once selected, each question is broken into a subpage to help with readability.

Conversation with the Candidates

  • A panel interview will be hosted with all shortlisted candidates. This panel will be available virtually with interpretation; and recorded for those who can’t attend live.
  • To ensure equity, the questions will be shared with candidates ahead of time so they can prepare. Support staff will facilitate to make sure there is equal airtime for every candidate.

Campaign rules

Main page: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Candidate guidelines

For voters

Voter eligibility guidelines

Main article: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Voter eligibility guidelines

Timeline

Phase Milestone Timeline
Candidacy Process & Campaigning Announcement of upcoming election process March 12, 2024
Pre-onboarding for potential and shortlisted candidates April 2024―August 2024
Call for Candidates (3 weeks) May 8, 2024―May 29, 2024
Call for Questions (5 weeks) May 8, 2024―June 12, 2024
Verification of candidates based on legal and candidate criteria May 30, 2024―June 7, 2024
Shortlisting candidates (if applicable) June 2024
Campaigning period for candidates July 2024―August 2024
Candidates answer questions from community July 2024
Conversation with the Candidates (panel interview) August 2024
Voting & Results Voting period End of August or early September 2024 (open for 2 weeks)
Scrutiny, tally, verification, and preliminary announcement of voting results Within 3 weeks of the close of the voting period
Confirmation Background check and confirmation of selected candidates; Board of Trustees discusses candidates October–November 2024
Board of Trustees vote on selected candidates December 2024 (Board Meeting)


Frequently asked questions

Main article: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/FAQ