User:Varnent/COI
Conflict of Interest (COI) Disclosure
In the interest of best adhering to Wikipedia's COI guideline, and also taking into account guidance outlined in the plain and simple conflict of interest guide, I find it important to disclose upfront that, where appropriate, I contribute to articles related to work of my employers, Equality Michigan and Aequalitas Project (including WikiQueer) and organizations I have a financial relationship with (currently that only pertains to the Harvey Milk Foundation - however I donate money to a few national and Michigan based LGBT and youth advocacy organizations - I have provided a list of all relevant topics here). A part of this work is as a paid LGBT advocate. I am here to advance Wikimedia's aims of collecting and developing educational content and to disseminate it effectively and globally.
I have carefully read through Wikipedia's policies regarding neutral point of view, verifiability and reliable sources, and see it as crucial to follow these and the other core content and conduct policies closely. I am firmly opposed to non-encyclopedic puffery, marketing speak and original research that would detract from the any Wikimedia project's aims. Although I rarely propose the creation of new articles (and when I do, I leave the final decisions up to the consensus of others), I am mindful of what constitutes enduring notability.
I recognize the inherent challenge of editing Wikimedia projects while mitigating the chance for bias presented by a conflict of interest, and for that reason I ask for independent input and seek out consensus via article Talk pages and related Wikiprojects before making any substantive changes. With this approach, I seek to bring a subject matter expertise and ability to obtain hard-to-find reliable sources to the community (to more fully bring articles up to Wikimedia's own standards), while also ensuring that resulting changes to an article are the product of community consensus.
I am also cognizant of wiki content ownership and view Wikimedia projects as a work in progress, so as questions or later input regarding the edits that I have made arise, please feel free to leave a message for me on my User Talk page.
Known Conflicts of Interest