Jump to content

Learning from events and reactions surrounding the removal of Lane Rasberry from the 2025 Board Elections candidate shortlist

Add links
From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

This page focuses on cataloging the series of events surrounding the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees’ vote to remove Lane Rasberry (User:Bluerasberry) from the 2025 Shortlist of Board candidates, as announced by the Board October 3, 2025. The page includes open questions that signatories hope the Board of Trustees will dialogue with the Wikimedia community about, to clarify what happened. The aim of posing these questions is to create dialogue towards a more harmonious and productive relationship between the Wikimedia Foundation and the community on issues relating to the elections of the Board of Trustees and community trust in Wikimedia elections policy and proceedings past, present, and future.

Series of Events

[edit]

Please do not edit this series of events

Open questions

[edit]

General questions

[edit]
  • Candidate privacy:
    • How can the Board be more transparent about their vetting process and any reasoning behind removing candidates from the Shortlist, without violating the privacy of candidates as individuals or as a group?
    • What can be done to prevent the Board from removing candidates from the Shortlist without providing public justification?
    • What opportunities are there for community / election committee oversight of the Board’s candidate vetting process?
  • Community role:
    • Why call them “Community and affiliate-selected seats” if the Board can veto candidates?
    • What is the Board’s commitment to democracy and community selection of Board seats?
    • The Wikimedia Foundation does what conventional U.S. organizations do, which is having a self-perpetuating board. Why does it prefer to have the user community "elect" Trustees, when the community vote does not actually elect anyone to the Board?
    • What opportunities does the community have to dispute the Board’s decision(s) to remove candidates from the Shortlist?
    • To what extent does the Board trust the voting community to select effective candidates? How is this evidenced based on the Board’s choice to remove Lane Rasberry from the Shortlist after Affiliates had voted for him to be on the shortlist?
    • What is the Wikimedia Foundation doing to encourage community participation in elections?

Questions specific to the 2025 elections

[edit]
  • Was the Wikimedia community given ample opportunities to take part in shaping the new Policy, “Board of Trustees Candidate Review Process” and criteria in which “Community and affiliate-selected seats” candidates are evaluated to be on the ballot?
  • Why was the new “Board of Trustees Candidate Review Process” approved just days before Lane Rasberry was removed - in the middle of the 2025 election? Why weren't the policies of the election settled before the elections began?
  • How can the Board justify introducing a new elections policy in the middle of an election?
  • How can community opinion be represented as the Board shapes new policies and processes about elections in the middle of the 2025 election cycle?
  • Nataliia Tymkiv, Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board stated, “The candidates have each been provided a summary and an explanation of the Board’s decision, along with the reasons for not providing these summaries publicly.”
  • Given that statement, if a candidate wants to be transparent about the information they received about the Board’s grounds for the candidate’s dismissal from the Shortlist, are they allowed to disclose these grounds to the community without penalty?
  • Why was Lane Rasberry approved to be on the official ballot in 2024, yet he was removed from candidacy for 2025 elections? Specifically:
  • Was this because of a policy change in how he was evaluated in 2025 that was not in place in 2024?
  • Was this because of a change in his resume, activities, or public statements?
  • Were the grounds for Lane Rasberry’s 2025 Shortlist removal related to anything that would normally have been managed by him resigning from certain positions or activities or recusing himself, as has been customary in Board precedent?
  • Could concerns about Lane Rasberry’s candidacy have been resolved through media training, education, or other training mechanisms after the elections, if he was elected?
  • Who gets to decide which affiliations, positions, and public statements are acceptable for Board members to take and which may disqualify them from being candidates on the ballot?
  • Regarding this statement by Nataliia Tymkiv, Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board:
The interview for any candidate joining the Board is used to assess more subjective criteria like a candidate’s judgment, discernment, discretion, and ability to engage in the duties and requirements of being a Trustee, some of which can be complex and difficult to measure. These conversations typically cover topics like conflicts of interest, fiduciary obligations of Trustees, a track record of commitment to Wikimedia’s core principles and values (e.g., upholding NPOV, managing COIs, etc.), as well as a candidate’s understanding of the Board’s Code of Conduct https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Code_of_Conduct_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees and other governance policies, and what these policies require of Trustees.

This is based on best practices and process improvements as well as the increased stakes of achieving our mission now and into the future. Now more than ever, the Foundation needs a strongly unified board committed to collective decision-making responsibilities that can help steer the organisation and our movement through difficult global headwinds, and also at a time in which we will have leadership transitions in both the Board Chair and CEO roles.”

— Nataliia Tymkiv, Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board, "Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees Selection - Candidate Ballot", Post on <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> mailing list (3 October 2025)
  • What does “now more than ever” mean - what events are being referred to?
  • Does “now more than ever” refer to global, socio-political events that have swayed how Wikimedia Foundation Board elections policy or process is being conducted? What is the precedent for that?
  • Were candidates’ political positions or publications factors in the decisions to remove them from the 2025 Shortlist?
  • Nataliia Tymkiv, Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board stated, “We also communicated that there are no reasons discovered that would stop the candidates in question from running again (the next elections are scheduled for 2027 for 4 seats), after they work on the issues communicated.”
  • How will the Board determine whether the candidate has sufficiently “worked on” the issues communicated?

Some community issues resulting from the removal

[edit]
  • Last-minute removal of candidates, leading to only four candidates for two open seats.
  • Removal of candidates after the shortlisting means we have a much less diverse, less representative slate of candidates remaining (in terms of gender, geography, language, and professional background), including a slate containing only men.
  • Erosion of community trust in Wikimedia Foundation’s ability to hold fair and transparent elections.
  • Wasted efforts (time, labor, travel, financial, emotional investment) and resources by candidates and supporters on campaigning.
  • Long-term de-motivation of candidates, their supporters, and others who may want to be involved in elections.

Signatures

[edit]

Sign here in support of an open dialogue between the Wikimedia Foundation and the community around these events and the proposed questions above.

[edit]

Anyone can add links to additional pages where community discussions on this topic are occurring, to continue documenting what happened, the Board’s response, and the community response.

Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Learning_from_events_and_reactions_surrounding_the_removal_of_Lane_Rasberry_from_the_2025_Board_Elections_candidate_shortlist&oldid=29744431"