Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees/Call for feedback: Community Board seats/Reports/2021-03-09 Wikimedia Chile

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Conversational Report
Wikimedia Chile - 9 March 2021

Attendees[edit]

Objective[edit]

The objective of the meeting was to talk to members of Wikimedia Chile to collect their thoughts, feedback and questions, on the proposed ideas for candidates for community-sourced seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.

Topics and Notes[edit]

Feedback on specific ideas[edit]

Regional seats[edit]
  • One volunteer stated that they would be in favor of a regional seat, but they will be very difficult to implement. The volunteer considers that it should be ensured that the people who participate are actually in the territories they represent, if a person from Latin America lives in Germany for example, the whole context of regional representation is lost.
  • One volunteer considers that to define regional candidates, it could establish some type of primary process or previous process where we could discard candidacies and go for a candidate that represents the interests of all, to make sure at the end of the day there is regional representation on the board.
Candidate resources[edit]
  • One volunteer said that although we do not talk about capabilities as such, we understand that the person should come from the regions, a person who participates in the projects, not just Wikipedia. He also must have organizational and logical skills because not necessarily a good Wikipedian makes a good board member.
  • One volunteer stated that the language issue is a problem. The figure of the translator has been a good thing and should be standardized in the movement and on the board, so that there are people who do not speak English that can be effectively integrated into the conversations.
  • A volunteer considers that a little more information about the job wouldn't hurt anyone. What the work consists of, where they meet, what they meet for, etc. If someone from the community wants to participate, they need all the information they can get in order to have a clear idea of what is behind being a board member.
  • One volunteer thinks that there should be a training program not only for the board, but also for community leaders, because the movement year by year becomes more complex and the onboarding process is difficult even for the chapter staff.

Miscellaneous feedback[edit]

  • A volunteer stated that the Chilean community has some apprehensions with respect to this call for feedback, because there is a bit of disappointment that similar opinions have been collected in the past, and at the end were not considered or even viewed.
  • A volunteer thinks that the at present time the community are not very influenced by who is on the board, and perhaps they are more affected by who is the executive director rather than who is on the board.
  • One volunteer thinks the timing for getting things done has not been the best, and good project management must know when to get things done and when to back off. Having four discussions at the same time, in a pandemic year is simply too much for the communities, from an operational point of view.
  • One volunteer considers that the weights of chapters and user groups need to be evaluated if the election model is continued as one similar to the ASBS election, understanding that some user groups do not represent the diversity they convene and many are from the global north.