Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024
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[edit]
Single Transferable Vote on SecurePoll will be used in this year's election.
For candidates[edit]
Apply to be a candidate[edit]
Shortlisting process[edit]
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[edit]
- The Elections Committee can select from the community questions for the candidates to answer (suggested number of questions should be 5-7 total to ensure equity).
- Note: in 2022, there were two separate sets of questions: one from the affiliates, one from the community. In this proposal, there would only be one call for questions (to be shared alongside the call for candidates) whereby anyone – from communities, projects, affiliates, etc. – can suggest questions to ask the candidates.
- The Elections Committee will finalize the list of questions, which will be shared with the shortlisted candidates.
- Candidates will provide written responses in English within a specific timeframe. Support staff will coordinate the translation of these responses and upload the English and translated responses to Meta at a designated time.
Conversation with the Candidates[edit]
- 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[edit]
- Main article: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Candidate guidelines
For voters[edit]
Voter eligibility guidelines[edit]
Timeline[edit]
| Phase | Milestone | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Candidacy Process & Campaigning | Announcement of upcoming election process | March 12, 2024 |
| Pre-onboarding for potential and shortlisted candidates | April-August 2024 | |
| Call for Candidates and Call for Questions | Beginning of May 2024
| |
| Verification of candidates based on legal and candidate criteria | A week after the close of the Call for Candidates | |
| Shortlisting candidates (if applicable) | June 2024 | |
| Campaigning period for candidates | July-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[edit]
- Main article: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/FAQ