Wikimedia Foundation elections committee/Roles

The Board Elections is a time consuming process, involving coordination of the Board (depending on the level of decisions it may be Governance Committee or Board Selection Task Force), Elections Committee, and supporting staff. The table below is illustrating the most usual tasks, and establishes accountable groups, and roles of each involved party in the process organisation.

The table was created using RACI Model (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed). The legend to the roles is below.

RACI: Description of Roles
ROLES	DESCRIPTION
Responsible	The person or group who actually carries out the process or task and is responsible for getting the job done.
Accountable	The person or group who is ultimately accountable for the process or task, the decision-maker.
Consulted	People who are not directly involved in carrying out the task but are consulted beforehand or after (stakeholder or subject matter expert).
Informed	Those who receive output from the process or task, or who need to stay informed along the way.

Roles & Responsibilities[edit]

Category	Task	Roles							Notes
Category	Task	Responsible		Accountable	Consulted		Informed		Notes
Timeline	Set target date for the end of the election	Staff		Board of Trustees	Elections Committee
Timeline	Determine election timeline specifics (including if changes are necessary/requested)	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Timeline	Publish communications about timeline updates and changes	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Candidacy	Design candidacy process	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Candidacy	Draft call for candidates	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Candidacy	Post call for candidates	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Candidacy	Determine candidacy eligibility criteria	Staff		Staff			Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	Just legal requirements.
Candidacy	Verify candidate identities	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Candidacy	Verify candidate eligibility	Elections Committee		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees	Staff
Candidacy	Create information form for candidates to fill out	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Outreach	Draft CentralNotice banners	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Outreach	Publish CentralNotice banners	Staff		Staff	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees
Outreach	Draft emails to voters	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Outreach	Send emails to voters	Staff		Staff	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees
Outreach	Determine list of communities to send targeted communications	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Outreach	Send targeted communications to individual communities	Staff		Staff	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees
Volunteers	Recruit election volunteers	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees				Dependent on decision by EC if and what additional volunteers to recruit
Volunteers	Coordinate with election volunteers	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees		Elections Committee is the group that designs the facilitation plan
Communications	Draft communications	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Communications	Review and approve communications	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Staff		Board of Trustees
Communications	Translate election messages	Staff		Staff			Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Communications	Keep Meta-Wiki up-to-date with election information	Staff		Staff	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees
Communications	Monitor Meta-Wiki for questions and feedback	Staff		Staff	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees		By monitoring, we mean keeping track of whether a response have been given, how long someone been waiting etc.
Communications	Monitor wikimedia-l for questions and feedback	Staff		Staff	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees
Communications	Monitor Elections Committee mailing list for questions and feedback	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Communications	Moderation of the Elections Committee mailing list	Staff		Staff	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees		Consulted means Committee also have technical capability to do so if they wish.
Communications	Respond to questions about the Board of Trustees of Trustees	Elections Committee		Board of Trustees					Staff -> Elections Committee -> Board of Trustees of Trustee escalation
Communications		Staff		Board of Trustees
Communications	Respond to questions about the election process	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees				Simple questions staff can answer, Accountable is who to escalate to
Communications	Respond to questions by the candidates	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Communications	Create a service-level agreement	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	Staff			Include standard response time and protocols
Evaluation	Determine minimum criteria for candidates	Board of Trustees		Board of Trustees	Elections Committee	Staff			Like knowing English
Evaluation	Determine candidate expected qualification	Board of Trustees		Board of Trustees	Staff		Elections Committee		Like product experience
Evaluation	Check candidacy eligibility criteria	Staff		Staff			Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	Minimum eligibility criteria (e.g. no criminal history)
Evaluation	Check minimum criteria for candidates	Elections Committee		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees	Staff	e.g. English knowledge
Evaluation	Managing the process to shortlist canditates	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Evaluation	Choosing the shortlisted candidates	Elections Committee		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees	Staff	The affiliates should probably be responsible.
Campaigning	Determine campaigning rules	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	Staff
Campaigning	Enforce campaigning rules	Elections Committee	Staff	Elections Committee			Board of Trustees		Staff can help with drafting messages to candidates, but the Elections Committee should send the messages
Campaigning	Determine questions for candidates to answer	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	Staff
Campaigning	Schedule official campaign events (e.g., conversations with candidates)	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Voting	Determine voter eligibility criteria	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	Staff			Board of Trustees should be consulted if there are any proposed changes from past criteria
Voting	Generate the voter list	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Voting	Review voter eligibility requests	Staff		Elections Committee			Board of Trustees
Voting	Determine voting platform	Staff		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Voting	Implement SecurePoll updates	Staff		Staff			Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	SecurePoll is a stand-in for the technical voting platform.
Voting	Manage votewiki accounts and rights	Staff		Staff			Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Voting	Set up the election on votewiki	Staff		Staff			Elections Committee	Board of Trustees
Voting	Determine voting method (STV, etc.)	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Board of Trustees	Staff
Results	Scrutinize votes	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Staff		Board of Trustees		Ideally, staff would just be consulted—in practice, staff has been responsible. Changing that would depend on the platform and skill training of the committee members.
Results	Tally vote results	Elections Committee		Elections Committee	Staff		Board of Trustees		Ideally, staff would just be consulted—in practice, staff has been responsible. Changing that would depend on the platform and skill training of the committee members.
Results	Verify vote results	Elections Committee	Staff	Elections Committee			Board of Trustees		Staff is responsible for independently verifying the results
Results	Announce vote results	Elections Committee	Staff	Elections Committee			Board of Trustees