Minutes:2015-03-16
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Wikimedia Foundation Board minutes
March 16, 2015
- Location: San Francisco and web conference (Google Hangout)
- Board of Trustees present: Jan-Bart de Vreede (Chair), Patricio Lorente (Vice-Chair), Phoebe Ayers, Frieda Brioschi (present for most of the meeting), Sam Klein, María Sefidari, Jimmy Wales (present for most of the meeting), Stu West, and Alice Wiegand.
- Non-Board members present: Lila Tretikov (Executive Director), Geoff Brigham (Secretary and General Counsel), Stephen LaPorte (Legal Counsel), Trish Silber (retreat facilitator), Kim Gilbey (strategy coordinator).
Jan-Bart called to order a special meeting of the Board of Trustees at 12:00 PM PST. Stu, Lila, Geoff, Kim and Stephen were present in San Francisco, and Jan-Bart, Patricio, Phoebe, Sam, María, Alice, and Trish joined remotely via web conference. Stephen called roll and confirmed that a quorum was present and able to simultaneously hear the meeting. During the course of the meeting, Jimmy and Frieda joined via web conference.
Resolutions
- The Board unanimously approved the minutes from the February 6–7, 2015 meeting, after a motion by Jan-Bart, seconded by Stu.
- The Board unanimously approved a resolution appointing Guy Kawasaki, after a motion by Jan-Bart, seconded by Stu.
Strategy update
Lila introduced Kim Gilbey, who updated the Board on the Wikimedia Foundation's strategy process. The goal of this year's strategy process was to design an iterative strategy that allowed the Wikimedia Foundation to make adjustments in response to changes in the web environment. The strategy is built through three phases: internal research at the Wikimedia Foundation, external dialogue, and implementation. In March, the Wikimedia Foundation undertook to engage the community in a visioning exercise to get feedback on emerging trends that will impact the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia projects in the future. Kim reviewed some of the preliminary findings from the community consultation, such as patterns of feedback about the importance of language and translation capabilities and truthful, neutral, and high-quality content. The consultation included responses from a diverse set of languages and countries, and the strategy team is continuing to analyze the feedback.
Kim was excused after this portion of the meeting.
Lila reviewed her goals and upcoming organizational changes, such as the VP of Partnerships and the interim COO position.
Board composition discussion
The Board reviewed the Board composition discussion from the February 6th meeting. Board members discussed potential options to address diversity on the Board, including possible changes to the public election process to attract more diverse candidates for the Board. The Board discussed the feedback from a discussion with the community. The Board asked a team of Board members to continue to evaluate potential improvements to the Board's selection and election processes.
The meeting concluded around 1:30PM.