Wikimedia Foundation elections/Board elections/2011/sa

Template:Board elections 2011/sa

The २०११ elections to the Board of Trustees will be held from May २९^th through June १२^th २०११. Members of the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to elect three candidates to a two-year term which will expire in २०१३. The Board of Trustees is the ultimate governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, a ५०१(c)(३) nonprofit organization registered in the United States. The Wikimedia Foundation manages many diverse projects such as Wikipedia and Commons.

The elections are held securely on servers belonging to Software in the Public Interest. Votes are secret, and no one from the Election Committee, the Board, or anyone not affiliated with Software in the Public Interest has access to them. Voter information is visible to the select few persons who audit and tally the election (the election committee). Voters submit ranked preferences by numbering candidates. The votes will be tallied using the Schulze method to rank candidates based on the number of voters who prefer that candidate over other candidates.

The Election Committee will announce the results on or before June १५^th. Detailed results will be available. All times on this page are ००:०० (midnight) UTC.

Information for voters

Requirements

Editors

You may vote from any one registered account you own on a Wikimedia wiki (you may only vote once, regardless of how many accounts you own). To qualify, this one account must:

not be blocked on more than one project; and
not be a bot; and
have made at least ३०० edits before १५ April २०११ across Wikimedia wikis (edits on several wikis can be combined if your accounts are unified into a global account); and
have made at least २० edits between १५ November २०१० and १५ May २०११.

Developers

Developers qualify to vote if they:

Are Wikimedia server administrators with shell access; or
Have commit access and have made at least one commit between १५ May २०१० and १५ May २०११.

Staff and contractors

Wikimedia Foundation staff and contractors qualify to vote if they have been employed by the Foundation from १५ February २०११ to १५ May २०११.

Board members and advisory board members

Current and former members of the Board of Trustees and the Advisory Board are qualified to vote.

How to vote

If you are eligible to vote:

Read the candidate presentations and decide which candidates you will support.
Go to the wiki page "Special:Securepoll" on one wiki you qualify to vote from. For example, if you are most active on the wiki meta.wikimedia.org, go to meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Securepoll.
Follow the instructions on that page.

Information for candidates

Roles and responsibilities as member of the Board

From the board manual

The Board of Trustees is the governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation. Responsibilities of the Board include:

determining mission, goals, long-term plans and high level policies of WMF and its projects
selecting the Executive Director of the WMF, who oversees its day-to-day operations, and evaluating his or her performance
ensuring the sustainability of the organization by defining a number of independent revenue sources
communicating about the direction and the activities of the WMF to the community
providing oversight to staff with regard to accounting, budgeting, and programs
maintaining legal and ethical integrity
recruiting and orient new trustees
articulating the mission of the WMF in public

The responsibilities of the Board do not include:

interfering in day-to-day operations, except in emergencies
setting Wikimedia project-level editorial policies
resolving basic community disputes
volunteering in specific areas of regular WMF organizational work

Characteristics of effective trustees:

Strategic – e.g., to provide long term direction
Thoughtful – e.g., to avoid being reactionary to controversial issues
High integrity – e.g., to put the interests of the foundation as a whole over personal or specific constituent interests
Responsiveness – e.g., to email requests from other trustees
Follow through – e.g., to complete tasks such as committee assignments as committed.
Respectful – e.g., to listen carefully to other trustees' points-of-view even as they may differ from one's own
Collaborative – e.g., to partner with other trustees and the Executive Director on the Board's work

Prerequisites to candidacy

The eligibility requirements for candidates are the same as for voters (see above), with the following additional requirements:

you must publicly disclose your real name in your candidate presentation (because the identities of Board members are a matter of public record, it is not possible to hold a position on the Board of Trustees anonymously or under a pseudonym); and
be at least १८ years old and of legal age in your home country; and
submit proof of your identity to the Wikimedia Foundation (see below).

How to submit your candidacy

If you are eligible, you can submit your candidacy by doing the following:

Write a brief summary of no more than १२०० characters stating what you would do if you were elected to the Board of Trustees, your relevant opinions and experience, and anything else you think is relevant. You may not use your candidate summary to link to lists of endorsements or other platform pages, and may not run on a slate with other candidates.
Submit your summary between ००:००, May २^nd २०११ (UTC) and २३:५९, May २२^nd २०११ (UTC). After May २२^nd, it cannot be changed except for minor corrections (for instance, spell correction) or translation. Any additions or changes to content submitted after this deadline will be time-stamped and presented separately from the original summary, and will only be presented to voters if they get translated into all of the same languages as the original summary. You should note that earlier submissions allow time for translation into more languages, and that submissions provided on the due date or just before may not be as widely translated.
Submit proof of your identity to the Wikimedia Foundation before May २२^nd. You will be privately contacted by a member of the Election Committee with further information about meeting this requirement when you list yourself as a candidate.

Candidates who fail to comply with the above requirements and deadlines will be disqualified.

Organization

Time line

०५ April–०२ May २०११: primary translations phase.
०२–२२ May २०११: candidate submissions.
२२ May २०११: deadline to send proof of identity (late or missing submissions will be disqualified).
२९ May–१२ June २०११: elections.
१३–१५ June २०११: vote-checking
१५ June २०११: publication of results.

Translators

To ensure that a representative cross-section of the Wikimedia community takes part in this election, it is important to translate election notices and candidate statements into as many languages as possible. To help translate, please see the translation page.