Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network/Global Council

Introduction

This document provides an overview of the processes leading up to the establishment of the Global Council.

The process of getting to a Global Council has a number of steps

1. A temporary committee is set up, which will function as an interim global council
2. This interim Global Council will draft the Movement Charter
3. The Movement Charter will define the Global Council
4. The interim Global council will also oversee Movement Strategy implementation until the permanent Global Council is set up
5. Global Council established

Source: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Ensure_Equity_in_Decision-making

Step 1: The interim council

Establish a temporary committee, consisting of participants representative of the diversity of the global Movement, who will work openly, transparently, and in close collaboration with the broader movement and communities in order to:

• Serve as an Interim Global Council and play a leadership role in supporting the implementation of the Movement Strategy. This temporary committee will dissolve after the Movement Charter is finalized and the Global Council is established according to it,
• Oversee the development of the Movement Charter in consultation with communities, organizations and subject matter experts,
• Engage with the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation to identify areas of its current responsibilities that must be transferred to achieve the goals of the recommendations, and;
• Design an independent and transparent process, along with an independent legal assessment, to transfer those responsibilities and authorities to the appropriate Movement-led bodies. In those cases in which the legal limitations of the organizational structure cannot be overcome, establish a social contract to allow those bodies to make legally non-binding but socially binding decisions. This ensures that the authorities and responsibilities of the Global Council and of the other Movement-led bodies are respected and they lead within the Movement.

Questions

How are the 'interim council' selected? Pure appointment by WMF? Nomination by stakeholders? Election process?

How to ensure diversity, and also good represeantation of online communities?

Who facilitates the process? the existing strategy team? the WMF leadership? someone else?

Step 2. Movement Charter

• Lay the values, principles and policy basis for Movement structures, including the roles and responsibilities of the Global Council, regional and thematic hubs, as well as other existing and new entities and decision-making bodies,
• Set requirements and criteria for decisions and processes that are Movement-wide to be legitimate and trusted by all stakeholders, e.g. for
  • Maintaining safe collaborative environments,
  • Ensuring Movement-wide revenue generation and distribution,
  • Giving a common direction on how resources should be allocated with appropriate accountability mechanisms.
  • Defining how communities work together and are accountable to each other.
  • Setting expectations for participation and the rights of participants.

Questions

• How will this document be consulted on, agreed, and/or ratified?

Step 3. Global Council

A Global council,  representative of the Movement in its role and composition. It will be composed of both elected and selected members, in a way designed to reflect the breadth and diversity of participation not only in the Movement at present but also in communities we wish to serve. This body will have authorities and responsibilities outlined in the Charter, and these should include, but not be limited to:

• Overseeing the implementation of Movement Strategy, with community input wherever possible, and its alignment across established structures of the Movement;
• Overseeing further development and endorsement of the Movement Charter;
• Enforcing accountability of all Movement organizations around:
  • Use of Movement funds;
  • Alignment with the Wikimedia mission, vision, and Strategic Direction;
  • Compliance with the Movement Charter;
  • Appropriate use of movement branding and marks;
• Setting frameworks on resource allocation and revenue generation for the Movement.
• Any responsibility that the Interim Global Council has identified as needing to be delegated by the Board.

What would be interesting to know

How will the mandate and working process of the interim committee be defined, - how will the community and the affiliates be involved in defining these? Especially,

• How will committee members be (s)elected?
• How can we ensure that the committee represents the entire global movement?
• What support will be available to any community and/or affiliate members of the committee? This includes language support and other means of support that could help ensure equity in participation.

How will the (draft) movement charter come into force? Who will make the final decision?

Background information

• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Ensure_Equity_in_Decision-making
• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Council