Wikimedia Foundation elections/2017/Board of Trustees

The election ended 11 June 2017. No more votes will be accepted.
The results were announced on 19 June 2017. Please consider submitting any feedback regarding the 2017 election on the election's post mortem page.

The 2017 elections to the Board of Trustees will be held 1 to 14 May 2017. Members of the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to elect three candidates to a three-year term which will expire in 2020. The Board of Trustees is the ultimate governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in the United States. The Wikimedia Foundation manages many diverse projects such as Wikipedia and Commons.

The Election Committee will announce the results on or before 21 May 2017. Detailed results will be available.

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 300 edits before 1 April 2017 across Wikimedia wikis;

and have made at least 20 edits between 1 October 2016 and 1 April 2017.

The AccountEligibility tool can be used to quickly verify basic editor voting eligibility.

Developers

Developers qualify to vote if they:

Are Wikimedia server administrators with shell access;

Or have commit access and have made at least one merged commits in git to Wikimedia Foundation utilized repos between 1 October 2016 and 1 April 2017.

Wikimedia Foundation staff and contractors

Current Wikimedia Foundation staff and contractors qualify to vote if they have been employed by the Foundation as of 1 April 2017.

Wikimedia movement affiliate staff and contractors

Current Wikimedia Chapter, thematic organization or user group staff and contractors qualify to vote if they have been employed by their organization as of 1 April 2017.

Wikimedia Foundation board members, Advisory board members, FDC committee members

Current and former members of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board and the Funds Dissemination Committee are qualified to vote.

Information for candidates

The selection of new board members must comply with the WMF Board's duty of care. The Board must act in a reasonable, diligent, and informed manner, and with the care that an ordinarily prudent person would use in similar circumstances. This duty of care, for example, applies to the careful selection of qualified individuals to serve on the Board who would not bring disrepute to that body.

Those who are considering a candidacy are urged to read the Wikimedia Foundation Board Handbook prior to submitting their candidacy.

Roles and responsibilities as member of the Board

The Board of Trustees is responsible for oversight of the Wikimedia Foundation's operations. Good board members enable good management by the Executive Director and staff. They do not manage the organization themselves or interfere in its day-to-day operations. The Board's oversight role includes decision-making, monitoring and leadership.

These responsibilities include:

Making decisions on vision, strategy, goals, and high level policies for the organization;
Monitoring the Wikimedia Foundation's performance, risks, finances, and compliance;
Advising the Executive Director and senior staff, drawing on the Board member's relevant expertise and experiences; and
Articulating and communicating the Wikimedia Foundation's goals to the Wikimedia community and general public.

Board members should maintain the legal and ethical integrity of the organization, recruit and orient new Board members, and cultivate diversity on the Board.

Learn more about the role of the Board of Trustees in the Wikimedia Foundation Board Handbook.

Prerequisites to candidacy

To be eligible, candidates must be willing and able to fulfill the duties of board and committee service, including expending the time and energy required to conduct due inquiry into relevant issues, to make informed decisions in good faith, and to attend board meetings regularly. The eligibility requirements for candidates are the same as for voters (see voter requirements), with the following additional requirements:

You must not have been convicted of a serious crime or any crime involving dishonesty or deception; and
You must not have been removed from a position at a non-profit organization or other company because of mismanagement or misconduct; and
At the time of nomination or election, you may not be banned or blocked from any Wikimedia project for a period of 30 days or longer; and
If you only meet the voter eligibility requirements as an editor: Your first edit must have been before 1 April 2015; and
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 18 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 statement of no more than 250 characters (not including spaces) describing yourself and your reasons for running. This statement will be displayed directly on the voting ballot to all voters and will receive priority for translation. You may not use your candidate statements to link to lists of endorsements or other platform pages, and may not run on a slate with other candidates.
Write up two brief summaries of no more than 200 words describing your work on the Wikimedia Projects and your offline Wikimedia work.
Submit your summaries between 00:00 April 7 2017 (UTC) and 23:59 April 20 2017 (UTC). Your statement may only be changed in the 3 days after submission, or up to the close of the nomination period at 23:59 April 20 2017 (UTC), except for minor corrections (for instance, spelling 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.
Please note: To allow voters to engage with candidates quickly statements may be sent for translation within 48 hours of submission. Future changes may not be as fully translated.
Submit proof of your identity to the Wikimedia Foundation before 23:59 April 20 2017 (UTC). 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.

Submitting proof of identity to the Wikimedia Foundation

Candidates for this position must submit proof of identity and evidence of age of majority as a condition of candidacy. This proof may be provided in one of the following manners:

Copy or scan of driver's license.
Copy or scan of passport.
Copy or scan of other official documentation indicating real name and age.

This may be provided to the WMF in one of the following means:

via email to secure-info wikimedia.org
via facsimile to +1 (415) 882-0495 (if you do this please email secure-info wikimedia.org to warn them that the fax is incoming).
via post (snail mail) to:

Wikimedia Foundation Inc.

ATTN: JAMES ALEXANDER

149 New Montgomery Street, 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94105

USA

Note that post is not recommended. Exceptions will not be made if a candidate's documentation has not arrived at the WMF offices by the deadline of 23:59 April 20 2017 (UTC).

Candidate Questions

The community is invited to ask questions of the candidates throughout the nomination period on the question page. At the end of the nomination period the Election Committee will collate those questions to collect similarly themed questions together and you will be invited to answer those questions directly on the wiki page. You are encouraged to answer those questions as early as possible to allow for translation so that your answers can be read by non-english speaking voters.

The committee has already decided that the following questions will be asked because they have been historically asked in past elections. You may wish to think about your answers now so that you can have an answer ready during the answering period.

Why do you think you would be a good candidate for a seat on the board
Is there any connection between your employment (or other financial interest) and the position on the board? If so, please describe how you can ensure this does not interfere.
I think the board should be focusing on: (what do you believe the board should be focusing on)

Organization

Timeline

20 April: Deadline for candidate submissions and Identification verification
21 April – 1 May: Questions and discussion between candidates and community
1–14 May: Voting
15–19 May: Vote-checking
20 May: Goal for announcement of results