Talk:Wikimania Committee/Charter

Note:for discussions prioir to January 2024 see:Talk:Wikimania Committee/Charter/Archived Jan 2024 - last practical edit was in October 2017diff

2024 revision

The current Wikimania Committee is starting an update process for the charter and will work on it over the next several months; we will share a draft here (aiming to share by Wikimania 2024 though we may do additional work at the conference). -- phoebe | talk 15:29, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

I publish now the current Wikimania charter we aim to approve in February 2025. iopensa (talk) 12:17, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Translation

Thank you so much for those who worked on the translation of the old document. The new charter seems to me too different from the old to keep the structure of the translation. Please excuse me that I overwrite the document with the new version :( iopensa (talk) 12:24, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Purpose / mission

I received the suggestion to talk about the purpose (and avoid the term mission which is not the best one in a charter) and to move the text above it in the name and purpose session. Seems a reasonable suggestion iopensa (talk) 14:14, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

I would not have an objection to call it a purpose vs mission, or to move that text to section. Effeietsanders (talk) 22:59, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

"Current" Core Organizing Team

"Membership of the Committee is incompatible with membership of the current Core Organizing Team". The term current is unclear, and members of the committee can be members of the Core Organizing Team (liaisons). Maybe we can simply remove it. iopensa (talk) 14:16, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

I dont see it as totally incompatible, but rather a COI that will need to be managed especially around EOI's for future events. Both Butch and I were on the SC and the COT for 2023 there was as far as I know there were no issues managing both responsibilities. Gnangarra (talk) 14:31, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

We had a discussion about this as a team. My understanding is that the organizing period of a Wikimania is so long, that such a longstanding COI for such a core function of the steering committee, would make it hard for this member to function. It is indeed unclear who is considered 'Core Organizing Team', and that interpretation will be up to the committee, when the situation arises. Being a liaison does not make one a member of the COT though. It would be an interesting question what would happen when the situation comes up that a SC member is asked to step in to a COT because of an emergency. Happy to discuss again, but I do think we had good reasons for this incompatibility. Effeietsanders (talk) 23:03, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Advisory Board

"Membership of the Advisory Board is automatic upon resignation from the Committee" doesn't include the end of the mandate. We can change it into ""Membership of the Advisory Board is automatic upon resignation from the Committee and at the end of the mandate". iopensa (talk) 14:18, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Initially I misread the above as not including an end of the AB mandate. Reading it carefully again, I think you mean that it does not foresee the end of the SC mandate? That is fair enough, and a more general phrasing could also be "is automatic when someone's membership of the SC ends", covering all possible scenarios. Effeietsanders (talk) 23:07, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Scholarships

.".. members are eligible to also apply for community scholarships to attend Wikimania, their membership on the Wikimania Committee must not be considered as a factor for community scholarship evaluations." We should not tell the scholarship committee which are their criteria. We could change it into ".".. members are eligible to also apply for community scholarships to attend Wikimania, their membership on the Wikimania Committee should not be considered as a factor for community scholarship evaluations." iopensa (talk) 14:19, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

I'm not a big fan of "should" in texts like this, exactly because of its ambiguity. My understanding was that the SC actually has some control over the criteria of these scholarships - and then 'must' is appropriate. If we would determine that the SC does not have that control, I would argue that we should use something like 'the SC asks that...' to again avoid ambiguity. Effeietsanders (talk) 23:11, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Sure, better phrasing. No, the SC has no control over the scholarship criteria; the scholarship committee decides. iopensa (talk) 06:42, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Nominate

In the charter, we use the term "nominate" with the meaning of proposing a candidate and selecting a candidate. We should probably correct them with clearer terms. iopensa (talk) 14:22, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

We use the term 'nominate' a few times. In the 'roles and responsibilities' section, I can see how another word might be more appropriate for the list heading (although I would argue that it's pretty clear what is meant). We could that repl[ace with "Decide on membership of the committee".

In the section 'nomination' the term seems to be appropriate to me. Effeietsanders (talk) 23:14, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Done

The charter was ratified by the Wikimania Committee on February 19, 2025. :) iopensa (talk) 16:32, 19 February 2025 (UTC)