Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee/Minutes 09-12-2016

December 9, 2016

Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee Meeting

• Location: Online (via Google Hangouts)
• Committee members present: Nataliia Tymkiv (Committee Chair), Christophe Henner (Board Chair), Kelly Battles, Dariusz Jemielniak
• Advisory Committee members present: Kat Walsh, Ido Ivri
• Non-committee members present: Katherine Maher (Executive Director), Michelle Paulson, Anna Stillwell, Stephen LaPorte

Stephen confirmed that a quorum was present, and Nataliia called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM PT.

Board recruitment

The Committee discussed the recruitment committees for the open appointed Board seats. There was discussion about the importance of the technology innovation profile, taking into account the competence matrix for the Board the Governance Committee discussed in May-June 2016. The Board needs someone with a vision of technological innovation, not necessarily the experience of a CTO. That is skill that the Foundation has on staff.

The Board gets a lot of experience about community-building from the community-selected seats, so this is not necessarily the most crucial experience. The goal of the appointed seats is to diversity the skill on the Board, not to replace the skills from the community selection process.

The group agreed that the first priority, generally speaking, is the profile for growing a global movement, the profiles for engaging new communities and social sector governance is tied for second, and technology innovation is the final priority.

Of the two items in second place, growing a global movement is more valuable. It is important to understand how to expand a global movement of volunteers. It would be particularly valuable to have someone with this experience from outside of North America and Europe. A committee member suggested consulting with Katherine to determine which is the most important priority. The social sector governance profile should be someone with experience serving on many boards, who has experience with decisionmaking, minimal process, and organizational change. Having governance expertise within the Board is valuable, in addition to working with the General Counsel and external consultants.

Anna concluded the meeting with an update on the recruitment collateral that was under development.

The meeting concluded around 10:00 AM PT.