Wikimedia Foundation elections/2021

The election ended 31 August 2021. No more votes will be accepted.
The results were announced on 7 September 2021. Please consider submitting any feedback regarding the 2021 election on the elections' post analysis page.

The 2021 Board of Trustees election has been rescheduled to 18 – 31 August 2021 due to technical issues with SecurePoll. Read more.

2021 Board Elections
Main Page
Candidates
Voting information
Single Transferable Vote
Results
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Questions
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The 2021 Board of Trustees elections was from 18 August 2021 to 31 August 2021. Members of the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to elect four candidates to a three-year term. The Call for Candidates closed on 29 June 2021.

Read the candidate questions and answers.

Candidate Table

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Please click on a candidate's name to learn more.

Voting

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Voting was from 18 August 2021 to 31 August 2021. Voting information and instructions are on the Voting information page.

Before voting, please read the Candidate Presentations and skills assessment done by the existing Board.

Note: If your vote is rejected, don't try logging in on votewiki. Instead, if the system rejects a valid vote, you should just restart the voting process. Since the voting form will be blank again, it is a good idea to write down your choices in a separate document or take a screenshot before submitting the form.

Learn more about the Board of Trustees in this short video:

Timeline

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Board of Trustees election timeline

The Board election facilitators created a graphic of the timeline. This can be used to share information about the election. The graphic is available in more languages.

Campaign Activities

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This is a list of campaign activities planned during the campaign period. Further activities are in the making, the list will be updated continuously. Community members are welcome to add additional activities to the list below. If you add activities, please link to the page where community members can find more information.

Outreach

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Voter turnout in prior elections was about 10% globally. It was better in communities with volunteer election support. Some of those communities reached over 20% voter turnout.

Election Volunteers

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Do you want to help improve voter numbers in your community? You don’t need to have experience in elections. Election Volunteers can help promote the Board election in their community. Volunteers from all Wiki Projects are welcome! The aim is to have at least one Election Volunteer for Wiki Projects in the top 30 for eligible voters. Help form a more diverse and better performing Board of Trustees by getting your community involved in the election!

Conversations

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There are many conversations happening around the world about the Board of Trustees selection. Come join the conversations!

Telegram Board Selection chat
The Board election facilitation team will share announcements and updates here.
Election Volunteers from South Asia
Add link here so others may join the conversation

Team

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Elections Committee
AbhiSuryawanshi
Carlojoseph14
HakanIST
KTC
Mardetanha
Masssly
Matanya
Ruslik0
Facilitation team (Movement Strategy & Governance)
Quim Gil: coordination
Xeno: English communities and Meta-Wiki
Jackie Koerner: English communities and Meta-Wiki
Civvi: Italian communities
Maciej Nadzikiewicz: Polish communities
Mahuton Possoupe: French-speaking communities
Oscar Costero: Spanish communities and the Latin America region
Denis Barthel: German communities and North-Western European region
Mehman Ibragimov: Russian communities and Central and Eastern Europe region
Ravan Al-Taie: Arabic communities and Middle East region
Mervat Salman: Arabic communities and Middle East region
Zita Zage: Sub-Saharan African region
Sam Oyeyele: Yoruban communities and West Africa region
Krishna C. Velaga: South Asian region
Youngjin Ko: Korean communities and East Asia region
Ramzy Muliawan: Indonesian communities and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region

Background

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The Board of Trustees elections were due in 2020 to elect three of the Community trustees seats. In April 2020, the Board announced that the voting process was being postponed. The Board of Trustees announced in April 2021 the plan for the 2021 Board elections. The Board is seeking to increase diversity and participation in Board elections.

The Board is expanding to 16 seats to better cover the increasing work and areas of expertise required to steer the Wikimedia Foundation. This expansion was based in part on recommendations from an external governance review.

  • 3 new Community- and Affiliate-selected seats
  • 3 new Board-selected seats

Four seats will be up for selection in 2021, the three due for renewal and a fourth from the approved Board expansion. The two other new community-and-affiliate seats approved will be selected during 2022, together with the two affiliate seats that will be due (four in total).