Wikimedia Foundation elections/2021/Candidates/Gerard Meijssen

Gerard Meijssen (GerardM)

GerardM (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)

Candidate details	Personal: Name: Gerard Meijssen Location: Languages: English, Dutch Editorial: Wikimedian since: March 2008 Active wikis: Wikidata, Wikipedia, Commons
statement (Not more than 450 words)	What we do has a purpose; "share in the sum of all knowledge". In our governance we have been community oriented. The assumption has been that our purpose is the result of the effort of our community. We have not maximised our results for our public. You can not easily find images from Commons, you can not easily find books et al from Wikisource, particularly when the language used is not English. With more attention for our public, we make our effort more relevant.
Top 3 Board priorities
Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities
Verification	Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee
	Eligibility: Verified Verified by: Matanya (talk) 20:14, 1 July 2021 (UTC)	Identification: Verified Verified by: Joe Sutherland (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 21:45, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

Trustee Evaluation Form
Trustee Evaluation Form Years of Experience <1 1–2 2–5 5–10 10+ Wikimedia experience. The candidate is a dedicated contributor to the Wikimedia movement. Eligible contributions include: contributions to the Wikimedia projects, membership in a Wikimedia organization or affiliate, activities as a Wikimedia movement organizer, or participation with a Wikimedia movement ally organization. Wiktionary, Wikidata, Wikipedia, Commons Board experience. The candidate has served on the board of trustees/directors or other similar governing body of a nationally- or globally-focused organization (non-profit, for-profit, or governmental). founding member of WMF language committee Executive experience. The candidate has worked at an executive level for an organization, department, or project of comparable (or greater) size, complexity, and scope to the Wikimedia Foundation. Founder of Omegawiki Subject matter expertise. The candidate has worked or significantly volunteered in an area relevant to the work of the Foundation and the Board. Such areas will be determined on an annual basis and may include areas such as Global movement building and community organization, enterprise-level platform technology and/or product development, public policy and the law, knowledge sector (e.g., academia/GLAM/education), human rights and social justice, open Internet/free and open source software, organizational strategy and management, finance and financial oversight, non-profit fundraising, human resources, board governance. I ran the first GLAM project with the Tropenmuseum Diversity: Background The candidate belongs or belonged to a group that has faced historical discrimination and underrepresentation in structures of power (related to, for example, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+ identity, social class, economic status, or caste). You find 15 years of background on my evolving involvement in my blog. Diversity: Geography The candidate would contribute to the overall geographic diversity of the Board of Trustees, based on the geographic regions where they have lived. Netherlands Diversity: Language The candidate is a native speaker of a language other than English. Dutch, English some German Diversity: Political system experience The candidate has substantial experience living in and/or working to share knowledge in a non-democratic, state-censoring, or repressive context.