Minutes/October 28, 2009


 * Wikimedia Foundation Board meeting minutes
 * October 28, 2009, 20:30-22:00 UTC (IRC)
 * Prepared by: Samuel Klein

Attendance

 * Present
 * Michael Snow (Chair), Jan-Bart de Vreede (Vice-Chair), Kat Walsh (Secretary),
 * Arne Klempert, Jimmy Wales, Matt Halprin, Samuel Klein, Ting Chen, Sue Gardner (Executive Director)


 * Absent
 * Stu West

We reached a quorum, and Michael opened the meeting.

Housekeeping
The Board approved minutes from the August meeting. Arne and Samuel suggested that in the future minutes should be more concise, sticking to results and any arguments raised during discussion.

Trustees were reminded to update their conflict of interest forms for the year. The Board briefly reviewed the state of the strategic planning process, and Jan-Bart pointed out that many Strategy proposals were not very strategic in nature.

The Board recognized the upcoming Paris usability meeting as an important event being sponsored by Wikimedia France.

Advisory Board: Craig Newmark
Craig Newmark was invited to join the advisory board, by unanimous vote. Sue was asked to inform him.

Senior staff hiring
Sue updated the board on the three key staff positions being hired for : the Chief Technical, Development, and Program Officers (CTO, CDO, and CPO). The search is being conducted by Walker Talent Group, pro bono. Sue noted the progress with the CTO and CDO searches, adding that the CPO search had not yet started.

Nominating Committee
Michael summarized the current state of the NomCom's search for a 10th Board Trustee - the NomCom has been working with a search firm to narrow the final field of candidates, and the firm is approaching those candidates.

It was noted that the committee's work has proceeded slower than intended. The Board discussed improvements and alternatives, including making better use of search firms, and focusing the scope of a Committee on candidate screening, rather than all steps in the process.

Michael offered to summarize different views on the topic for the November board meeting.

Future meetings
The draft agenda for November was discussed. The audit committee was asked to share their financial review in advance of the meeting, so that questions could be answered online and the in-person discussion could be limited to 30 minutes.

A future open Wikimedia meeting on IRC was proposed. Jan-Bart noted that 'Board office hours' might not be the right way to frame it, and that we should find ways to include community members who do not like IRC. SJ agreed to take further discussion to Meta.


 * The meeting was adjourned.