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Template:ResolutionsLang

This page lists all resolutions approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. You might also be interested in seeing the meeting minutes or a list of public Foundation policies. See below a brief explanation to understand resolutions.

Passed resolutions 2012

July 2012

June 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

Passed resolutions 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

Passed resolutions 2010

December 2010

October 2010

September 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

March 2010

February 2010

Passed resolutions 2009

December 2009

November 2009

September 2009

August 2009

July 2009

June 2009

May 2009

April 2009

January 2009

Passed resolutions 2008

November 2008

October 2008

June 2008

May 2008

April 2008

March 2008

February 2008

January 2008

Passed resolutions 2007

December 2007

November 2007

October 2007

September 2007

July 2007

June 2007

April 2007

March 2007

February 2007

January 2007

Passed resolutions 2006

December 2006

November 2006

October 2006

September 2006

August 2006

A meeting of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees was held in person at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on August 5, 2006. In attendance were Angela Beesley, Michael Davis, Florence Devouard, Tim Shell, Jimmy Wales, and Brad Patrick. Minutes of decisions will apparently not be reported. It was decided to organise a board retreat in October 2006.

July 2006

June 2006

May 2006

April 2006

March 2006

February 2006

January 2006

Understanding resolutions

  • Approve means the board member voted and this vote was YES.
  • Oppose means the board member voted and this vote was NO.
  • Abstain means the board member voted and this vote was "no opinion". An abstention counts as a vote.
  • Missing means the board member was not present at the board meeting, or did not come to vote on the wiki page. Like abstentions, this counts as a vote.
  • Recuse means the board member was present, but did not vote because of a declared conflict-of-interest. A recusal does not count as a vote.

As of July 2008, there were 8 voting members. A resolution normally passes with 5 YES votes. When there is a recusal, a resolution can pass with 4 YES votes, as the number of voting members was reduced to 7.

As of August 2009, there were 9 voting members. A resolution passes with 5 YES votes.

As of March 2010, there are 10 voting members. A resolution passes with 6 YES votes. When there is a recusal, a resolution can pass with 5 YES votes.

The Board passes Resolutions and Votes; the former are formal decisions that must be made public; the latter are routine decisions such as advisory board appointments, approval of minutes for publication, or changes to internal Board processes. Passed Resolutions are published unless otherwise requested by the Chair; failed Resolutions are generally not published. Votes are often not published as such, but the result of the Votes is usually made public — for instance, minutes are published once a Vote to approve them has concluded; and minutes always list any Votes taken during a meeting.

See also

Summary of resolutions

What follows is a summary of the most important resolutions of the Board in the last few years.

The Board, since it was expanded in 2006, has provided leadership and oversight for the Wikimedia Foundation in numerous capacities. In 2006, the Board hired Brad Patrick to be inaugural Executive Director and General Counsel and it created the Communications, Audit, Fundraising, and Chapters committees. The Board also supported the creation of Wiktionary and Wikiversity, the establishment of an Advisory Board, and the approval of Wikimedia chapters from Denmark and the Netherlands. For fiscal year 2006-07, the Foundation's total revenue was $2.7 million. In 2007, the Board hired current Executive Director, Sue Gardner, and moved the Foundation offices from St. Petersburg, Florida, to San Francisco, California. That year the Board became a signatory to the Cape Town Open Education declaration in order to support further development of a movement around open educational resources and developed the iconic Wikimedia Vision and Mission statements. For fiscal year 2007-08, the Foundation's total revenue was $7 million. In 2008, the Board re-structured to expand the number of Board seats to 10 overall and ensure that the majority would always be selected by the community. The Board also approved Wikimedia chapters from Czech Republic, Austria, Australia, Hong Kong, Russia, Indonesia, Hungary and Norway. That year, the Board received its first grant from the Sloan Foundation of $3 million over three years and it adopted the Pluralism, Internationalism and Diversity Policy designed to support the development of a WMF staff with international experience, languages other than English and the ability to work productively with people of diverse backgrounds. For fiscal year 2008-09, the Foundation's total revenue was $7.7 million. In 2009, after significant consultation process with the community and other stakeholders, the Board re-licensed the Wikimedia sites under CC-BY-SA 3.0 in order to achieve greater interoperability and free knowledge worldwide, and it issued a statement on Biographies of Living People (BLP), urging the global Wikimedia community to uphold the accurate information in BLPs. The Board initiated its long-term strategic planning process and added Wikimedia chapters from the UK, New York City, Denmark, Portugal, Ukraine, Macedonia and Finland. That year, the Foundation received a $2 million grant from the Omidyar Network to support key objectives, a $900,000 grant from the Stanton Foundation to improve usability, a $500,000 grant from the Hewitt Foundation, and a $300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to increase usability on Wikimedia Commons. For fiscal year 2009-10, the Foundation's total revenue was $15.4 million. In 2010, the Board began a process investigating the issue of controversial materials usage in the Wikimedia projects, which resulted in the Board affirming that the Wikimedia projects are not censored, supporting the principles of user choice and least astonishment, urging the Commons community to continue to practice rigorous curation of content, and asking the Executive Director to develop a personal image hiding feature. The Board also endorsed a new fundraising strategy, focusing on fundraising primarily through the annual campaign in order to ensure the continued independence of the Wikimedia movement. The also approved the 5-year targets for the Wikimedia movement as part of the conclusion of its strategy development process and added Wikimedia chapters from the Philippines, India and Estonia.. That year the Board launched the process called Movement Roles, intended to discuss and resolve key Wikimedia issues affecting governance, collaboration and decision making across different parts of the movement. In 2012, the Movement Roles process concluded with the Board recognizing an expanded framework for affiliation of Wikimedia groups and the creation of three new models for affiliation: partner orgs, associations, and affiliates. Also in 2010, Google Inc. Charitable Giving Fund of Tides Foundation donated $2 million to support core operations and Charity Navigator raised the Wikimedia Foudation from 3-Star to 4-Star, the highest possible rating. For fiscal year 2010-11, the Foundation's total revenue was $23.8 million. In 2011, the Board issued a proclamation urging the global Wikimedia community to obtain subject consent for images that portray identifiable living persons in a private place or situation and it issued a statement advocating on behalf of openness and collaboration in the Wikimedia movement, calling on the Executive Director to make it the top staff priority. The Board also expanded the Donor Privacy Policy and approved Wikimedia chapters in Spain, South Africa, Macau, Canada, Chile, Mexico, District of Columbia, Bangladesh and Venezuela. In 2011, the Wikimedia Foundation received its largest donation to date, $3.6 milliom from the Stanton Foundation to fund major investments in technology infrastructure. The Foundation also received another $3 million grant over three years from the Sloan Foundation and $500,000 from the Brin Wojcicki Foundation. For fiscal year 2009-2010, the Foundation's total revenue was $34.8 million. In 2012, the Board initiated a process reflecting upon fundraising and funds dissemination practices. This resulted in guiding principles for fundraising and funds distribution and in the establishment of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), a mechanism for aligning funding decisions with global community goals. The Board announced that going forward, Board members individual votes would be made public and it approved new Terms of Use for the projects, designed to create clarity and transparency about the rights and responsibiilities of readers and editors, following a thorough and wide-ranging consultation with global community members. This year, Lisbett Rausing and Peter Baldwin have donated $1.25 million.

Links

See also