Archive:Messages

2008 announcements

• Technical update (Domas, January 08)

2007 announcements

Mid 2007

In June 2007, the board agreed to hire Sue Gardner. During summer 2007, the board finally met with the opportunity to act again in its role as board and leave executive matters in the hands of staff. Mid 2007 also saw a change in the board membership, with reelection of Erik and Kat, and replacement of Oscar by Frieda.
A very short board meeting (2 hours) was held during the annual conference, Wikimania, in Taipei, early August 2007.
As planned in spring, a board retreat was also held immediately prior to Wikimania. It was held by the board and the advisory board.
Plans are to have one board meeting in fall (in Florida) and a chapter meeting before the end of the year, in Frankfurt.

Some links, on public lists or public wikis

• notes from the advisory board meeting.
• A new board for the future (Anthere June 2007)
• Adoption of a whistle blower policy and audit charter (Anthere, June 07)
• Welcome Sue ! (June 07)
• Kronberg Declaration on the Future of Knowledge Acquisition and Sharing (DRAFT)
• Welcome Mike, our new legal counsel (June 07)
• adoption of a much expected travel policy :-) (June 07)
• announcement of board election results (June 07)
• audit update (Anthere, June 07)
• Announcement of fundraising (Sue, august 07)
• bids open for Wikimania 08 (James, august 07)
• open discussion on our values (Anthere, September 07)

Early 2007

Early 2007, the board regularly meet on Wednesday evening (Europe time), on irc. A face to face meeting is organized once every 6-8 weeks. As such, a meeting is organized in Rotterdam (Friday, January 12 - Sunday, January 14), then in Florida (mid-March 2007), then in Amsterdam (early June 2007). A board retreat is also planned in the few days prior to Wikimania in Taipei (august 07).
The first part of 2007 is characterised by numerous meetings, largely due to the absence of an executive director between January 2007 and June 2007, which causes the board to pick up many responsibilities at the executive level.

Early announcements of the year, made on public lists

• 4 wishes for year 2007 (Anthere, jan 07)
• Welcome to Carolyn Doran (COO) (jan 07)
• Welcome to the advisory board (jan 07)
• call to edit the mission vision statement (jan 07)
• agenda for board meeting in Rotterdam (jan 07)
• Welcome to Sandy (communication) (jan 07)
• Welcome to Delphine (chapco) (feb 07)
• Retaining a search firm (feb 07)
• Brad Patrick no more ED (feb 07)
• Explanations of difference between ED, COO and board (Anthere, feb 07)
• How to deal with an absence of ED ? (feb 07)
• Clearing up WMF media license policy (feb 07)
• announcement of volco job (feb 07)
• update on WMF organization (Anthere, march 07)
• welcome to Cary Bass (volco) (march 07)
• Danny resignation (march 07)
• Brad Patrick resignation as General Counsel (march 07)
• Welcome to Rob (tech) (march 07)
• Two new advisory board members (march 07)
• announcement job position: legal coordinator (march 07)
• Foundation new licensing policy (Kat, march 07)
• Report on board meeting in Florida (Anthere, march 07)
• Opening of registration of our annual conference Wikimania (April 07)
• Discussion over a change of governance model for the Foundation (Anthere, April 07)
• What are the assets of the Foundation, anyway? and summary of what the WMF has done since October 2006, (Erik, April 07)
• Programs and how to pay for them (Erik, April 07)
• Mission and vision updated officially (April 07)
• WMF resolution on access to non-public data passed (Kat, may 07)
• Announcement of future board election (Jan-Bart, may 07)
• New staff member in business development (may 07)
• Board meeting in Amsterdam: short report (may 07)

2006 announcements

End of the year

• Report about the board meeting in Florida (Anthere, dec 06)
• Welcome to our three new board members (dec 06)
• bylaws revisions posted (Erik, dec 06)
• Agreements between WMF and local chapters (dec 06)
• Audited financial statements released (Brad, dec 06)
• fundraising start and new fundraising website (dec 06)
• Board retreat outcome (nov 06)
• Populating our advisory board (Anthere, nov 06)
• Anthere as new chair (oct 06)

Frankfurt retreat

A board retreat was held in Frankfurt in October 2006. During this retreat, the Wikimedia Foundation board decided that

1. Florence Devouard shall be the chair of the board of trustees
2. Tim Shell shall be the vice-chair
3. Michael Davis shall be the treasurer
4. Erik Moeller shall be the executive secretary

Jimmy Wales will assume the title of Chairman Emeritus of the Foundation.

Information about the board retreat may be found in these pages

• SWOT
• Vision
• Mission
• Report from Frankfurt - October 2006
• Retreat 2006 Strategic plan
• Board actions and outcomes

Switch to a new system: resolutions

Early 2006, the board made the decision to record its decisions through resolutions. Whilst minutes are now very infrequently published (they are kept on the board private wiki), nearly all resolutions are published on the Foundation website. Only a few resolutions are kept private, but their existence is nevertheless always mentioned.