thread for updates on movement charter calls
Recap of the Movement Charter Open Call, December 7
apologize for a bit of delay in pulling together the recap of the last open MCDC community call, yet I hope the following summary will be helpful in advancing the conversations in this new Gregorian calendar year.
Context[edit source]
➼ During the community conversation period from July to September 2023 the focus of the Global Council conversation moved to the form / structure discussion, i.e. defining the set up of the Global Council.
➼ As a result, the MCDC open community calls in October and November 2023 were designed to support progress of conversations in this area of the Global Council with a hope to come to a more clear alignment.
➼ During the monthly open MCDC calls in October and November, however, it was highlighted that there are some foundational questions unanswered, which need to be tackled first prior to defining the form / structure of the Global Council.
➼ This has lead to the core question of alignment regarding the purpose and function of the Global Council, which was, as a result, the focus of the December MCDC open community call.
Content of call[edit source]
To level the conversations well and bring everyone up to speed regarding the Global Council purpose and function discussions to date a general framing was provided by the supporting team. This was followed by a simple practical exercise to make the conversation more tangible. The exercise was then followed by a discussion portion to dive deeper into areas of potential misalignment.
Contextual framing
➼ As the framing from previous calls had already provided the framing from the Movement Strategy recommendations, especially the text of recommendation #4 Ensure Equity in Decision-Making, the framing of December 7 open community call focused on the text of the current Movement Charter Global Council draft and its content:
➼ Three areas were highlighted during the presentation, essentially the definition, the purpose, and the function.
➼ The slide deck with the content presented is available on Wikimedia Commons.
➼ As the Global Council will most probably overlap or connect with the existing structure of the volunteer committees, an overview of it was provided.
Practical exercise
➼ In order to bring the abstract conversations to a more practical level, an exercise was conducted during the call where a number of previous Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees resolution areas were presented and call participants could vote whether they think these resolutions should be made in the future by the Global Council or the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
➼ The exercise followed the suggestion from one of the previous calls to conduct simple polls to inform the Charter drafting process.
➼ The supporting staff had analyzed the prior Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees decisions and categorized them in a spreadsheet.
➼ During the call, polls were prompted for the call participants and the results for each question area were documented in the Etherpad.
➼ Some statistics from the polls:
- A total of 22 decision making areas were presented.
- In response people had 3 options to choose from - decisions should be made in the future by 1) Global Council, 2) Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, 3) Other entities in the movement.
- For 18 areas of responsibility the majority voted for them to move to the Global Council.
- For 3 areas of responsibility the majority voted for them to stay with the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
- For 1 area of responsibility there was no majority of preference.
- The number of poll participants fluctuated from 20-27 and the voting numbers are documented for each area.
Conversation Summary[edit source]
During the conversation portion of the call, the focus was brought to some of the responsibility areas where the responses to the polls were more split in hope to surface the reasons behind different perspectives.
➼ As the exercise focused on the previous Board of Trustees resolutions, it was highlighted that there was a notable lack of Product & Technology decisions in the mix.
- This would need to be discussed in further detail to balance the expertise and expectation of participation.
- An example of Vector 2022 decision-making was brought up as something that might be resolved with the Global Council / Technology Council in the future.
➼ There was a discussion regarding the Trademark and Branding area, as it was not clear what is the clearly defined difference between trademark management and overall branding. In order to make an informed decision, this distinction needs to be made more clear.
- An example of the controversy around the Wikimedia 2030 movement brand project was provided to illustrate why people believe the future branding decisions should be with the Global Council.
➼ There were questions raised about the overall structure of the ecosystem:
- Where should the overall strategic decisions about the ecosystem live, e.g. strategic decisions regarding the future of affiliates?
- What is the foreseen connection between the Affiliation Committee and the Global Council?
- How will the hubs fit in the landscape?
➼ Areas that were not discussed during the meeting, yet which would merit further elaboration based on the poll results are:
- Expectations regarding the changes to the Privacy Policy and oversight of the Ombuds Commission, which seemed somewhat contradictory
- Future responsibilities regarding global fundraising policy and the endowment
- Decision-making regarding the human rights area, as this is not only a question of equity, yet also a safety matter.
Next Steps[edit source]
➼ Conduct the straw poll that was used as a practical exercise during the open call asynchronously to gather more information regarding the expected responsibilities and functions of the Global Council.
➼ Open the space for asynchronous discussions regarding each of the topic areas leading up to the MCDC in-person drafting meeting end of January 2024.
Resources[edit source | Add topic]
➼ Link to the slide deck in portable document format
➼ Link to the YouTube recording
➼ Link to the Etherpad documentation
Thank you for your very kind attention! I am available for any questions or specifications. –KVaidla (WMF) (talk) 10:30, 4 January 2024