Re: WMF Board of Trustees: Board Selection Process Update

To explain Luis' slightly cryptic "more board news today" comment:
Raju Narisetti, the chair of the Board Governance Committee - on
whose behalf Margo sent the message that opened this thread, and which had
led last year's controversial selection process changes and candidate
removals
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2025-10-20/Special_report>
- suddenly announced his departure from the board the other day (see also
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard#c-HaeB-20260810080100-Boud-20260810054700>
).

Also, to keep conversations connected: Worth being aware that on July 31, a
different Board Governance Committee member (i.e. not its now departed
chair) posted an update
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2027/Proposed_eligibility_criteria#c-Nadzik-20260731153200-Response_from_the_Board_Governance_Committee_to_community_feedback>
regarding
the eligibility criteria on Meta ("We realize that our proposal needs more
work to achieve these goals").

Regards, Tilman

PS: Not to zoom too much into particular personnel examples, but this whole
debate might be an occasion for the Board to explain and juxtapose its
eligibility criteria for the other (appointed, i.e. non-community selected)
trustee positions as well. Also in light of the previous WMF CEO's comments
(as reported here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk%3A2025_WMF_Board_reform_petition#c-Barkeep49-20251019133900-ViridianPenguin-20251019030700>)
that the community-selected and (non-community) appointed trustees form
"effectively two boards (not that they were at odds necessarily but
operating in almost parallel) and how hard that made her work as a CEO". I
am not one of those who think that, say, every trustee must have edited
Wikipedia or that we need ideological litmus tests (in the sense, say, that
you cannot be a high-ranking executive in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp while
serving on the board). But at a time where some seem to be pushing for WMF
to compromise on its longstanding free knowledge ideals and guiding
principles in order to serve the organization's own narrow financial
interests, it's worth asking how much we know about the appointed Board
members' pre-existing stances about such ideals and principles.

On Sun, Aug 9, 2026 at 1:38 PM Luis Villa via Wikimedia-l <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Since there is more board news today, sending a long-drafted followup:
>
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 7:45 PM Erik Moeller via Wikimedia-l <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Wikimedia Foundation needs folks with relevant governance experience
>> for an organization of this scale, but it also needs voices that
>> challenge it and push it in new directions on the Board. The trick is
>> to find the right balance between those goals. Requiring that people
>> advance along an internal functionary ladder towards the possibility
>> of standing for trusteeship is not that balance; it is the kind of
>> requirement structure you find in institutions that drift towards
>> stagnancy and self-reinforcement, often out of institutionalized fear.
>>
>> A compromise proposal:
>> * Change the word "must" to "should" when it comes to the governance
>> experience criteria
>> * Require that candidates indicate comparable or equivalent experience
>> in their candidate profile if they do not meet these criteria.
>>
>
> To echo and add to what Erik said: Governance of an organization like WMF
> is a wickedly complex problem, requiring many different skillsets. It's not
> enough to have good *ideas* - you have to have the *skills* to make those
> ideas happen: how to understand an auditor's report; how to think through
> the human politics of governance; employee management skills; etc. etc.
>
> So I think tightening skills and experience requirements is pretty
> reasonable.
>
> I like Erik's suggestions, and would add: WMF should invest in board
> skills development, not just restrict those who don't yet have the skills.
> Among other things, this could be formal training through services like
> https://boardsource.org/; or experiential learning through board observer
> seats/fellowships like Haas does for their b-school students:
> https://haas.berkeley.edu/cssl/programs-events/board-fellows/ The former
> would be good skills development for the movement, and the latter would
> double as a transparency move.
>
> I mean *invest*, not "commit to invest"; the Foundation should do a few
> years of this investment and *then* put in stricter rules, since otherwise
> the temptation for new board members to say "this is not necessary" and
> pull the drawbridge up after them would be very strong.
>
> I would also add, beating my recent drum: much of the energy that goes
> into Foundation board questions should instead be going into making the
> Foundation less central to the movement. That goes for the board -- who
> should be following through on the "infrastructure for open" commitments of
> 2030, not re-centralizing, so that the exact composition of the board is
> less important -- and for many movement leaders: *you can be a movement
> leader without being on the WMF board*. There are so many ways to lead.
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