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Wikimedia Foundation elections committee/Nominations/2023

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The Wikimedia Foundation elections committee (Elections committee) is seeking an additional 2–4 members to help facilitate the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustee (Board) selection process.

The committee consists of five to fifteen members who serve three-year terms. Requirements and responsibilities for those serving on the committee may be found in the Elections committee Charter.

How to apply

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If you would like to be considered for an appointment to the Elections Committee, please read the Elections committee Charter and post your application below by 24 April 2023 at 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth). A more detailed letter with 2023 call for new members is here.

Your application must include the following information:

  1. Your Wikimedia username
  2. Your primary Wikimedia projects
  3. Languages you speak/write fluently
  4. Any experience you have working on committees, whether movement or non-movement
  5. Your thoughts on what you could bring to the Elections Committee, if appointed
  6. Any experience you have with elections, whether movement or non-movement
  7. Any additional information you think is relevant

Once your application has been posted below, please submit proof of your identity and age to the Wikimedia Foundation at secure-info(_AT_)wikimedia.org. Please remember to include your Wikimedia username in the email.

Please check the email associated with your Wikimedia username for the next steps, which may include an interview with members of the Board's Governance Committee.

Candidates applying for appointment to the Elections committee are listed below. All Wikimedians are invited to share endorsements and comments about candidates. If it is negative, please cite appropriate evidence; it is not appropriate to simply state a negative opinion. We would like to maintain a friendly space for candidates to state their interest without fear of public ridicule.

If you want to apply, please copy and paste the following code below, filling all the needed data, in the section Candidates: 

=== [[:user:]] ===

==== Questions for the candidate ====

==== Endorsements ====

Candidates

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user:Lebron jay

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Primary Wikipedia projects

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  • Igbo Wikipedia
  • Wikidata
  • Wiki commons

Languages

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  • English and Igbo Language

Experience

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  • I am currently a member of the Communication Team, Igbo Wikimedians User Group.
  • I was a member of the screening committee, Sound Logo Contest.

What I could bring to the Committee

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  • I have passion for Democracy coupled with my ability to communicate, organise, pay attention to details while having knowledge of election laws and regulations. All these would prove essential in my service to the Election committee.

Experience

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  • I have organized referendums polls that led to the appointing leadership of certain projects in my local community.

Questions for the candidate

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Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)
Answer 1:Thank you for your question @Nosebagbear:. Well, basically, since working with the ElectCom is not a full time job and it's also a volunteered job. Of course, the members of the ElectCom might not be available all the time due to other engagements, this is why increasing the membership circle is definitely a good idea and setting time range for the members should also be a welcome development to ensure swift communication.

Endorsements

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user:Mervat

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Primary Wikipedia projects: Arabic Wikipedia, English Wikipedia, WikiData
Languages: English, Arabic
Experience: I am a contractor with the msg team, my contract expires at the end of June and will not be renewed. I am a member of the conference grants review committee. A director member of the Wikimedians of the Levant user group. I am an active editor in Arabic with more than 155,000 edits and more than 2000 articles. Led many initiatives and projects locally and regionally.
What I could bring to the Committee: As a community facilitator, I participated in the facilitation process of the last two rounds of the BoT elections, I was responsible for the affiliates' engagement plan for the recent election. I worked closely with the community to engage individuals and groups in this process. I have a good idea about the roles and responsibilities of the elections committee and hope I can help make its mission more effective.

--Mervat (talk) 19:49, 21 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Questions for the candidate

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Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)
Answer 1: Thank you for your question @Nosebagbear:, I also witnessed this as a facilitator for the recent elections. As the members of the committee are volunteers, we need to understand that they may not be available all the time, but during the elections time specifically, the members should coordinate among themselves, in order to respond as soon as possible, an internal schedule may help. The idea of increasing membership is also a solution. Regards. --Mervat (talk) 09:44, 25 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsements

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user:ThadeusOfNazereth

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  • Primary Wikipedia projects: English Wikipedia, English WikiSource
  • Languages you speak/write fluently: English
  • On-wiki Experience: On-wiki I have some article collaborations and have contributed to sections of the site like Did You Know?, Good Articles, Featured Lists, New Page Patrol, and Articles for Creation.
  • Off-wiki Experience: The bulk of my committee and project management experience is off-wiki. I have spent time on my town's community advisory council and human rights council, helping coordinate events and communication between departments. For the last four years, I have worked as a speech and debate coach and have helped coordinate large events and tournaments across three countries. I also have professional experience working as both a project manager and team member in the non-profit and government sectors.
  • What I could bring to the committee: I have a strong belief in Wikimedia projects and in the need for movement members to trust the elections process. I believe that, with my professional experience coordinating events and acting as a conduit between government and citizens, I would be a good fit for this role.
  • Elections experience: I acted as a scrutineer for several society elections while attending university.

Questions for the candidate

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Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)
Answer 1: I think that concerns about slow communications are valid, but I don't know that they're something that are entirely avoidable. ElectCom is a group of people from around the world who are volunteering their time - Not dedicating it. Depending on member's schedules, sometimes it might take a week or two to fully develop consensus on an issue or to get everybody in a Zoom meeting together, and there's not always going to be a way around that. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try and reduce those delays, though. As a member of ElectCom I would make sure to clear time to dedicate to the commission, especially in the lead-up to important deadlines. I would also keep non-members in the loop in whatever way I could, even if it was simply saying "I promise we know about this issue and are working on it, and I'll try and have a concrete answer for you next week." Most people are willing to extend you grace if you request it, but full-on radio silence is more likely to breed animosity. ThadeusOfNazereth (talk) 20:44, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsements

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User:Arcuscloud

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Primary Wikimedia Projects

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I edit in several Wikimedia projects such as, Wikidata, Wikisource, Wikimedia commons, Indonesia Wikipedia, but right now I focus editing in my language Wikimedia projects; Banjar Wikipedia, Banjar Wiktionary, and Banjar incubator Wikiquote.

Languages

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Banjarese, Indonesia, English.

On-wiki Experience

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I am a member of Banjar Wikimedia community and was a coordinator of Banjar Wikimedia community in 2021-2022. As a coordinator, I helped Banjar Wikimedia community by becoming a contact person to inform any information that I received by Wikimedia Indonesia.

In 2021, I began working with a small project named WikiBaiman where I helped improving 100 most visited articles in Wikipedia Banjar. I also worked as a proofreader for a Banjar module about introducing Wikipedia and why people shouldn’t cite from Wikipedia.

In December 2022, I helped Movement Charter committee as Movement Charter Ambassador and held three online conversations with small Wikimedia community (Bali Wikimedia community, Banjar Wikimedia community, and Manokwari Wikimedia community) in purpose introducing them about Movement Charter and collecting their feedbacks for the first three chapters Movement Charter. This year, I involved in writing competition in Banjar Wikipedia as an organizer and proofreader articles from this competition.

What I could bring to the committee

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I believe that every process in Election committee should be transparent. Therefore, I want various communities exist in Wikimedia Movement especially small communities recognize who Election committee is and what they do, and providing them every information related to Elections. I am also willing reach small communities to engage them in election process years ahead by online conversations or any other way that I am able to.

Elections experience

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I have worked as an election committee for governor election in my village in 2020. My tasks are helping people to vote directly in the place, overseeing during the election process, and recapitulating the votes.

Questions for the candidate

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Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)
Answer 1: Thank you very much for the question. Since being ElectCom is volunteer job, they were not available all the time and if they available they might do other works based on their priority scale. Therefore, I think it is better to design work timeline for ElectCom specifically like what they have to do in this week, next week, and so on. Arcuscloud (talk) 21:00, 26 April 2023 (UTC+8)

Endorsements

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user:Guerillero

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  • Home project(s): English Wikipedia and Commons
  • Languages: EN-N, FR-1.5, DA-0.5
  • Experience: I am an English Wikipedia Administrator, Checkuser, Oversighter, and Arbitrator. I am comfortable with the herding cats that is part of making decisions as an asynchronous Wikimedia committee. I have worked with the stewards and checkusers on other projects to control cross-wiki abuse.
  • What I could bring to the Committee: I am an American in Copenhagen, Denmark, with extensive Wikimedia experience.

Questions for the candidate

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Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)
Answer 1: I understand how committees can grind to a halt; however, that does not excuse 9-month response times. Much of this is due to the charter, which requires a majority quorum, and causes decision-making to grind to a halt. The way forward would be for ElectCom to ask the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee to replace the majority quorm with a majority of the active members quorm for meetings. I would also allow a majority of the active members to make decisions by email. That would allow business to go on even when people are inactive. Personally, I would work to answer all reasonable questions with prompt replies. --Guerillero Parlez Moi 20:21, 26 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsements

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Support Support Arado Ar 196 (talk) 14:06, 23 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Support Support Hard to think of editors I'd trust more to be part of the WFEC. Ixtal (talk) 15:39, 23 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Support Support Frostly (talk) 20:27, 23 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

user:Ameisenigel

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Hello! I am Ameisenigel and I am contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2015. My home wiki is dewiki, but I am also active in other wikis (especially on Wikidata). I speak fluently German and English, and a bit French. In the past I have already worked with other Wikimedians in committees: From December 2020 to November 2022 I was a member of the German Arbcom and since 2021 I am a member of the Ombuds Commission.

I believe that elections are really important, because they enable people to take part in decisions. As a member of the Elections Committee I would like to make sure that the contributers to our projects have the ability to participate in free, fair and secure elections. In the past I have been a local election officer for multiple elections. I would be happy to serve as a member of the Elections Committee and to help with the upcoming elections.

Thanks, --Ameisenigel (talk) 19:55, 23 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Questions for the candidate

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Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)
Answer 1: Thank you for your question. I cannot tell much about communication during previous elections, but looking at the discussion page of the Elections Committee, I agree that some questions have been answered either late or never. One critical point is that you may have to discuss some things in the committee, before you can answer a question. Nevertheless we have to ensure that questions are properly handled. I think it is important to have clear roles and that should of course include monitoring the discussion page for questions. I would expect someone like a chair of the committee to be the main responsible person for this kind of things, but obviously every member should be monitoring the relevant pages. Maybe some communication problems are also caused by the cooperation of volunteers and staff, because it might be not clear who is responsible for which activity. This would have to be determined in that case. In the Ombuds Commission I have written most of the activity reports for the last two years and I think that reports like that are very helpful for people to get an idea of how a committee is currently working and if they are doing their job. --Ameisenigel (talk) 10:49, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsements

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user:Convey2amar

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Primary Wikipedia projects

Languages English and Hindi Language

Experience

No prior experience on Wiki platforms. I have actively working with COP and other communities at my workplace.

What I could bring to the Committee

I have passion for content writing. I am keen observer and pay attention to details and always thriving for a good content. I am sure that I would be an asset to the wiki platform.

Experience

I have organized and managed the SAP COP(Community of Practitioners) at my professional workplace. I have ran the recruitment drive for PWD(Person With Disabilities).

Questions for the candidate

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Endorsements

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Der-Wir-Ing

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Special:CentralAuth/Der-Wir-Ing

Primary Wikimedia projects

  • de-Wikipedia (German)

Languages you speak/write fluently

  • German (native)
  • English
  • French (maybe "almost fluent")

Experience working on committees

Experience you have with elections, whether movement or non-movement

  • I was several times candidate in de-wikipedia for admin, checkuser and arbcom.
  • I was helping with the organization of (de-) checkuser and arbcom elections
  • I organized many German Request for Comments (initiated by myself) and helped many other users organize theirs. These "German RfCs" are actually closer to a ratification of proposed policies then regular RfCs on meta or en-wp. They have rather complex and predetermined voting systems with clear cut results (like "needs at least 2/3 majority within exactly 14 days of voting to be accepted"). In this regard, they are also closer to the board elections then regular RfCs.
    • Several of these "German RfCs" initiated by myself were about the process of admin elections and related topics
    • The first RfC initiated by me, was about the rules on how to do an RfC on de-wp.
    • I did some presentations on how to organize these RfCs
    • I even have an essay/guideline in my user namespace on Writing better RfCs.

Thoughts on what you could bring to the Elections Committee

  • Pancakes and bad jokes.
  • Checkuser experience (also related to handling attempts of manipulating elections)
  • Experience on how to handle the German language community. There are rumors we would be a bit, let's say "special". But I have an inside point of view anyways. At least I'm posting every month some info in de-wp's version of the signpost about what's going on in the wikivers esp. about "Foundation stuff", steward elections, MCDC stuff, UCoC stuff, staff stuff etc.
  • General communication skills in our wikivers: Communication in committees can be difficult, slow and annoying. I'm also used to an international environment (with bad English), be it on the checkuser-mailinglist, or other online meetings like the ones for terms of use, UCOC or during wikimannias.

--Der-Wir-Ing ("DWI") talk 21:45, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Questions for the candidate

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As Nosebag already asked this to every candidate, I'll just copy it and answer right away:

Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)
Answer 1: I know this problem from my term in the arbcom. This problem often occurs with committees, esp. when one member of the com could answer but doesn't know what the rest of the committee thinks. So you consult with the rest of the team. You basically wait, till all (or at least the majority) responded. That can take a while.

Maybe some persons didn't have the pages on their watchlist and didn't see your question? I took Wikimedia Foundation elections committee on my watchlist, and every page that I edit is automatically on my watchlist. I also have a habit of checking my watchlist on meta at least once every day. --Der-Wir-Ing ("DWI") talk 21:45, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsements

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user:Aimeabibis

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Primary Wikimedia Projects

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Wikipédia fr, Wikicommons, Wikidata

Languages

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Français, Ewé

Experience

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I'm an active member of the Wikimediens du Bénin User Group and a volunteer contributor to the Wikimedia movement. Within the User Group, I participate in various community activities, such as organizing and co-facilitating training workshops for projects.

What I could bring to the Committee

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I have developed several skills that I can bring to the work of the Elections Committee. As skills that can be useful, i have atention to detail, communication skills, integrity, organisation skills and patience.

Elections experience

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During my community involvement, I have developed several skills that I can bring to the work of the Elections Committee. I'm humanitarian OpenStreetMap team voting member

Questions for the candidate

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Endorsements

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user:Emufarmers

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  • Primary projects: English Wikipedia; MediaWiki; Meta
  • Languages spoken fluently: English
  • Committee experience: I am on the ombuds commission and was previously on it from 2019 through 2021. I have been a VRTS administrator since 2015. I have been on the Organization for Transformative Works wiki committee (for Fanlore) since 2012.
  • What I would bring to the committee: I followed the last board election closely and provided a number of criticisms (and suggestions) during the election. Although outside criticism can help guide improvements to the election process, the greatest change is likely to come from within the elections committee, and I am willing to put my money where my mouth is and work constructively to make future elections the best they can be.
I also believe I would bring much-needed geographic diversity to the committee. As I previously noted, the committee currently lacks members from three continents, and although it is not often that North America finds itself underrepresented in our movement, I believe that broad geographic representation is necessary to ensure that our elections meet the expectations of all of our communities.
  • Election experience: In addition to my involvement in movement elections, I have run in a handful of elections over the course of my life; I most recently ran in a local government election last month. (It was a tie!)

Questions for the candidate

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Endorsements

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user:nealmcb

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Primary Wikipedia projects

  • English
  • Contributor to Wikipedia for over 2 decades

Languages

  • English
  • Esperanto

Experience working on committees

Your thoughts on what you could bring to the Elections Committee, if appointed

  • I bring a broad and deep background in high-quality election procedures and how they can apply to the Wikimedia movement
  • I bring an enduring committment to helping the Wikimedia movement contribute to a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

Any experience you have with elections, whether movement or non-movement

  • Active in election integrity work in the US with since 2002, pioneering Risk-Limiting Audits and consulting with election adminstrators in several counties and states
  • Active in voting methods community since the 1990's, lots of experience with the Single Transferrable Vote method Wikimedia is using
  • Active member of the League of Women Voters of Colorado on Voting Methods; co-author of LWVCO Election Security Position

Questions for the candidate

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As Nosebag already asked this to every candidate, I'll just copy it and answer right away:

Question 1: In several recent elections there have been numerous complaints about slow or absent communications from ElectCom, including both individual questions and communications to the community as a whole. What is your viewpoint on this and how would you rectify any issues you identify? Nosebagbear (talk)

Answer 1: As others have pointed out, Wikimedia elections are more complicated than one may assume, the committee is composed mostly of volunteers, and providing a carefully vetted answer can be challenging. But I am committed to making myself available during the crucial election times so that we can quickly come to agreement. I think my experience in a wide variety of elections, in Wikimedia and in government, will help the committee anticipate likely questions, communicate answers up-front to questions that we can anticipate, and respond quickly when necessary. ★NealMcB★ (talk) 15:22, 4 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsements

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