Wikimedia Foundation elections/2022

During the 2022 Board of Trustees election, two community-and-affiliate candidates were selected to serve on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. This page contains an overview of the 2022 Board of Trustees election.

The elected candidates were:

• Shani Evenstein Sigalov (Esh77)
• Mike Peel (Mike Peel)

You may also view the full results, including the outcome of each round of Single-Transferrable Vote.

About the election

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia Foundation's operations. Community trustees and appointed trustees make up the Board of Trustees. Each trustee serves a three year term. The Wikimedia community has the opportunity to vote for community-and-affiliate selected trustees. Two candidates will join the Board of Trustees. The selected candidates will first be shortlisted by the affiliates and finally selected by the community.

Desired skills and experiences

Wikimedia is a global movement and the Board seeks candidates from the broader community. Ideal candidates align with the Wikimedia mission and are thoughtful, respectful, and community-oriented.

The Board would like to find perspectives and voices that are underrepresented and essential for our movement. To fill gaps in historic and current representation within the Board, the Board of Trustees hopes to encourage applications especially from those with experience in the following regions: Africa, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and Caribbean. Desired regional experience is not a requirement, but a bonus factor. Instead of being mandatory, these are important characteristics that the Board asks everyone to consider.

The Board understands it is possible that some candidates from deprioritized regions bring a better lens on diversity than some other candidates from prioritized regions who are not familiar with equity considerations. Candidates should share how their experiences have equipped them to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Skills

The areas of experience that the Board has indicated would be most beneficial for new trustees to bring are:

1. Organizational strategy and management
2. Enterprise-level platform technology and/or product development
3. Public policy and the law
4. Social data science, big data analysis, and machine learning

Learn more about the desired perspectives, experiences and skills for candidates to have in this election on the Apply to be a Candidate page.

Community voting

The community members will have the opportunity to vote to select the two trustees out of the six candidates shortlisted by affiliates. Single Transferable Vote on SecurePoll will be used this year.

Some community members noted it was challenging selecting candidates in 2021. The number of candidates was quite large. To support the selection process for community members, an Election Compass (voting advice tool) will be developed. This will be similar to the Election Compass used for the Movement Charter Drafting Committee selection process.

Timeline

April 2022	The Board announces the timeline for the election and the election process. The Elections Committee and the Movement Strategy and Governance team begin working with affiliates to define the Analysis Committee.
Mid-April – early May 2022	Call for Candidates Elections Committee and Trust & Safety confirmation of candidates.
Late April – early May 2022	Call for Affiliates to identify Analysis Committee members.
Mid-May – early June 2022	Analysis Committee rates candidates.
June 10, 2022 – June 17, 2022	Affiliate representatives propose their questions to candidates and upvote questions on the MS Forum private category
June 18, 2022 – June 24, 2022	Time for candidates to answer questions on their own
Late June	The Analysis Committee ratings will be shared with Affiliate Representatives via email
June 24, 2022 – June 30, 2022	The MS Forum private category is made public, and candidates can post their answers
July 1, 2022 – July 15, 2022	Affiliate voting period to shortlist candidates.
Mid-July	Shortlist of candidates is published The Analysis Committee ratings will be posted on-wiki.
Mid-July – early August 2022	Community proposes questions for candidates and statements for the Election Compass.
Mid-July – mid-August	Campaign period to include community videos of candidates answering community questions.
August 19, 2022	Candidate answers to questions are posted in video form, and more answers are posted in written form.
August 23, 2022 – September 6, 2022	Community voting period Election Compass opens
September 6, 2022 – September 21, 2022	Results scrutinized and confirmed by the Elections Committee.
October 2022	Trustees confirmed

Affiliate organization involvement

The affiliate organizations voted in this election in July to shortlist six candidates from the candidate pool. Each affiliate organization was allowed one vote. This selection used the Single Transferable Vote method. Affiliate organizations discussed the candidates the affiliate organization wanted to select. Candidates ranked candidates in order of preference.

The Affiliate Representatives were able to ask questions for the candidates to answer. Candidates published answers starting on June 24.

To assist with this selection process, an Analysis Committee was be formed.

Analysis Committee

For regional distribution of the Affiliates and facilitators who will be supporting it, see Affiliates regional distribution for the Analysis Committee

The Analysis Committee was formed from the affiliates during late April and May. The Analysis Committee was planned to be composed of 9 representatives of affiliates (including all chapters, user groups, and thematic groups) from regions across the movement. One each from:

• CEE (Central & Eastern Europe);
• ESEAP (East and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific region);
• Sub-saharan Africa;
• Latin America and the Caribbean;
• MENA (Middle East and North Africa);
• North America (USA and Canada);
• Northern and Western Europe;
• South Asia;
• plus one for thematic affiliates.

There was no representative from the Northern and Western Europe or South Asia.

The selection process to form the Analysis Committee was defined by the affiliates, with support of the Elections Committee and the Movement Strategy and Governance team as needed.

The Analysis Committee evaluated the candidates against the skills and diversity, equity and inclusion criteria shared by the Board of Trustees. The Analysis Committee used the statements the candidates answered on their application to rate the candidates. The Analysis Committee rated candidates with a gold/silver/bronze framework. This rating was used to provide input to the affiliate organizations when they planned their vote. The details of the evaluation of each candidate will not be shared.

After the six candidates were selected during the affiliate organization voting process, the ratings of each selected candidate were published to inform the community vote. This process aims to find the best balance between sharing useful information and minimizing unnecessary exposure of candidates.

Process

The Analysis Committee worked from late May to mid-June. Details of their meetings and process can be found on the Analysis Committee Discussions.

The Board Selection Task Force and the Elections Committee developed a set of evaluation criteria for the Analysis Committee to evaluate candidates against. The Analysis Committee members assessed candidates individually. Only two Movement Strategy and Governance facilitators who supported the process had access to these individual scores.

See also

• Recommendation for the Board of Trustees 2022 Election Processes