Talk:Wikimedia Foundation elections 2013/Post mortem

Rethink voter requirements for staff, contractors and board members

The 2013 voting requirements specify that WMF staff, contractors, trustees and advisory board members are eligible to vote even if they don't meet the editor and developer requirements. Similar requirements (but with different phrasings/details) have been in place for the 2011, 2009 and 2008 elections. However, the organisational side of the Wikimedia movement has changed quite a lot over the last 5 years - there are now many more Wikimedia staff and contractors employed by chapters, and also many more Wikimedia chapter board members. If they aren't involved in editing directly (which is becoming more frequent a situation as expert staff and trustees are recruited from outside of the Wikimedia movement), then they might not be eligible to vote - leading to the somewhat odd situation where people in equivalent positions in different Wikimedia organisations have different eligibility for voting in these elections. It would be good to rethink this for the next elections to see whether this it is still the best approach to be taking, or whether it's worth removing, contracting or expanding these eligibility requirements. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 20:55, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Suggestion #0: respect the voters

Cf. [1] for a brilliant example of what not to do. --Nemo 18:44, 9 October 2013 (UTC)