Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy/Report

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) Board of Trustees believes that Wikimedia affiliates are a key and integral part of the Wikimedia movement, and affiliates' success is vital for the Wikimedia movement's success. To that end, it is crucial to develop a clear vision regarding affiliates, making it possible to assess whether the investment in, collaboration with, and policy towards affiliates is promoting the right goals.

The Foundation's Board decided to begin the process with creating a strategy that will help guide the Foundation's immediate work in supporting affiliates for the next few years, with a primary focus on how affiliates are recognised, as a direct responsibility of the Board.

In November 2022, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees announced they would be embarking on building this Wikimedia Foundation Affiliate Strategy in collaboration with the Affiliations Committee, the affiliates, and the broader communities.

Over several months, the Wikimedia Foundation Board engaged with an outside consultant to drive a review process of what work the Foundation was doing to support affiliates. The end goal was to have several recommended actions.

The process

The first phase of the process was largely internal to the Board and the Affiliations Committee. This phase involved interviewing current Affiliations Committee (AffCom) members, its advisors, staff support (former and current), staff from different teams and departments of the Wikimedia Foundation who work closely with affiliates (like Legal, Community Resources, and Advancement). The interviews were conducted by Jon Huggett, a consultant on governance related topics. Jon previously worked on the Movement roles project (2010–2011) and has completed other governance-related analysis for the Board of Trustees. The result of the first phase was summarised in a report presented to the Wikimedia Foundation Board Liaisons to AffCom. This report was then discussed with AffCom. This initial report was used to scope out the next phase of work.

The second phase involved collecting data from affiliates. This process included calls with affiliates and a survey open to everyone (a public invitation went out on the Wikimedia-L mailing list). The information collected was compiled into a report with immediate recommendations. This report was first presented and discussed with the AffCom, Community Affairs Committee (CAC), and the Wikimedia Foundation Board at the Board meeting at Wikimania in August 2023.

In total, the following groups were consulted:

8 Affiliations Committee members and advisors were interviewed 1-on-1
11 Wikimedia Foundation staff were interviewed 1-on-1
14 Affiliate Executive Directors interviewed in 5 group sessions
65+ community members attended 9 different online sessions and one face-to-face session at WikiConference India
7 stakeholders interviewed 1-on-1
38 responses to 2023 Affiliate Experience Survey

The findings

Over the years, AffCom's role has evolved into a very difficult set of tasks, creating a demanding workload for hard-working volunteers. There are opportunities to streamline the work to focus on affiliate recognition. There needs to be further clarity around which decisions on recognition, derecognition and conflict rest with AffCom, which are with the CAC, which are with Foundation staff, and which with the Foundation Board.

Recommendations

One recommendation from the report is to move some of the administrative work from AffCom to staff, including the tasks that require quick response and detail. There also need to be new ways to select members of AffCom. Finally, over the long term, some responsibilities could be transferred to a Global Council. Further details on these recommendations can be found directly in the report.

What happens next

The Trustees have reviewed the recommendations and the CAC will be working with AffCom to implement some of the changes, the prioritisation and implementation of which would be discussed with the AffCom, and further communicated to the communities and affiliates. Community members can look forward to periodic updates from the CAC.