Board Member Volunteer (Social Sector)

Overview

Board members play a vital role in shaping and approving our strategy, ensuring the we use our resources in pursuit of our mission, and championing our vision, mission, and values within our communities and in public. The Board’s role is to oversee the management of the Foundation, and advise, challenge, and support the Executive Director without crossing into management.

The Board is structured to hold a range of experiences and differing expertise, including:

• three community-nominated volunteer seats,
• two affiliate-nominated volunteer seats,
• four appointed expert seats, and
• an honorary seat held by Jimmy Wales, the founder.

We are currently looking to fill two appointed seats. The position listed below describes some of the specific subject-matter expertise we hope to add to our Board. Deadline for submission is March 6th, 2017.

Summary

Our governance practices and processes must evolve to meet our changing environment and needs. Yet good governance is about far more than process. We need intelligent, social sector change management too. The “Social Sector Governance” Board seat will us help us tackle our governance challenges with the big picture in mind.

We’d like you to have some or all of these kinds of experiences:

• You have successfully led a social-sector organization through some tricky inflection point (e.g. significant growth, major evolution in strategy) by improving governance at the executive or board level.
  • Perhaps you have worked as advisors to executives and governments.
  • Perhaps you have been an executive yourself.
  • Perhaps you have worked in public radio, television, the Library of Congress, or other media.
• You have taught, spoken, or written about governance.
• You are seasoned through years of service with other boards.
• You have contributed to the Wikimedia movement in some way, through donations, edits, uploads, or organizing community-driven efforts.

The commitment:

Board members serve for three-year, renewable terms. Each year, the Board convenes four times in person at different locations around the world and three to six times online as necessary. Meetings require coordination with members across the world and across time zones. Overall, the time commitment for standard service is roughly 75 hours per year (not including travel). Board members may additionally choose to dedicate time to one or more Board committees, supporting and providing counsel to the Executive Director and her team, or promoting the Wikimedia movement through speaking engagements and connecting with the Wikimedia communities. All Board positions are unpaid and provided in service of the movement.

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