Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-30/Wikimedia Board election

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Start of election delayed again

By Michael Snow, 30 May 2005

The timetable of the election for two members of the Wikimedia Board of Trustees has been pushed back again, but everything finally seems to be in place for the process to start June 7.

Angela and Anthere were elected in June 2004 for a one-year term as community representatives on the Board. At the time, Angela was designated as Volunteer User Representative and Anthere as Contributing Member Representative, but this distinction will not be maintained. There will still be two representatives, who will be elected for two-year terms this time around.

The date originally set for candidates to start declaring was May 21, which was then pushed back to last Saturday, May 28. This came and went with no indication of the election opening, and the published information still indicated that candidates were not to declare themselves yet. Some confusion also resulted on Tuesday after Aphaia posted a joke election announcement to the Foundation mailing list, indicating that the election officials were going to fire Jimmy Wales.

Because the Wikimedia Foundation bylaws specifically provide for two election inspectors, it was decided to officially designate Danny and Datrio to these positions. Aphaia and BjarteSorensen will still serve as Assistant Election Officials, with Tim Starling as Election Technical Officer.

In related news, the Board is thinking about modifying the bylaws, since they refer to concepts (such as distinctions between paid and unpaid members) that do not exist in practice. Angela has created a new draft of the bylaws for consideration.

Also this week: Official positions — Time article — Rock rat — Election — Features — Vandal fighting — Substubs, templates — Trophy — T.R.O.L.L.