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Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2019/Programme/Submissions/Finding, selecting and onboarding new board members

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Title of the submission

Finding, Selecting and Onboarding new board memers

Type of submission (lecture, panel, workshop, lightning talk, roundtable, poster)

Workshop

Author(s) of the submission

Frans Grijzenhout, Tim Moritz Hector

Username(s)

Grijz, Bücherwürmlein

Affiliation

WMNL (Chair of the Board), WMDE (former Chair of the Board)

Topic(s)
  • Introduction to the issue of ensuring continuity in the board
  • Assessment of the local situation
  • Defining the needs of the affiliate as regards to governance
  • Ways of finding and selecting the right persons
  • The onboarding process
  • Briefly tackling the evaluation of the process
Abstract (up to 100 words)

It is commonly understood that It is necessary to renew the board from time to time. But new board members are hard to find and the current members struggle on. This workshop focuses on finding and selecting new board members and how to organize the onboarding process.

After a short introduction about how to ensure continuity in the board by the moderators the group will share their experiences and discuss ways to improve our abilities. Some practical examples and tools will be shared by the moderator.

How will this session be beneficial for the communities in the region of Central and Eastern Europe?

Make current board members of Wikimedia organisations in the CEE region aware that they have to prepare for personnel changes in the board in order to ensure the continuity of the affiliate and prevent that they are worn out themselves and prevent their affiliate of deteriorating or collapsing because of the lack of sufficient governance capacity.

Special requirements

room setting: round table; beamer, flipchart,

Slides or further information
Documentation

Interested attendees

[edit]

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

  1. --Jetam2 (talk) 12:48, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  2. --Akdar (talk) 14:13, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  3. --Friend (talk) 10:41, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  4. W (talk) 10:51, 18 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Notes

[edit]
Selecting
  • make current board members prepared for the changes in the personnel
  • identifying people who have the skills to be a part of the board (not necessarily from the community?
  • learn how to create an effective board
  • a board needs a person who can do several different things, needs to be prepared to get involved in all the workload that board expect. One needs to be prepared to work a lot and to engage in the board's work
  • only a regular member can be a board member (recommended)
  • we need to find out what skills can a new board member bring
  • editors becoming a board member can be difficult for them (they need to learn that editing is not the same as being a board member)
  • body language is important for both the applicant and the interviewer
  • friendly atmosphere should be made in the beginning
  • before starting to look for people we should ask ourselves is it needed....
  • recruitment phase * be sure that you have a consensus within the board, do not confuse the appersonnelplicants, make a timeline, scan the environment, prepare for the job interview, prepare documentation, consider the communication after the selection
Onboarding
  • make sure that you determine what the new board member should know in the first months (skills, obligations...)
  • if they do not come from the community they should learn about the roles, infrastructure, learn about legal things
  • need to understand what the chapter is doing and what are the responsibilities
  • timeline and next steps
  • need to understand the job description within the board
  • legal issues and legal requirements
  • need to know how to communicate to the other staff and ho9w to communicate within the board
  • credentials
  • need to learn the details of the chapter (goal, projects..)
  • need to know who is who in the organization
  • how to approach institutions
  • future plans and the division of responsibilities
  • need to understand what the organization expects from you
  • they need time to learn and take everything in
  • make them feel comfortable while learning the new things
Guidance
  • how to guide a new member to perform better
  • the hamburger feedback model
  • the coffee corner feedback
  • fixed contact person is important for a new board member