Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-12/Board elections

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The Wikipedia Signpost


Board candidacies open through May 22

By Ral315, 12 May 2008
The Wikipedia Signpost
2008 Board of Trustees elections
A Wikipedia Signpost series
May 12 Candidacies open
May 19 Election information
May 26 Update, candidate interviews
June 2 Statistics, elections in progress
June 9 Elections continue
June 16 Election to conclude soon
June 23 Awaiting results
June 26 Election results

This week, the Signpost covers the opening of candidacies for the 2008 Board elections.

Candidate entries for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees election opened on Sunday. One (1) one-year seat will be filled in the election. As of press time, three users had presented themselves as candidates.

Candidates are being accepted through 23:59 UTC on May 22. This year, voting will run for three weeks, from June 1 through June 21 (last year's election ran for just ten days). While the rules of the election are largely completed, some minor changes may still be introduced. Under discussion currently is a proposal to send an official e-mail to all eligible voters regarding the election, and the voting system to be used; both of these proposals are contingent upon their technical feasibility.

These rules, and any other election-related tasks, are being handled by the Board Election committee, a seven-person panel consisting of the following users:

Incumbent board member and current Board Chairperson Florence Devouard has not yet stated whether she plans to run in this election. Devouard has been a member of the Board since the first elections in 2004. Before the restructuring of the Board of Trustees in April, the seats of Michael Snow and Domas Mituzas, both of whom were appointed in February, would have come up for confirmation in this election. Instead, they will remain in their seats until Wikimedia chapters choose their own selections for the seats.

This week, Harel (Harel Cain), Sarcasticidealist (Steve Smith), and Skenmy (Paul Williams) entered the race. These three users are the only users standing for election as of press time; last year, 15 candidates ran for three open seats.

Multilingual editors are encouraged to consider translating various election notices, candidate presentations, and other pages into as many languages as possible.

Next week: The Signpost will examine the election rules and regulations.



Also this week:

Pornography — Sighted revisions — Copyright claim — Policy updates — Citizendium 2 — Board elections — Maker Faire — IP block exemption — WikiWorld — News and notes — In the news — Dispatches — Features and admins — Technology report — Arbitration report


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