On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 1:06 PM, Christophe Henner <[email protected]> wrote: > > > 2. Time comitment. So on that, we are actively working on trying to reduce > the mandatory time board members have to allocate to WMF. Goal is between > this year and next year to lower it down to what we benchmarked as average > (and I can't find the number again, I'll dig into that). That work started > after a discussion with Guy on the fact that the time comitment was so high > we migh scare away high profiles. So working to get mandatory board time > down. > But there's also "non-mandatory" time comitment. I can only speak for me, > but right now, it takes me from 2h in the day up to 6h, almost everyday. I > try to have Sundays when I don't work (either for my job or wikimedia). In > that I do include reading (scanning for some mailing lists) emails. > > Right now, I think that the most complicated thing to handle is travel > times as you need to take almost a week off every time we travel abroad. > But until we invent teleportation (that would be super cool), I can't see a > way to change that. > > This resonated so strongly I had to write in. I think you've nailed it - it's not about money. It's about time.
And not just the mandatory time commitment, but also the non-mandatory time commitment...the expectations we have of ourselves, the extra time we put in not because it's compulsory - this isn't a job after all (although it feels like a part-time one). But because it's hard to be an effective board member without putting in that extra effort. Much as I loved it, I often felt I was drowning when I was a board member. I often found it really hard to flip my mind space and my mental energies between my paid day job and my wikimedia commitments - and sometimes had to put my day job on the backburner. Or family, friends, life, the universe and everything. None of which is tenable beyond a point. The other issue is the travel. Now that I'm an FDC member, I can see how two in-person meetings a year versus four makes a huge difference. [And as a related aside, the time commitment as an FDC member is way way more manageable - and takes place in two big chunks, not as an everyday thing.] It would be great if you'll could rethink the time and travel expected of board members, so that the whole thing is less of a super-human endeavour. :) Good luck! _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
