Candidates for the Board of Directors

James Hare

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I am a paid contractor for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Wikimedia DC has organized events with NIOSH, but there is no contractual or financial relationship between the two organizations. If there ever were to be such a thing I would abstain in my Wikimedia DC role for the purposes of reviewing or approving such a relationship.

(b) I am not subject to any law, regulation, agreement, or covenant that would prevent me from taking full part in the deliberations of the Board of Directors.

(c) I have not been convicted of a felony.

(d) I have no fiduciary duty to a Wikimedia chapter other than Wikimedia DC. As a grantee of the Wikimedia Foundation in my personal capacity I am in a contractual relationship with them but this does not impose a fiduciary duty.

(e) I have participated on the Wikimedia projects since November 2004. I am currently an active editor on English Wikipedia and Wikidata. I was briefly blocked on English Wikinews in 2010 but have not otherwise been subject to any restriction on my ability to participate.

I have been editing the Wikipedia since 2004, and I have been a member of Wikimedia DC’s board since the first board meeting on May 7, 2011. I have volunteered for Wikimedia DC in many roles; I was treasurer from May 2011 until March 2013, president from March 2013 until December 2015, and secretary since then. I organized numerous programs and events for Wikimedia DC, from large events to Wikimania 2012 to small edit-a-thons with few (but dedicated!) participants. I have attended many events as an organizer and as a volunteer to help newcomers learn how to edit Wikipedia. Outside of Wikimedia DC I work for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to make health and safety content readily available on Wikipedia. I also am a grantee of the Wikimedia Foundation working on WikiProject X, a project with the goal of making it easier for editors to organize and work together.

As a director I have prioritized the development of institutional memory and the improvement of volunteer workflows. To this end I have set up shared file storage systems and databases allowing Wikimedia DC volunteers to store and share information with fellow volunteers securely. I have also set up tools to efficiently gather metrics from our editing events, giving us insight as to what is accomplished at events and how effective we are at recruiting and retaining newcomers, as well as standardized workflows for processes such as expense reimbursement and grant applications that reduces our administrative burden as an organization. I have also written (and rewritten) several corporate policies, with an emphasis on clarified fiscal controls, documentation of current best practice within Wikimedia DC, and policies concerning the use of technology in Wikimedia DC, particularly as it relates to the collection and retention of personally identifiable information. While I was president I grew Wikimedia DC’s portfolio of projects and partners substantially, expanding the organization from a small group that put on occasional edit-a-thons to an influential organization of regional and national significance that has worked with over 40 partners putting on multiple events per month. Until earlier this year I had spearheaded Wikimedia DC’s strategic planning process; the research during this process was used to prepare the strategic plan that was approved by the Board of Directors in August.

There is room to grow yet. I seek re-election as a member of the Board of Directors to oversee Wikimedia DC as it begins to carry out its strategic plan. In particular, I would like to oversee the organization as it transitions from being an all-volunteer organization to one with staffing. This will allow Wikimedia DC’s volunteers to be more effective by creating a dedicated resource that helps keep the volunteers on task while handling other responsibilities that are more time-sensitive or require substantial effort that cannot be sustained solely on volunteer time. My goal is for Wikimedia DC be a more effective, more inclusive, more diverse organization, and I hope to play a role in that happening.