Candidates for the Board of Directors

Robert Fernandez

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I do not have a financial interest in ongoing or planned transactions or arrangements of Wikimedia District of Columbia.

(b) I am not subject to laws, regulations, agreements, or covenants that 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 am not an employee, director, officer, or agent of the Wikimedia Foundation or any chapter besides Wikimedia DC.

(e) I have participated in Wikimedia Foundation projects since 2004. I am primarily active on English Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and WikiSource. I have not been subject to disciplinary actions on these projects.

I am Robert Fernandez, and I have been an appointed member of the board of Wikimedia District of Columbia since December 2015. I have been active on Wikimedia projects since 2004. We will soon have a number of board vacancies, so I am running for an elected board seat to provide the board more flexibility in appointing new members to fill these vacancies. I hope to help continue the work we have done over the last couple of years as I have in the past.

Sara Snyder

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I have no direct or indirect financial interest in any ongoing or planned transaction or arrangement undertaken by Wikimedia District of Columbia.

(b) I am not subject to any law, regulation, agreement, or other covenant, whether as a condition of employment by a party other than Wikimedia District of Columbia or otherwise, that would prevent me from taking full part in the deliberations of the Board, or that would require me to excuse myself from such deliberations in circumstances other than those related to a financial conflict of interest.

(c) I have had no felony convictions.

(d) I am not an employee, director, officer, or agent of the Wikimedia Foundation, or of any Wikimedia chapter other than Wikimedia District of Columbia; nor do I otherwise hold a fiduciary duty to said organizations.

(e) I have participated in projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation as well as the Wikimedia DC chapter. This includes being a contributor to several Wikimedia projects, primarily English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. I have never been subjected to disciplinary action with regard to my participation in Wikimedia projects (including, but not limited to, the imposition of any restriction on my ability to fully and freely participate in said project) by the community of said project, or by any body convened for the purpose of undertaking such disciplinary action on said project.

I am Sara Snyder, User:sarasays on Wikimedia. I made my first edit on Wikipedia in 2006, and have spent the intervening years learning about and connecting with the Wikimedia community and advocating for greater collaboration with galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). I have given talks, written articles, and organized numerous GLAM-Wiki programs in my professional capacity as a digital practitioner. I have been a member of Wikimedia DC for more than five years, and have organized many collaborative events and projects with the chapter through my professional affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.

I am a strong believer in open knowledge and an advocate for greater cooperation between the Wikimedia community, subject matter experts, and the government agencies operating in our nation’s capital and beyond. I believe that working together is the best way to ultimately achieve our mission of free, high quality access to the sum of all human knowledge.

My first face-to-face, offline contact with the Wikimedia community came via some members of what would eventually become the District of Columbia chapter, and over the years the chapter members’ friendly support and care in creating a safe environment have been the secret to dozens of successful events and collaborations. It would be my honor to give back to this outstanding organization by volunteering my time to serve on the Wikimedia DC Board of Directors.

Gerald Shields

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I do not have a financial interest in ongoing or planned transactions or arrangements of Wikimedia District of Columbia.

(b) I am not subject to laws, regulations, agreements, or covenants that 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 am not an employee, director, officer, or agent of the Wikimedia Foundation or any chapter besides Wikimedia DC.

(e) I have participated in Wikimedia Foundation projects for about 10 years as User:Geraldshields11. I am active primarily on English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. I have not been subject to disciplinary actions on these projects.

My name is Gerald Shields, and I edit the Wikimedia projects as User:Geraldshields11. I was Wikimedia DC's Volunteer of the Year in 2015. I was the volunteer Wikimedia DC event promotion coordinator. As part of the New York Times article "Museum Welcomes Wikipedia", I was interviewed for my work with Wikipedia on feminism and on North Korea. I am very active on Wikimedia Commons. Since 2013, I have been documenting the efforts at Women in the Arts Edit-a-thons, Art + Feminism edit-a-thons, and WikiConferences. I was involved with SpaceBlimp 7, which carried a copy of English Wikipedia into the high stratosphere close to near orbit on April 14, 2018 from Strasburg, Virginia.

I want to see Wikimedia include emerging communities, such as the Global South, LGBQT+, Art + Feminism, and persons of color, so that the content of our Wikimedia projects is inclusive and serves its educational mission.

As a board member of Wikimedia DC, I want Wikimedia DC get DC sales tax exempt status as a non-profit.

I have been involved in other public service roles. I am an attorney working on taxation for the US Department of the Treasury. I was a Town Councilmember of the Town of Berwyn Heights, Maryland -- a non-partisan political position. I was the Financial Secretary of a Knights of Columbus chapter, which gave me operating experience with the day-to-day activities of a large organization. That practical experience is the basis of understanding any organization’s constraints. I am a Major in the Maryland Defense Force in the Judge Advocate Corps. I was also Treasurer and Steward of a Washington, D.C. chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union.