2016 AGM/Elections/Statements
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AGM: Elections (Candidate statements · Candidate questions) — Resolutions |
This page contains the statements of the candidates for the board of Wikimedia UK. Please submit questions for the candidates at 2016 AGM/Elections/Questions.
Greyham Dawes
- Proposed by Michael Maggs, seconded by Carol Campbell
After serving on the Board for over three years now, since originally being co-opted as a specialist adviser on regulatory compliance for charities, I have been asked to stand for re-election upon retiring by rotation at the 2016 AGM under the Articles. Obviously something more is expected of me as a professional accountant than just my knowledge of Charity Commission policy and practice – given that I’m not the only Board Member who brings a Charity Commission background to the table, in any case.
Suffice it to say that in my view Wikimedia UK is now an exemplar of charity governance, accountability and financial management. All that remains for me to be able to help with is the company’s task of migrating from its earlier dependency on a single source of grant-funding towards the financial independence that will be expected of it as a UK charitable champion of the Open Knowledge Movement. This is the many-sided task of diversifying our funding sources in keeping with the needs of our 5-year strategy.
The company now has a strong Senior Management Team headed up by a CE with the skills needed to be able to deliver on that strategy. My further input for this next stretch of the way, if re-elected, will therefore be mainly about maintaining our charity’s financial good health in transitioning from one kind of relationship with the Wikimedia Foundation and its family of Chapters around the world to another, less dependent and more balanced relationship, based on an increasingly close collaboration with active volunteers among the company members and the wider UK Wiki Community, as well as with the major players among the Open Knowledge institutions
Josie Fraser
- Proposed by Michael Maggs, seconded by Carol Campbell
I've been privileged to serve as a Trustee for the past year, and am very happy to be standing again for election to serve and support the Wikimedia UK community. I'm a committed advocate of the core principles of the foundation - to help people and organisations create and share knowledge accessible and openly for public and social benefit. I have an established international reputation for effective and innovative leadership in the use of technology to support professional and organisational development and change, supported by and championing open educational practice.
I've worked across the education sector with schools, FE and adult education, and universities. Most recently, I have worked in local government as the strategic technology lead of one of the country's largest and most accelerated school building programmes. I managed a multi-million pound technology and staff development programme. I have extensive experience of HR, legal, and commercial work, dispute resolution, and in the creation of and recruitment to new roles. I have significant experience of successfully galvanising local, national and international networks. I work across policy, strategy and practice. I have demonstrable expertise in securing funding, building partnerships, and in senior level negotiation, decision making, and risk management. I understand the difficult challenges of effective and sustainable change. I am committed to the principles of public life, equality, diversity and social justice.
If elected, I would continue to work to contribute to good governance of Wikimedia UK, particularly in relation to work relating to education. During my period as trustee I have also worked in a volunteer capacity, supporting the education agenda and planning for the organisation and its members. In addition to my commitment to raising the profile of the organisation and helping to augment relationships with other open education organisations, I would continue to actively support growth and practical impact in relation to education.
Lorna Campbell
- Proposed by Nick Poole, seconded by Josie Fraser
I am standing for nomination as a Trustee of Wikimedia UK as I believe I can make a positive contribution to nurturing the development of a supportive and mutually beneficial relationship between Wikimedia and the education sector.
As a long standing and passionate advocate of open education I firmly believe that access to open knowledge and open educational resources can expand access to education, widening participation, promoting knowledge transfer and improving digital literacy, while supporting social inclusion and helping the next generation to become fully engaged digital citizens. These are all goals which are fully inline with Wikipedia UK’s mission to “help people and organisations create and preserve open knowledge, and to help provide easy access for all.”
I have been actively involved in the open education technology community since 1997 and currently work as OER Liaison – Open Scotland at the University of Edinburgh; an institution that already has a strong and supportive relationship with Wikimedia UK. My main areas of expertise include digital infrastructure for open educational resources, open education policy, open licences, and technologies for supporting the management and distribution of educational content. I have experience of liaising with a wide range of education institutions and initiatives both nationally and internationally including the Association for Learning Technologists, Open Knowledge, Creative Commons, the Open Policy Network, the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and Jisc, and I have a track record of providing strategic technical and policy advice at senior level to many of these organisations. I am also a member of Council of the Society for Nautical Research and I chair the Society’s Publications Committee. I am an skilled programme manager and I have a strong reputation as an experienced chair with the ability to enable communication and facilitate consensus.
I have already participated in many Wikimedia education events both in the UK and internationally and I would now welcome the opportunity to make a more strategic contribution to Wikimedia UK to enable it to continue working closely with the education sector.
Jordan Landes
- Proposed by Nick Poole, seconded by Carol Campbell
I have had the pleasure of working with Wikimedia UK since 2012 and am honoured to be applying to be a Trustee. I first contacted Wikimedia UK regarding training for library staff of the University of London and that has led to a fruitful relationship over the past three and a half years. I believe that training and informing information professionals is an excellent route to reaching new editors and widening the volunteer community, with the goal of developing and disseminating open knowledge to more people.
I am the Research Librarian for History for Senate House Library, University of London, and the convenor of the Committee for London Research Libraries in History and a co-organiser of History libraries and research open day, which has introduced me to networks of librarians and historians both in London and beyond. I have helped organise several editathons at Senate House Library and advised other librarians on how to organise their own. I have attended sessions provided by Wikimedia UK on the use of Wikipedia in university courses and have fed back to my own library on how it can support these practices. As a result, I have a good understanding of how Wikimedia UK can engage with HE libraries in order to promote the shared goals of public engagement and promotion of the ideals of sharing knowledge.
In my own time, I am interested in the history of London, researching London’s role in the early modern Atlantic world for first a PhD and then a book. Now I am collaborating on a project looking at how people have written about walking in London from 1550 to 1950.