Since when does Wikipedia have an "editorial board?

How do I make a proposal to the Wikipedia Foundation Board?

• I was told to make a suggestion for an upcoming meeting on Meta http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, but after searching through I cannot find agendas for future meetings.

• Answer:

  This is an excellent question, and I'm not sure that a simple or easy answer exists. The Board of Trustees maintains a list of meeting dates and minutes from past meetings [1], but I believe you are correct that agendas are not published in advance. While it is regrettable that there is no clear process outlined for making a proposal to the Board, there are many good opportunities to do so if you are willing to ask around a bit. Since I don't know the nature of your proposal, or your level of familiarity with the Wikimedia world, I can only hope this suggestion is useful. The Board of Trustees will I think generally be most receptive to proposals that have been extensively vetted, commented on, and refined by a broad spectrum of Wikimedia contributors; so openly publishing a proposal, and inviting input, is probably your best approach. Any effort to attract the interest of the Trustees will be strengthened by strong community buy-in. The wiki that you linked to, called "Meta Wiki," is a good resource for that. It's a common space for anyone interested in issues that pertain to the broader Wikimedia movement. You might look at the pages in the "Proposals" category there [2], and their accompanying discussion pages, to get a feel for other proposals that have been shared there. I would recommend that you start a page on Meta, and add the tag [[Category:Proposals]]. Then, ask some Wikimedia volunteers to weigh in. How you go about seeking them out will depend heavily on the subject matter, so I can't offer much advice without a little more information. (Is it a technical proposal? Does it have to do with translations and language interoperability? Is it a political action? etc. etc. etc.) One final note, is that you should be sure you understand the role the Board plays. As the most central body of an international, multilingual organization supporting hundreds of web sites in hundreds of languages, the Board tends to limit its efforts to a very narrow collection of issues, leaving many, many decisions up to the consensus-driven, community-organized processes of many different sub-groups. You may find that your issue is not something the Board wants to engage with, but if that's the case, you'll probably want to reformulate your question, and find the best way to engage the right sub-community of Wikimedians to best achieve the result you're looking for. [1] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Meetings [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Proposals