Wikimedia Foundation Governance Committee

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The Wikimedia Foundation Governance Committee (“GC, Committee”) is a Wikimedia Foundation board committee, responsible for ensuring that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees (“Board”) of the Wikimedia Foundation (“Foundation”) fulfills its legal and fiduciary obligations, and to improve its governance, efficiency, and effectiveness over time.

According to Governance Committee Charter (“Charter”) the Committee is "responsible for the Board’s structures, policies and procedures necessary to ensure the Board’s compliance with its legal and fiduciary duties and to facilitate the improvement of Board governance, efficiency, and effectiveness. In addition to the specific responsibilities listed below, the Board may designate further responsibilities to the Committee that are needed to further the Committee’s purpose".

The Committee:

1. reviews and sets policies and procedures (regular evaluation of the Board, Bylaws, Conflict of Interest Policy, the Board of Trustees Code of Conduct etc);
2. identifies Board needs (skills, experience), conducts trustee evaluations (via a 3rd party), administers trustee appointment process (for Board-selected trustee seats), facilitates the selection process for community- and affiliate-selected trustees (by liaising with Wikimedia Foundation elections committee), and other activities relating to general Board effectiveness;
3. coordinates and oversees a regular trustee performance review process to provide periodic developmental feedback to each trustee, facilitates Board education, including educational opportunities for all trustees regarding their fiduciary and legal responsibilities.

For a full explanation of the Wikimedia Foundation Governance Committee's responsibilities, please refer to its Charter. Please refer to the Board Handbook for more information on Foundation's Board.

The committee can be contacted privately at bgc-lwikimedia.org or publicly on this talk page.

Background and founding

The committee was established on 17 April 2010 with an interim committee consisting of the Foundation board members. The committee was briefly assisted by Sal Giambanco from the Omidyar Network. It submitted a report with initial recommendations to the Board, which were implemented. The Board established the Committee as an official sub-committee with a charter and defined tasks). On September 15, 2021, the Board dissolved the Board Governance Committee, and created the Governance Committee and adopted its Charter.

Useful links

• Current charter of the Committee is on the Foundation Governance wiki: Governance Committee Charter
• The membership of the Committee is decided through the Board's resolution, and the current membership is kept on the Foundation Governance wiki: Board of Trustees/Committees
• Historical pages are grouped here: Category:Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee