Results of the WMF Board election

Last month, the Wikimedia Foundation held its biannual election for the community-elected seats on its board. Nine candidates participated, with somewhat less on-wiki discussion than in previous years. The results of the election were announced on May 20: 5120 community members voted to elect María Sefidari, Dariusz Jemielniak, and James Heilman, each a current or former WMF Trustee, and each receiving roughly 80% support.

FDC election begins

The annual election for members of the Funds Dissemination Committee, which determines funding allocations for annual plan grants to the largest Wikimedia affiliates, began this week. Eleven candidates with a wide range of experience, from all six continents, are standing in the election. Along with their candidate statements, they have answered a few questions on the wiki.

Voting is open this week: it runs from June 3rd–11th.

• New user-groups in March: The Affiliations Committee announced the approval of this quarter's newest Wikimedia movement affiliate: Wikimaps User Group, Wikimedians of Erzyan Language User Group, West Bengal Wikimedians User Group, Karavali Wikimedians User Group, Wikimedians of Lëtzebuerg User Group, Wikimedians of Peru User Group, Commons Photographers User Group and Wikivoyage Association. SRC
• New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrators, GoldenRing, Clpo13, and ONUnicorn.
• Featured milestone: English Wikipedia passed the 5,000 mark for featured articles in April. While there isn't a clear "5,000th article" as such, Waiting (2015 film), Phantasmagoria (video game) and Resident Evil 5 tipped the count over from 4999 to 5002. JM
• Editing contest: The Core Contest is running over six weeks from 00:01 UTC 15 May to 23:59 UTC 30 June 2017. Once again, ₤250 of Amazon vouchers are up for grabs. The contest focusses on improving Wikipedia's core material, with rewards for improving the worst eyesores. C
• Wikipedia for Peace: At the beginning of July 2017 volunteers from all over the world will come together to write articles on the topic of persecution and refuge in Berlin, Germany and also visit different projects in Berlin. E
• Wikimedia Movement Strategy: Join the Cycle 2 of the Wikimedia Movement Strategy discussions (ending 12 June), or Cycle 3 (starting 28 June), and debate about the themes of our strategic directions. More information at Meta:Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017. Q