User:BradPatrick/Resign

Text of My Resignation Announcement on Foundation-L

To the Wikimedia Community:

I am stepping down as General Counsel to the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., effective March 31, 2007. I tendered my resignation to the Board some weeks ago, which was accepted. In the context of Danny Wool's announcement earlier today that he has resigned, some will speculate the two are related. They are not. The timing is just unfortunate.

Many people who decide to leave the projects do so by invoking the right to vanish. That isn't me. I am very proud of my association with WMF and will carry the distinction of having been a part of its growth with me for the rest of my life. I care deeply about the future of the Foundation, and am more dedicated in my beliefs about the free culture movement than ever before. With respect to my relationship with the Foundation and those of you whom I have come to know, I hope we are on good terms.

This community understands implicitly that people of goodwill can (and do) have strong differences of opinion about important matters. Should I choose to comment about these sorts of things at some point in the future, it will be as a person who cares about the vitality and success of the Foundation. I intend any such criticism to be constructive and based on a well-founded, good faith belief in making the Foundation stronger. I certainly wish for nothing but success for the organization. To the extent I, (like any person who has had anything to do with the workings of the Foundation), have opinions about what I think is good, bad, ugly, etc. about how the Foundation does things, they are my own.

One of the last things I did before stepping aside as interim ED was retain the firm of Phillips Oppenheim to conduct the ED search process for WMF. I hold them in the highest regard as professionals who are exclusively in the business of non-profit executive search, and I have a high degree of confidence that they are the right people to aid the Foundation in its next steps. They can make a difference.

It is my earnest hope that everyone who cares about the Foundation, but has concerns about what is happening at the Foundation now, will say so. This community is strongest when it is vocal, not silent. If you have questions you want answered, be bold, speak up, and ask them. The Board members -- the ones who are accountable, since it is they who are running the Foundation -- deserve the support of the community when they earn it. But, since this is real life, SOFIXIT isn't as simple as clicking on an article. It's really hard work that takes a great deal of time and energy.

So, I'm leaving as of March 31, 2007. I am not going away or deleting myself out of wikiexistence. I'm just not going to be WMF's General Counsel.

Brad

Note: In my original message I referred to the "right to disappear", rather than the "right to vanish".