Hi,
I hope you are all well. I had a suggestion for those working on the offline Wikipedia, if you come across a topic that does not exist on Wikipedia, just indicate the topic & subject then leave the link section blank. We’ll work on them once we are done but anyone who wants to create those missing articles before then can do so.
if anyone wants me to share the document, let me know.
yours,
dennis.
Sent from Windows Mail
Dear colleagues in Kenya,
I would like to let you know that (after consultation with the Affiliations
Committee) the Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director, Sue Gardner, is not
extending the Board of Trustees' provisional recognition of your group as
Wikimedia Kenya. We recommend you pursue recognition as Wikimedia User
Group instead.
The recognition was conditional upon incorporation within a year, and that
has not happened. In addition, the provisional board disintegrated (with
some people leaving the chapter entirely) and no replacement announced,
almost no activity took place this past year, casting doubt on the group's
sustainability as a chapter, and certain personal issues added much
confusion and demoralization, which no doubt contributed to the inactivity.
In parallel, the Wikimedia movement has created new models of affiliation,
not available at the time your group was seeking recognition, that we are
confident would better serve your group at this stage, and would be more
appropriate, than the traditional incorporated chapter model.
Specifically, we encourage you to seek Wikimedia User Group recognition
(via AffCom -- e-mail affcom(a)lists.wikimedia.org) right now, which will
give you almost all the benefits of chapter recognition, with almost none
of the bureaucracy: trademark permission will be available to you, and as
you know, grants are always available, even to unincorporated groups (and
we will take steps to improve group oversight and governance to minimize
risk). Everything I know about this group and about AffCom suggests this
should be a smooth process.
Note that this does mean that the name "Wikimedia Kenya" should no longer
be used by you or others to refer to your group, and specifically, that you
are not to incorporate under that name. (It is best if incorporation under
any name is postponed until there's a better idea of the group's interest,
capacity, and plans. Creating a formal entity prematurely could saddle you
with inconvenient responsibilities without any of the benefits.)
"Wikimedians in Kenya", "Friends of Wikipedia in Kenya", and any number of
other names you may feel comfortable with, are good possibilities for the
name of your group, and can be recognized by the WMF if you do choose to
pursue User Group recognition.
We'd like to stress this is neither a punishment nor a demotion of your
group; it is actually an adjustment of what we call the group to match
reality and to adhere to the original terms of the provisional recognition.
We recognize your dedicated and valuable contributions in the past, and
look forward to renewed energy and accomplishments on this new path, as a
user group, and will be happy to support you in this in every way we can.
On behalf of Sue Gardner and the Wikimedia Foundation,
Asaf Bartov
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
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