Dear Arjuna,<div><br></div><div>It is so good to get your whole-hearted support and clarifications :) . We support the chapter in every way and are glad that the chapter is fully supporting the community. The clarifications therein have put to rest the concerns of the community. These, imho, have arisen from a lack of communication and we request that such a situation should not rise again and frank and fair communication be resorted to by all parties concerned.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We look forward to your mature guidance to the OC and active and useful participation from Gautam & Arun in the committee. With the chapter's support, I'm sure the event will be a great success. Further, with the full support of the chapter, the community's accomplishments will be such that national chapter India can raise their heads high in the annual chapter meetup next year and in the years to come.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Let's go forth and organise :-) !</div><div><br></div><div>Warm regards,<br><br>Ashwin Baindur<br>------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 9:46 AM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:arjunaraoc@googlemail.com">arjunaraoc@googlemail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<p>Hi Wikimedians<br></p><p>We wholeheartedly supported the Mumbai-Pune bid for organising the
conference. It has received widespread community support from
Wikipedians across the country on the mailing list. We also take note of
the fact that there is no visible active intent to make a bid to host
the event from other cities.
</p><p>The previous note from Executive Committee (EC) clearly indicates
the intent and commitment to run an annual event, year on year, with
the support of other stakeholders in the movement. To that end we
request that the organising team of this year's event keep this an
important objective.
</p><p>EC had previously made a proposal for such
an event many in early 2011 but it was then deferred to September due to
other procedural hurdles in getting all aspects of a formal entity up
and running - A bank account being a prerequisite to execute the plan.
</p><p>EC regrets the communication gaps and
discomfort caused in some quarters due to misunderstandings of intent
which our earlier email clearly and directly addresses. The Wikimedia
movement is community driven and we reiterate that involving the
community is and will be a key priority for your Chapter and Executive
Committee.
</p><p>We request everyone's support for the Mumbai-Pune efforts to organise the 2011 WikiConference.
</p><p>Please consider this note a full and complete support of the
India Chapter for the event. We thank the Mumbai and Pune Wikimedians
again for the passion and leadership in working towards organising the
first edition of this event.
</p><p>We will engage and work with the Mumbai team and other
Wikipedians on the specific aspects of the frame work. As indicated in
the earlier email, it was meant to be a draft seeking comments from
other stakeholders.
</p><p>There were a few other aspects that were highlighted to which we would like to provide the following:
</p><p><b>Feedback #1: Treat us like equals and stakeholders. Amongst us, chapter will then be first among equals.</b>
</p><p>The Chapter is only a part of the Community and should be
reflective of it. If the impression was otherwise, we apologise and
reiterate our commitment to an equitable relationship with the
Community. That said, please do understand that your Chapter has very
clearly said that we will organise an event even in instances where
there are no city bids - this is a fairly large undertaking for the
Chapter and the Executive Committee as well.
</p><p><b>Feedback #2: The second request is always ask our opinion
before issuing policy, especially for a thing like WikiConference which
has not been conducted before.</b>
</p><p>The framework was intended for discussion and for feedback - it
isn't final and will not be final till there has been discussion and
feedback on it. If the language indicated otherwise, we sincerely regret
it.
</p><p><b>Feedback #3: Lastly, this present framework will not do. We
need a framework which gives autonomy to the Organising Committee to
successfully pull off an event of this scale and nature. While
organising this Wikiconference, the community is willing to develop a
sensible, practical framework which can be debated and finalised after
the event is over. In this manner best practices and lessons learnt will
be incorporated.</b>
</p><p>We understand this. The idea behind the framework is to give us a
road-map of how to prepare, execute and wrap up an event of this
magnitude - given that this year will be the first, we are open to
working together on such a framework and to better it as it goes along
with the host communities. However, we must all agree that a framework
is important to ensure that the annual event is sustainable and
successful. The exact nature of the framework is something we can
jointly define and we must all agree that at the end of the event, that
we must all jointly draft this framework that can be reused for future
events and years as a priority. <br></p><p>Gautam K John and Arun Ramarathnam will represent the Chapter in the organizing committee for the Conference.<br></p><p><br></p><p>Sincerely,</p><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<p>Arjuna Rao Chavala</p>President, Wikimedia Chapter<br>
<br><br>
</div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org">Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l" target="_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div>