Harry,
That's exactly our problem in the movement - that it seem like everyone can
do whatever he want. But it's no.
The money, even if only part of him coming from the fundraising - is
movement money. And if Wikimedia Israel is spending money for nothing, this
is not only my concern - but something that everyone in the movement need
to care, if we want future for our movement.
This is not the place, and this is not the right place - and I'm not
meaning that WMUK are spending money unwittingly or not in modestly, like
we need to do - but this is happen in the movement, but unfortunately there
is also a trend of uncontrolled swelling budget, within the chapters, and
also within the WMF.
But this is not the issue, the issue is the future and the kind of
Wikimania as a community project, and the balance of power between the
third Chapter in his budget size and other volunteer groups that are
supposed to compete in the bid. It's one thing (and ok) if the Chapter
staff invest there time on a bid, but it's something else to spend that
amount of resources. Even if at the end it will be half of it, or a quarter
of it. Even five thousand pounds, this huge amount compared to what others
have invested so far.
Itzik
On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 3:37 PM, HJ Mitchell <hjmitchell(a)ymail.com> wrote:
Right, let me be quite blunt. This thread is not
"undiplomatic", it's an
attempt to meddle in the affairs of other chapters, which do not concern
you. how would you have liked it if I was trashing the Haifa or DC bids
before they were even anything as formal as bids?
As to "my opinion of WMUK has been tainted", let me again be very blunt.
You have clearly not read the documents linked, or not understood what you
were looking at. You are looking at suggestions. We are exploring a variety
of options, none of which have been discussed or approved. Now, as WSC
says, last year's bid failed partly because of insufficient support
from the chapter, so this year, there is a *suggestion* in a *draft*
budget to *earmark* *up to* £40k for the bid. That doesn't mean that £40k
*will* be allocated, nor that, if it is allocated, the whole £40k will be
spent. In fact, I think it's very unlikely we will find anything to spend
that kind of money on in just the bidding stage, but that's why it's called
a *draft*. You can't criticise the chapter for offering financial support
when it was criticised last year for not providing financial support.
Now kindly keep your noses out of other people's business.
(I should probably point out that I'm not speaking on behalf of WMUK)
Thank you,
Harry Mitchell
http://enwp.org/User:HJ
Phone: 024 7698 0977
Skype: harry_j_mitchell
------------------------------
*From:* WereSpielChequers <werespielchequers(a)gmail.com>
*To:* Wikimania general list (open subscription) <
wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*Sent:* Sunday, 26 August 2012, 12:34
*Subject:* Re: [Wikimania-l] UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid
I agree that it would be wrong for chapter money to go into Wikimania
bids, especially as some bid teams have access to resources that others
don't. However London lost the last bid against Hong Kong partly because
it was deemed not to have "solid support from the chapter". Considering how
much support there was from the chapter it would be difficult to see how
the UK chapter could give more solid support without supplying paid staff
time. So the logical response to the jury's decision
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimania-l/2012-May/003491.html is
to budget for more solid support from the chapter.
If the Jury had said that both bids were very good , but for 2013 it was
really time for another Wikimania in the Far East then we'd be in a
different situation.
WSC
On 25 August 2012 20:32, James Hare <messedrocker(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Staffing is a very good thing to spend money on—while executing the
conference. Spending $62,000 on staff for a bid would be worth the
investment if bidding for Wikimania were anything like bidding for the
Olympics, but it is not. The spirit of Wikimania is ultimately from its
volunteer leadership, and if the Wikimedia UK volunteers cannot muster that
spirit to run their own bid, they have no hope and no soul.
James
On Aug 25, 2012, at 3:28 PM, Itzik Edri wrote:
Sorry, it's undiplomatic to interfere with others budget plans - but I
just can't ignore how the future of Wikimania will look like if others will
follow UK plans to invest £40,000 only for the bid process (about 62,000$).
I wrote my last response on that few minutes ago:
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:2013_Activity_Plan#5.2_Wikiconference_2013
"Hire a production company for half of this cost. It's really waste of
donors money, for what we expect to be done by volunteers, or for a minimum
costs. If every one who going to bid for Wikimania will spent this amount
of money (and why them not? if UK can, why others not?), it's mean that for
4 places every year we are "spending" more than 260,000$ only for the
bid!!!. --217.132.1.140 19:22, 25 August 2012 (UTC)"
I really think the "Wikimania" groups need to speak about that. It's the
first time a group/chapter spending such amount of money for bid, and it's
open a door for next cities to do the same - with money which can uses to
invest in Wikimania itself.
Itzik
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