Hi everyone,
In light of recent changes in which Kevin Rutherford will be stepping away
from our organization, I wanted to echo Kevin's challenge for you all to
volunteer to lead or propose new Wikimedia-related events. SJ and I are
unfortunately not going to have the bandwidth to lead as many gatherings as
we have in the past, but I would love to help others take on new leadership
roles.
For any of you who had signed up previously for the Cape Cod photo blitz
this weekend, we are unfortunately going to have to cancel that event. I
would very much like to see it happen sometime next year, and I would love
to work with someone else on helping make that a reality.
We have a couple of other tentative events on the schedule — an Ada
Lovelace Day edit-a-thon in conjunction with UMass Amherst and a Boston
City Archives urban renewal edit-a-thon, both in October. If anyone would
like to help organizing these, please let me know. Amanda Rust is also
still in talks with some extra-NE folks about potentially hosting the
WikiConference USA next spring. We will keep you posted on whether that's
going to take place in Boston, and if so, how you can help.
Finally, we are trying to streamline our communications channels, making
sure they are all talking to one another, so I'd ask that you please bear
with us in the coming months. Ideally we would have an email list (this
one); a central Wikipedia location for all of our upcoming events (this may
be our new Wiki site); and a non-Wiki events portal for those who prefer
that type of alert and sign-up mechanism. We've flirted with using
Facebook, but we will probably mainly use our Meetup.com page
<http://www.meetup.com/wikipedia-5/photos/407265/319669412/>. I know this
is Wikipedia, but when possible, I actually think signing up via Meetup is
more helpful because it lets us stay as up to date as possible on whether
folks will or won't attend an event.
Anyway, thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions for the group, or
any questions for me, I'd love to hear them.
Maia
maiaw.com | @20tauri | w:user:Girona7
Hey all,
I am writing this letter to inform you that I am stepping aside from my
duties as co-chair of the New England Wikimedians user group, effective at
midnight tonight. I am also taking an indefinite leave from further group
activities.
Some of you know that I was in London last week attending Wikimania. While I
was there, it was brought to my attention that some of my behavior during
certain social events was inappropriate. I regret my actions and I will be
taking this time off to (among other things) reevaluate how I interact with
others.
In terms of the day-to-day operations of the group, Maia Weinstock will be
helping to fill in for the immediate time being. Amanda Rust has also
recently agreed to help coordinate some events, so questions about events
can be forwarded to her as well. We have lots of opportunities for people to
step up and lead individual events so I hope you will consider volunteering
so that our group can remain robust.
It has been a pleasure working with all of you over the past few years. I
will now be focusing on getting a job in the Boston area as part of my
career development goals. If anyone has any questions on all of this, feel
to e-mail me privately with any questions or concerns, as I will be happy to
respond at my earliest convenience.
Kevin Rutherford