I want to also add, on my behalf, that none of this criticism is meant to be personal. The functionaries, Pranav and Pradeep have put in an enormous amount of hard work and dedication towards this process. I have been in touch with them on an almost daily basis for a month now and salute their effort.
Also, my questions about the PoCs is not applicable to all the teams, some of which have clear leaders and effective volunteer coordination, such as Finance, Scholarships, Programs, etc.
The teams on which I have sought to contribute, such as Speakers, Venue/Logistics, Parties/Fun are the ones where there is uneven participation and no clear leadership yet. The lack of clarity of who is in-charge of these key areas is not helped by this page:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2011/Community_and_Team
We need to know who the PoCs and their backups for each team are. We already have an idea who the non-active volunteers are.
Being open about all this is the only way to hold the teams and the functionaries accountable to each other, and to the community. All weekly calls should be announced and decisions reported on the mailing list, and not left to ad-hoc off-list emails, meetings and phone calls.
Best,
Shekhar
On 09/25/2011 01:53 PM, Shekhar Krishnan wrote:
Dear All:
Apologies for cross-post to Mumbai list, this is of special relevance to people in Mumbai.
It has been one week since the 13th Monthly Meetup in Mumbai. It's a good time to review the decisions taken last week, and how they have been followed up on the ground.
See my replies in-line below.
On 09/17/2011 11:13 PM, Pradeep Mohandas wrote:
The thirteenth meeting of Wikipedia Mumbai community was held at the Center for Education and Documentation, Colaba. The meeting was scheduled to be held between 4 pm and 6 pm but went on till 7 pm. We would like to thank the Center for Education and Documentation for providing the venue and being patient despite us crossing the time limit.
The meeting had two agenda items:
- Introductions
- Update on WikiConference India 2011
There were 15 people present at the meeting.
- After a round of introductions, Pranav presented an update on
WikiConference India 2011. 2. Prof. Nagarjuna proposed and offered the facilities of the hostel at the Homi Bhaba Center for Science Education (HBCSE) for a few Wikipedians. The conference working group has been requested to get back to him with number of people and has offered the place even a few days before the conference.
Nobody has followed up with Dr Nagarjuna at HBCSE on this to date. He made an offer of 20-30 rooms at a rate which is so nominal as to be nearly free accomodation.
- The discussion turned to the backing out of Pune from the
organisation of the conference. It was resolved by members in the Mumbai community to put out this statement: "We regret the withdrawal of Pune community from the organisation of the conference and sincerely hope that this will not affect their continuing participation in the conference itself."
With the resignation of Mandar Kulkarni, the crucial functionary office of Secretary remains vacant. We discussed elections or nominations for this role, but there has been no discussion since (at least on-list).
We all agreed that a new Secretary was needed, as the existing functionaries are overburdened and have been unable or unwilling to effectively delegate work to teams. Selecting and empowering PoCs was one step towards effective delegation of responsibilities.
- a. It was suggested to have weekly meetings of the Points of Contacts
of the various teams in the Working Group of the Conference along with the Functionaries. It was suggested that the meeting be held on a platform such as Jabber with Sabse Bolo conference as backup.
There was no follow-up on-list about who the official PoCs will be for each team, particularly those which have inconsistent or uneven membership such as Speakers, Venue/Logistics, Party/Fun, Volunteer Coordination.
A meeting was arranged off-list by the functionaries, who selected or designated PoCs without informing the list, or consulting or inviting other enthusiastic volunteers who attended the Monthly Meetup, either as official PoCs or "backups" (see below).
When one volunteer asked on what basis PoCs had been selected, it was blamed on decisions taken by functionaries who have since resigned.
- b. It was suggested that each team also have a back up Point of
Contact, in case the Point of Contact could not attend the meeting. Missing the meeting twice in a row would mean that the person would be out.
Several of the PoCs identified by the functionaries failed to suggest back up names. The functionaries apparently did not feel obliged to seek out others who have offered their help and advice across different teams.
- c. It has been suggested that the first Point of Contacts and
Functionaries meeting be held next Saturday at 5 pm subject to approval by the Points of Contact and their backups.
In no case were backups either selected by PoCs and functionaries, or were they informed about when the crucial weekly conference call would take place. It did not happen on Saturday at 5pm as discussed. It was decided by this ad-hoc group to hold it on Monday at 9pm. To date this has still not been communicated to the list.
- There was an open question left unanswered on the gender imbalance in
the Working Group.
It was discussed that the vacant post of Secretary could help rectify this imbalance.
- We wanted to increase the volunteer base in the working group and it
was felt that there should be recruitment of more Wikipedians and there should be increased publicity of the Conference in Mumbai and across India.
Nothing has been acted on in this regard. Nor was a suggestion made and decided by the two Functionaries in the weekly meetup held two weeks earlier acted on. This was to design a simple poster asking volunteers to join the mailing list and attend weekly/monthly meetups. These were to be given as PDFs for students teachers to print and post on their college notice-boards.
- There will be two WikiAcademies held in North and South Mumbai very
soon. The date for the first one will be October 1, 2011 at the Center for Education and Documentation, Colaba. Thatzit has offered its premises in Goregaon for the organisation of the second WikiAcademy. The date for this WikiAcademy is to be finalized.
It required me to remind and prod one of the functionaries to actually confirm the second WikiAcademy event. This was only made possible through the generous offer of a new volunteer who came to the Meetup and and said her office could sponsor a WikiAcademy in the suburbs for those who cannot come to town on 1 October.
This same volunteer, who offered to help canvas fellow Wikipedians who still aren't aware of the conference, wanted to be involved more broadly, offered to help with the Volunteer Coord team, and wanted to be on the PoC call, but was kept most in the dark about how to help out.
I fear this conference will be a nightmare with the existing top-heavy structure where most important decisions are all made centrally (and often privately and off-list). Without a structure for delegating duties or holding functionaries accountable, and strong PoCs and backups with enough volunteers on every team, things will go haywire.
Let me give one last example. On Friday the "venue and logistics team" was to visit Mumbai University, Maharashtra Chamber, and Radio Club to review infrastructural requirements, wireless networking of the entire campus and hackathon venues, crowd control and guidance, etc. This is a mammoth task which is impossible to undertake without a large team.
The PoC for venue and logistics did not come for this inspection visit. Instead myself and the functionaries, along with the PoC for scholarships went with one other volunteer. No report about our half-day visit was sent to the list, and today morning I received a personal email from the PoC for venue/logistics asking what happened.
I did not know whether to laugh or cry, because I do not know how this conference will take off if we don't have better teamwork, more openness, and a big drive for more volunteers, especially in Mumbai.
Best,
Shekhar