Dear Sudhanwa,
Thanks for the update. And best wishes to Bala in his new role.
A few requests and queries come to my mind:
Can we have regular IRC chats for members and community to engage with the chapter EC? It would be a great help for members and community to offer support as needed. This request has been made earlier as well. Could the chapter please publish project plans to the members and community. What are roles of individual EC members. Will they be sharing the initiatives they would be supporting? What help do they need? Are the SIGs leads continuing in their roles or are there changes? Are the plans for a WCI this year? How is the new staff member being leveraged? Are there specific initiatives they would be supporting besides regular operations?
You had mentioned that you would be looking for endorsement of the co-opted EC member in the next AGM. If I understand the bye-laws right, co-opting would be applicable only till the next AGM. During the next AGM all vacancies would need to be filled (which includes co-opted positions).
Thanks and regards Arun
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 11:06 PM, Sudhanwa Jogalekar sudhanwa.com@gmail.comwrote:
Dear Wikipedians,
The Wikimedia India Chapter was registered with the Karnataka Registrar of societies on 3 January 2011. We celebrate our second anniversary today :)
Initially, the Chapter Executive Committee consisted of seven founder members. Over time, six of these founder members departed from the board after each of them made significant and invaluable contributions. The Executive Committee now bids goodbye to the seventh founder member, Anirudh Singh Bhati. The Executive Committee expresses its deep gratitude towards Anirudh for his wonderful contributions that have helped build the chapter. He becomes the first person to complete an entire term on the Executive Committee of Wikimedia India. We wish him well in all his future ambitions and hope he remains connected to the movement in some form.
The Executive Committee has unanimously resolved to fill the vacancy created by Anirudh’s departure by co-opting Bala Jeyaraman. Bala is a distinguished Wikipedian who has been active on English and Tamil Wikipedia’s, being an administrator on the latter and was one of the organisers of the recently held Tamil Wiki Photo Contest. He will hold office until the next general body meeting which would need to approve his appointment.
Another important step being taken by the chapter is our first fundraising appeal, which will be announced shortly. A lot of people may ask why the chapter needs a fundraiser when it has access to WMF funding. The answer is, we are still ineligible for FDC (we hope to be eligible for the second round of funding in 2013) and would need to rely on grants, spending of which is restricted by the WMF. Since formation, the chapter has relied heavily on the Executive Committee to take on the burden of running the show. In an ideal world, the EC would like to take on the role of guiding the chapter rather than actually be responsible for operations after two years of incorporation, which should be best done by professionals rather than volunteers in their spare time.
The chapter has hired an employee (Sowmyan Trimurti, our Executive Manager) as well as plans to lease its own office premises in Bangalore. For this, we will soon be sharing a plan and will request the community for suggestions on the plan. We will also need the help of those volunteers who are in a position to support us. It could be a small individual donation or in the form of a corporate donation from an institution. A small token of support from you could go a long way in helping us achieving our goals of furthering the movement in India.
Apart from this, we encourage the community at large to engage with the chapter and request our support wherever necessary without hesitation for community activities. The chapter has been formed for the benefit of the community and we will always try our best to live up to the community’s expectations.
Warm regards, -Sudhanwa Jogalekar President, WMIN
!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! www.wikimedia.in
--