Dear Mehman (and Wikimedia folks in copy for transparency),I am contacting you as you are currently the highest responsible person (Vice-Chair) in the Affiliations Committee.As Manavpreet Kaur (current AffCom's Staff Liaison) is candidating for a Movement Charter Drafting Committee, and AffCom is for (at least) months showing issues about its work, which I consider that would be detrimental for the work of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee if they would be present there, and it is unclear what it Manavpreet's role in these AffCom's issues, I ask you to publicly respond to the questions below. (I have already asked Manavpreet to respond them but she have stated that she won't be able to respond them [1] [2])(I present the questions first and the context below, so it is easier for low-involved folks to get the core part)Questions:
- Do you personally consider the AffCom's happenings presented below to be in line with Wikimedia Foundation Guiding Principles (especially Transparency and Accountability)?
- If not, has Manavpreet done already something to rectify AffCom's activity to be in full alignment with them? What has Manavpreet done?
- If yes, please briefly clarify how (in your opinion) they are showing Transparency and Accountability.
- What is Manavpreet's role in the AffCom's happenings presented below? (have Manavpreet supported / encouraged / decided them? or have Manavpreet tried to prevent them / discourage them? or have Manavpreet just fully neutraly executed decisions that leaded to them? have Manavpreet presented objections that the decisions are against Wikimedia Foundation Guiding Principles or similar rules / recommendations / ...? or something else? please be concrete)
- As much of the presented cases show AffCom's issues about clear, proactive communication, do you consider Manavpreet to be capable enough to clearly, proactively, helpfully communicate in the high responsibility role of Movement Charter Drafting Committee member?
- If it is not Manavpreet who is the source of AffCom's communication issues, who is?
- Do you believe that Manavpreet will not "import" AffCom-like issues to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee? If yes, on what basis?
Context:I am in contact with Manavpreet mostly because of her role of Staff Liaison of Affiliations Committee (AffCom), which relates with my roles of (ex)Chair of some Wikimedia Affiliations. While AffCom have for years reputation of slowresponsedness, it was understanable because of its structure (which, in turn, is understanable because of its high responsibilities) and was rather only a little anoyance, not a big deal. But that have changed (for worse) at least several months ago and AffCom is still very reluctant to provide more information about it. Several specific cases for ilustration:
- AffCom put on hold the recognition of User Group Esperanto and Free Knowledge as a Thematic Organisation and informed the UG only reactively (after my question), after unreasonably long time (after the expected deadline for recognition) and provided false information as the reason; even after several messages AffCom haven't revealed the requested information about the pausing
- In February 2021, Meta admins deferred to AffCom the determination of some specific hard Requests for deletion with intention to implement AffCom's determination; despite Manavpreet (in her official WMF role) have considered it as a priority concern, Affcom have not provided its determination to Meta admins even after 7 months (as stated by 3 Meta admins - 2 of them confirming publicly: Xaosflux and Camouflaged Mirage (by their alternative account))
- AffCom was for several months totally unresponsive about proposed recommendations to make WUG Wikimedians of Slovakia to obey its User Group Agreement
- For quite long time AffCom have been requiring (that time not yet a WUG) Wikimedians of Slovakia (WUG WMSVK) to change its legal name to be recognized as a WM User Group, what blocked the recognition for more than year, but suddenly after the recognition , AffCom agreed to accept Wikimedians of Slovakia's prefered official name which was for long time totaly unaccepted by AffCom
- Allegedly AffCom informed representatives of WUG WMSVK that it was me who canceled the proposed mediation about WUG WMSVK's long-term bylaws violations (while it is false - I haven't cancelled it) and AffCom never ever confirmed to me whether it really provided this false information (to my best Knowledge it was AffCom (or maybe someone who ordered it to AffCom?) who canceled the mediation; but AffCom never clarified it to me even after my explicit requests)
- AffCom is for months in silence about various questions and proposals about WUG WMSVK for whom is AffCom fully responsible since December 2020
- As AffCom in December 2020 took full responsibility for WUG WMSVK, AffCom is fully reponsible for:
- WUG WMSVK falsely publicly presents the meeting on March 2019 as a valid Meeting of General Assembly despite it clearly violates WUG WMSVK's bylaw and several WUG WMSVK's board members have already stated it, also publicly
- It is still not clear whether WUG WMSVK's meeting in March 2021 was a valid Meeting of General Assembly, as evidence suggest it was not, despite AffCom being repeatedly warned in advance about this possibility
- WMF is publicly hosting documents produced by WUG WMSVK that contain false, defamatory information about myself (en, sk) despite Manavpreet assurance that WUG WMSVK will rectify them
- WUG WMSVK is no longer publicly presenting its Annual plans despite its tradition of presenting them publicly, and is not presenting publicly its Financial reports and Annual Budgets despite the tradition of publicly presenting such documents and having the capacity to create at least Annual budget since at least 2018. All of these 3 documents are required to be prepared every year by WMSVK's Board.
I understand that Manavpreet personally is not an AffCom and not a voting member. At the same time, I understand that Manavpreet is a paid staff member whose job is liaisoning for AffCom and is often in contact with at least some affiliations and proposed affiliations. So Manavpreet's responsibility to AffCom is still present, although I do not know what is its span.
Looking for your answers!KuboF Hromoslav (Michal Matúšov)