The current situation at Wikimedia France is ABSOLUTE NON SENSE
After MONTHS spent trying to figure out what was going on, collecting data, finding witnesses, fighting fears of being sued... we succeeded to mobilize 25% of Wikimedia France members to vote to request a General Assembly. That was a challenge. It took us several weeks to achieve that.
Now... the General Assembly is scheduled 9th of September. But per bylawys, the current board decides of the agenda of the meeting. Topics not on the agenda can not lead to any votes... Being generous (sarcasm on), the current board will open the floor for discussion AFTER the General Assembly. Which somehow defeats the whole process as the discussion should occur BEFORE the vote. Also, some of us would like some resolutions to be voted upon, such as request of a financial audit...
According to our bylaws, discussion points and decisions propositions may be made by the members and will be added to the agenda IF at least 25% of the membership ask for them. And this should be approved one month before the actual assembly. Which is just in a few days...
But to make things easier for us... * some members memberships requests and renewals were rejected, thus decreasing the number of potential voters. Of course, the memberships rejected were from opponents to the current board... who would have voted for the new agenda... * in the same time (2 weeks...), the membership increased from 275 to 300 members. No idea who those 25 new members are. But increased number of members is making it even tougher to reach the 75 votes to request additions to the agenda. * the main mailing list of the association is still closed... which means we can NOT reach out to ALL members. We have no means to contact them. I managed to get a public list opened just a few days before the closure of the internal mailing list and to send a call for registration. So the most active members actually joined that public list and are within reach. But all the other members... the ones who did not reach to that new public list... we have NO MEANS to contact them. How are we supposed to get members to be given the chance to vote on an agenda when they do not KNOW about this agenda ? We can't tell them about it.
How serious and honest from our current board is that ? This is beyond shameful behavior.
So, friends, I would like to ask you help.
If by any chance, you joined the association in the past 2 weeks... please vote. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/Assembl%C3%A9e_g%C3%A9...
Please, do realy our call in your network.
If you know anyone who might by chance be a member of Wikimedia France, please tell them about the vote. It is here : https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/Assembl%C3%A9e_g%C3%A9...
Or RELAY in social networks. For example that tweet https://twitter.com/photos_floues/status/892731233784008704
Or DROP A WORD to current board members and tell them about how wrong they behave by not giving a chance to democracy Something like "please inform all Wikimedia France members about the vote opened for the new agenda : "
The current board members * Secretary : https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:EdouardHue * the President : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Authueil * the vice President : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisatrice:AlienSpoon * The treasurer : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Floflo * and the former president who is now regular member: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:ShreCk
Thanks
Florence
Le 02/08/2017 à 20:09, Pierre-Selim a écrit :
The passing of Louise is really sad :(
On the other fronts, Edouard it feels like you're not telling things the way they really are.
"The board acknowledge..." means the board has been forced to a new AGM by 25% of the member. Our bylaws dictate that.
The board has published a shameful "Right of reply" [1], full of inexact/false statements that are on the same line than the email sent by the board on July 11th (and shared here by Chris [2]). This Right of reply even "use" Louise passing ... For shame!
In an uncollaborative way, the board has not listen to the community/member for the agenda which forces the members to a new vote [3] to add items to the agenda ... during the summer ... and Wikimania.
I hope the board will have again to "Acknowlege" the voice of the community, but I wish we did not had to go this way.
I am truly ashamed of this board,
[1] https://www.mathisbenguigui.eu/wikimedia-timeline/droitdereponse.html [2] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2017-July/088008.html [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/ Assemblée_générale/septembre_2017/Points_à_ajouter_à_l'ordre_du_jour
2017-07-26 17:56 GMT+02:00 Yaroslav Blanter ymbalt@gmail.com:
Yes, I figured this out, thanks. Now copyediting.
Cheers Yaroslav
On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 5:51 PM, Natacha Rault n.rault@me.com wrote:
probably me...
Le 26 juil. 2017 à 17:49, Yaroslav Blanter ymbalt@gmail.com a écrit
:
Actually, after Catherine's mail, an English article was started by
someone
I can not recognize from the username.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Merzeau
Cheers Yaroslav
On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 2:38 PM, Katherine Maher <kmaher@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Dear Édouard and our other colleagues at Wikimédia France,
We are sorry to hear about the passing of Mrs. Louise Merzeau. While I
did
not have a chance to meet her, I understand she was an advocate for
the
Commons movement and a leading academic on digital identities and the relationship between technology and culture. I suspect we would have
gotten
along well.
Although she did not get to share her knowledge longer, we are
grateful
for
the contributions she made. I have no doubt Wikimedia would have
benefited
greatly from her continued advocacy.
I recognize with everything that is going on, an event like this can quickly pass by without enough notice and tribute from all of us.
However,
I hope we can pause to recognize that, above all, we are people who
have
come together under a shared vision for a better future. The passion
and
bond that unites us are much stronger than any disagreements or
challenges.
Louise was a part of that vision, and we owe it to her to recognize
her
passing.
On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, please know that she is in our thoughts and that the community has our condolences.
Katherine
PS. I encourage you to learn more about Mrs. Merzeau and her life from
her
article on French Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Louise_Merzeau