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/Wikimédia_France/Assemblée_générale/septemb…
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/Wikimédia_France/Assemblée_générale/septemb…
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/Wikimédia_France/
Assemblée_générale/septembre_2017/Points_à_ajouter_à_l'ordre_du_jour
2017-07-26 17:56 GMT+02:00 Yaroslav Blanter <ymbalt(a)gmail.com>om>:
> Yes, I figured this out, thanks. Now copyediting.
>
> Cheers
> Yaroslav
>
> On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 5:51 PM, Natacha Rault <n.rault(a)me.com> wrote:
>
>> probably me...
>>> Le 26 juil. 2017 à 17:49, Yaroslav Blanter <ymbalt(a)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(a)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