Anasuya, I will miss you. You did fabulous work
for WMF and I hope that we
will continue to have the benefit of your wisdom.
Siko, I knew that you'd get promoted someday (: Question: who will directly
run IEG? They will have big shoes to fill.
Thanks for your support, Pine. I'll sorely miss Anasuya as well, but look
forward to working with Luis and all of you in this expanded capacity. As
for a program officer for IEG, that "who" is not yet settled, though we're
aiming to backfill quickly. For the next few weeks, I'll still be holding
down the IEG fort with support from the Community Resources team, as we
work towards a longer-term replacement. More about that soon!
Siko
Luis, congrats on the new role.
Pine
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 2:50 PM, Delphine Ménard <notafishz(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Anasuya, I'm whistling to a new tune already,
get ready to dance. We'll
just change dance floors.
Thank you for it all and many many *hugs*
Luis, Siko, can't wait to work with you more, congrats on the new
responsibilities.
Asaf, 'bout time you stop killing kittens every time you introduce
yourself. And congrats for the step!
All the best,
Delphine
On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 11:20 PM, Anasuya Sengupta <
asengupta(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> Dear friends and colleagues, fellow adventurers on the Wikimedia
journey
-
Goodbyes are overrated.[1] But since I’m sure
this will be au revoir,
I’ll
> continue: I am leaving the Foundation as head of the Grantmaking
> department, at the end of March. This was not an easy decision to make;
> this is not an easy email to write.
>
> As some of you know, I have been battling health issues over the past
few
> months. I’ve learnt sharp and intimate truths
about myself as I’ve
worked
> to get better, and what I’ve kept coming back
to is the compassionate
but
fierce
feminist slogan around self-care and sustainability: ‘what’s the
point of the revolution if we can’t dance?’[2] To reassure you all, I
will
> be well,[3] but I need a little time and space to focus on getting my
> dancing legs strong again.
>
> That said, I am pleased that we have a really solid plan in place as I
> leave. As Lila’s email announced, Luis Villa (our current Deputy
General
> Counsel) will be taking over the team
effective immediately, and
leading
the
organisation further in our support of Wikimedia communities
worldwide.
Luis brings with him a range of skills and
qualities that I know will
stand
> him, the team, and the movement in wonderful stead through it all. As a
> friend and colleague, I am so delighted to be supporting Luis through
the
> next few weeks of transition.
>
> I joined the Foundation in July 2012 to oversee and implement the FDC
> process. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of creating and leading a
> department of more than twenty remarkable and passionate people who
care
> about our mission, our communities, and the
resources needed to match
the
two.
We went from Asaf managing a small grants portfolio on his own, ably
supported on occasion by Winifred, to a fully fledged grantmaking
department with a spectrum of monetary and non-monetary resources. We
have
been able to offer these in different ways to
different parts of our
movement: to individual volunteers with great ideas in need of project
management, to small groups experimenting with new initiatives, and to
established organisations who form critical content and policy
partnerships
> in their local contexts. We built an infrastructure for understanding
our
collective impact. We learned together about what our different
communities
> are doing globally, about the successes and challenges we have, and
above
all:
about how we can, together, create a more powerful set of outcomes
for
> free knowledge.
>
> In doing so, I’ve had the joy of discovery,[4] of learning from and
with
> some of the most dedicated volunteers in the
world, who believe that
> knowledge matters. Most importantly, that it’s not only free knowledge
> _for_ all that we seek, but even more critically, that we believe in
> knowledge _from_ and _with_ all.
>
> And I’ve discovered that the nerdy, geeky, obsessed-with-data part of
me
> found a home in this extraordinary universe,
where everybody’s
> “unimaginable,
> magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds” can find
expression.[5] I
> look forward to the day when my worlds find
more space on Wikipedia,
when
80% of
the globe is represented by far more than 20% of the edits, when
much more than 15% of our contributors can self-identify as women. Till
then, I’ll keep fighting notability one article at a time...[6]
So thank you for sharing your worlds with me, and no thanks for turning
me
into an obsessive Wikimedian. :-) As I have
learnt with you, I know I
have
> done so with trust, and as I have challenged you, I hope I have done so
> with respect. I look forward to continuing our friendships and
obsessions
on a wiki
near you.
With appreciation and gratitude,
Anasuya
p.s. You can find me in the future at my enWP user page (User:Anasuyas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anasuyas) or (dare I say it) on
Facebook. Longer diatribes on liff, the universe and everything can be
sent
> to
anasuyaATsanmathi.org
>
> [1] Neil Gaiman, American Gods (Chapter 8)
>
> [2] Urgent Action Fund, a funder of women’s human rights defenders, has
> this book on sustainability:
>
>
http://urgentactionfund.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/06/WTPR-Final…
> [3] And look forward to dancing together on
the beaches of a future
> Wikimania…
>
> [4] Sometimes frustrating, sometimes unbelievable, sometimes somewhat
> insane; but yes mostly, generous beyond belief, and always, joyous. :-)
>
> [5] More Neil Gaiman, from The Sandman:
>
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Sandman#A_Game_of_You
>
> [6]
>
>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Key_theme_-_Global_South,…
Ask
Florence (User:Anthere) for _that_ story!
On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 2:15 PM, Lila Tretikov <lila(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
>> Dear Wikimedians,
>>
>> Among the WMF’s top priorities for 2015 is strengthening our
engagement
> with
Wikimedia editors and volunteers. Today we are taking the first
step
> by bringing together the people who know our
communities best and
asking
>> them to break barriers and improve engagement. Everyone at the WMF
who
>> carries responsibilities directly related
to the communities will
join
a
> new Community Engagement department.
>
> I have asked Luis Villa to lead the Community Engagement organization
as
>> the Senior Director of Community Engagement, reporting to me.
Promoting
> from
within the WMF for this critical role will allow us to leverage
the
> knowledge and experience with our communities
and reinforce the
strengths
>> of our people.
>>
>> Luis’s experience with communities is lengthy and deep. He has been
>> involved in open communities since the late 1990s, from communities
as
>> small as the Lego Mindstorms hackers to
those as large as Mozilla. He
>> worked in open communities as a lawyer, a programmer, a bugmaster, an
>> engineering lead, a community leader, and a board member. Luis has
>> performed exceptionally within the Foundation and supported some of
our
>> most fruitful community engagements. The
Grantmaking, L&E, Education,
>> Community Advocacy and Community Liaisons teams will join the new
> Community
>> Engagement department [2] under his leadership.
>>
>> Unfortunately, Anasuya Sengupta -- our beloved leader of grantmaking
--
>> will be leaving us due to personal health
concerns at the end of
March.
> We
>> will invite you soon to celebrate her time with us, her work at the
WMF
> and
>> the deep insight she brought to the Foundation. We are saddened to
see
> her
>> go. The team she has nurtured will provide an important foundation
for
our
> upcoming work.
>
> Siko Bouterse will move up to lead the day-to-day work of the
Grantmaking
> team as Director of Community Resources, supervising all department
Grant
>> programs and the Global South strategy. Siko has been instrumental in
>> innovating programs at the WMF, including initiatives like the
> Teahouse[1]
>> and the IdeaLab[2] combining vision with strong support for volunteer
>> community, tough decision making, and great project management
skills.
> These
changes are an opportunity to improve the coordination of our
work
> supporting the communities. To accelerate
this, I have asked Luis to
lead
>> an internal “tiger” team to better understand the needs, concerns and
>> priorities of our volunteers, and to develop recommendations for
future
>> programs. This work will be shared with
all of you as it becomes
> available.
>> Please join me in congratulating Luis and Siko and in supporting our
>> teams. The Wikimedia communities are what makes the projects strong,
>> unique, and irreplaceable. This is the next step forward in our
support
> to
>> them, and in service of our mission.
>>
>>
>> ~~~~Lila
>>
>>
>>
>> [1] As Director of Community Resources, Siko will oversee the
IdeaLab,
>> Annual Plan Grants, Project and Event
Grants, and Travel and
> Participation
>> Support. Her team will include Katy Love, Winifred Olliff, Alex Wang,
>> Janice Tud, Jonathan Morgan, and Asaf Bartov. Asaf will also take on
a
new
> title as Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities.
>
> [2] Rachel DiCerbo, Philippe Beaudette, Siko, and Anasuya’s other
direct
>> reports, and their respective teams (CL, CA, and Grantmaking/GLEE)
will
>
report to Luis. The Engineering Community team will be part of the
tiger
>> team but will continue to report to Engineering.
>>
>> [3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse
>>
>> [4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be
immediately
>
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--
*Anasuya SenguptaSenior Director of GrantmakingWikimedia Foundation*
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
Support Wikimedia <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>
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