Dear Wikimedia Community
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each of you for your tireless participation in the strategic planning process over the years. I also want to applaud the individuals who have dedicated nearly five years of their lives to serving our community, meticulously crafting a vision for a more inclusive, diverse, and collaboratively built movement.
During the recent Wikimedia Summit, I posed the question "What happens if ratification fails?" during my last panel. An uncomfortable silence filled the room. It seemed that this possibility had never been considered, at least not by the MCDC, as there was no apprehension that the collective will could falter.
I am not disappointed with the Wikimedia Foundation's BoT resolution; rather, I am concerned that the dedicated volunteers who spent countless hours debating, even traveling to far-off countries to meet in person, to craft a charter that establishes minimum standards, were essentially replaced by a decision to simply assume that "experiments" are the best approach for our community. This undermines the credibility of future processes for those of us who have been involved in the movement for a long time: it alienates those of us who have spent years talking, discussing, and advocating, using our free time to build the movement, instead of dedicating it to Wikimedia projects or our personal lives.
The Wikimedia Summit has been discontinued this year, leaving us without a dedicated space for affiliated groups to discuss the future of our movement. Wikimania, on the other hand, is not a suitable forum for community-wide discussions, as it primarily serves as a celebratory event. We are now devoid of space for such discussions, and I urge the Wikimedia Foundation to establish mechanisms for bringing communities together. It is not enough to claim to be a global movement if we are unable to unite in one place. Even the UN convenes annually, and we have lost this opportunity. Organizations like ours also require face-to-face interactions to address our concerns, challenges, and aspirations for the movement's future. I vividly recall being inspired by the CEE and the Romanian community's work in challenging circumstances at the last Wikimedia Summit, learning about the progress of colleagues in my region, and feeling saddened by the changes in far-off countries that jeopardize the movement's existence there. This is what we have lost, and we no longer have it, nor will we have this forum for discussion.
Therefore, I leave you with lingering questions arising from this process: Can we maintain trust when the WMF calls for another community consultation process?, How can we be certain that the measures being taken by the WMF are the right path to ensure that we can think beyond 2030? What observable criteria will be used to determine the success of the plan?
Many questions arise in my mind, but I do not expect answers. I am simply appealing to the fact that the community has invested nearly six years (not counting other parallel processes) in an effort that is now being reduced to the implementation of the Foundation's interpretation of the resulting documents.
These are my thoughts and ideas, and they do not represent any affiliated organization.
Thank you for your attention. I sincerely hope that the community will be actively involved in future strategy exercises, perhaps with the next generation of the movement already in place (there is still a long way to go until 2030).
Kindly
(PS: I used IA to translate the message: seems curious a diverse movement where your voice isn't heard if it isn't written in English)