Hi Emeric,
I am very pleased that you take mental health seriously. I remember, not so
long ago, that your actions while you were in Wikimedia France had serious
impact on the mental health of at least two of your members.
In January, someone had a meltdown just in front of you. Could you remind
us what you did after that ?
In April, you learnt that your actions as a chair caused me a medical
leave. What can the Foundation and the movement as a whole learn about how
you dealt with the situation ?
Warmly,
Caroline
2017-10-12 12:39 GMT+02:00 Emeric Vallespi <emeric.vallespi(a)gmail.com>om>:
Dear Maria,
Dear all,
The Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees, the executive and the legal
management of the Wikimedia Foundation have been informed of Nathalie
Martin's complaint against her former employer now member of your board,
and then of the criminal complaint against this same person (facts from his
time in Wikimédia France and other from his time in your Board).
It would have been logical for a board of trustees member to gather her
testimony. No one has sought to make contact with her. Why?
At the very least, the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees could have
requested a copy of the complaint, as well as the various testimonies, so
that they could study them and make their opinion. We had no solicitation.
Why?
From what I see, the Wikimedia Foundation has done everything to stifle
the problem. Here is the only initiative WMF has taken: paid "independent
lawyers" (a concept unknown to me…) to "question Christophe". He
responded,
to the general surprise, that there was no problem.
Do you really feel that this is a serious investigation? Honestly?
Why did not these lawyers also hear Nathalie?
Why did these lawyers not ask questions to the Wikimédia France Board of
trustees members? Only with the testimony of the defendant himself, the
Wikimedia Foundation today states that there is no problem. ...
During the site visit, Nathalie proposed to the Wikimedia Foundation
representatives to organize a confrontation. Not only did she have a flat
denial, but, moreover, it was replied that it must not be addressed.
Why did the Wikimedia Foundation not accede to this request for
confrontation? Not to know the truth which can be too embarrassing to
assume?
We have a movement employee who brilliantly held management
responsibilities for 4 years (great longevity for an Executive Director…)
who asked for help. And what is the answer of the movement, of the
Wikimedia Foundation? Nothing. Nothing was undertaken to give her any kind
of listening or help.
Marie-Alice Mathis, who courageously expressed disapproval of the sexist
harassment of Nathalie, was also harassed by community members. Nathalie
and Marie-Alice suffered health damages and had medical leaves issued by
real general practitioners. The Wikimedia Foundation was informed and what
did you do? Nothing, or worst: two messages from your staff legitimizing
the harassment and one from a member of your board who publicly stated
against Wikimédia France without any prior contact with us.
What kind of help or support did you offer to Marie-Alice?
The outcome of the complaints is not even the issue at this stage and this
is not my point (I’m not a judge as you or other community member think
they are).
The real problem is that today a man in the movement, if he has power
position, can do absolutely everything he wants without any control. The
problem is, despite all the empty values you’re communicating on, you
legitimize whatever the community does. Because the community is the
measure of all things.
No objective process is foreseen to protect women (and more generally,
people) or at least to hear them.
Do you find this normal for a movement that advocates inclusiveness and
respect?
I’ve read an ardent defender of epicene style of writing who is accusing
of lying other women because of their private then public declarations.
Having no clue of what is in the procedure. Thank you for enlightening me
about true fight with feminism.
I’m glad that « We take all allegations of harassment seriously », but I
can not endorse this functioning which goes against legality and simply
against human values.
N.B: English is not my native language, may you be as tolerant of my
selected words or sentences construction as with harassing behavior. Thanks
for your understanding.
Regards,
--
Emeric Vallespi
On 11 Oct 2017, at 19:54, María Sefidari
<kewlshrink(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,
We would like to specifically address the allegations related to
harassment
in this thread’s original email. We take all
allegations of harassment
seriously. Earlier this year, the Board of Trustees was informed that
allegations of harassment had been made against the Wikimedia Foundation
Board Chair dating back to his time as chair of Wikimédia France. We
immediately directed the Foundation to investigate. The Foundation
employed
independent, external experts and conducted an
investigation. Based on
the
information presented, the investigation found no
support for the
allegations. That conclusion was conveyed to the Wikimedia Foundation
Board
as well as the chair of Wikimédia France.
The Wikimedia Foundation remains committed to independent investigation
if
presented with new information. Absent such
information, we consider the
allegations to be without merit.
On behalf of the Board,
María Sefidari
El 8 oct. 2017 5:20, "John Erling Blad" <jeblad(a)gmail.com> escribió:
When I first saw the posts I thought it would probably be more opinions
to
them than the very clear blame-game that were
going on. Having a partly
anonymous community and a chapter that only represents some of the users
are an invitation to fierce battles.
Whatever going on at WMFR, I believe it is time for reevaluating the role
of WMF in this. I'm wondering if there should be a new board for WMF,
unless they get a new chair themselves asap. Reorganize, solve the
problems, and move on.
No, I do not know any of the people involved.
John Erling Blad
/jeblad
On Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 3:11 PM, Marie-Alice Mathis <
mariealice.gariel(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I haven’t had a real opportunity to introduce myself: I am Marie-Alice
> Mathis, 32, a now ex-member of the Board of Wikimédia France.
>
> The transition with the newly elected members of the Board is now
complete
> and I gladly step down to get away from the
violence, exhaustion and
> frustration of these past few months.
>
> I was a Board candidate because after completing my PhD I finally had
more
time to
contribute to the projects and serve the community through the
French chapter: after watching my husband Rémi Mathis do it for years I
had
> a pretty good idea of what it meant. I did not know our ED Nathalie
Martin
> or our chair Émeric Vallespi before working
with them, and now that I
have
> I can vouch for their hard work and
attachment to the movement’s values.
>
> Today, I have lost friends or people I thought were friends because I
> defended Nathalie and Émeric in good faith during the smear campaign
based
on the
community’s assumption that they were the source and cause of all
the chapter’s problems, real or perceived. Although I have worked with
them
closely for a year, I have been repeatedly
informed that I’ve been
manipulated by Nathalie from the start and should not have blindly
believed
> everything Émeric was saying. I’ve been personally attacked on WMF
sites,
> email lists, and social media for weeks, my
every word scrutinised,
> questioned and mocked assuming I was either ignorant or lying. I’ve been
> told by so-called feminists who were endorsing a particularly sexist
rant
> against me to “stop making inflammatory
comments”. I’ve been called a
> conspiracy theorist because I questioned the role of our former chair
> Christophe Henner, now chair of the Board at the WMF, in the threats to
> withdraw our chapter agreement and the cutting of half our FDC funding.
> People close to Christophe who have resigned from the WMFR Board early
in
> the crisis rather than take responsibility
for their mistakes now call
> themselves victims and whistleblowers. The WMF, who is perfectly aware
of
> the charges of sexual harassment filed by
Nathalie against Christophe
for
> facts dating back to when he was her boss at
Wikimédia France, is
> pretending WMFR leadership has used the threat of legal action to
> intimidate chapter members and silence opposition.
>
> Some unfounded allegations have been made on this very list by prominent
> members of the community (and what is a newbie’s word worth in that
case,
> right?): from extremely serious accusations
of misuse of chapter funds
for
> personal gain (that strangely enough never
made it to the French justice
> system despite a so-called “rather convincing rationale”), to gratuitous
> ones that Nathalie was making the Board’s decisions for us and dictating
> our communication (I am old enough to write my own emails, thank you
very
> much), to ever vague ones of “quite generous
expenses reimbursement“.
None
> of this has been supported by proof or
tangible facts, but the goal of
> spreading distrust and dissent in the chapter and the wider community
has
> clearly been reached. Even now that Nathalie
has left her position and
the
> Board has resigned, some are still defaming
her in the French media in
the
> hopes of winning the stupid argument of who
were the bad guys in the
> crisis.
>
> I am also extremely disappointed that no one from this list asked us
(the
> Board) what was happening when these
allegations were made, with only a
> handful of people suggesting to wait before all the facts were known.
> Instead, you took for granted the very short and extremely biased
English
summaries
of the Board’s communications (which were instantly circulated
on
> this list without our consent and in violation of our chapter’s bylaws),
> and joined in the chorus of outrage, condemnation and verbal abuse.
>
> But worse to me than all this, I am actually terrified at how easily the
> Wikimedia community can turn on a person, with no regard whatsoever for
> decency or legality, when it has made up its mind about who has no place
> there. I have personally experienced what it means to disagree with this
> angry mob: questioning the dominant opinion or calling out individuals’
> toxic behaviour makes you in turn acceptable collateral damage and a
“fair
> game” target for harassment.
>
> Speaking of this, the movement as a whole needs to address the issue of
> staff-volunteers relations exemplified by the rapid turnover of
executive
> staff across chapters. Nathalie stayed at
WMFR an almost record
breaking 4
> years, but at what cost? I’m being extremely
serious in adding that this
> conversation needs to take place before something irreversible happens
as
a
result of harmful group behaviour within the
community.
Sincerely,
Marie-Alice Mathis // AlienSpoon
PS: for your information about my position regarding the WMF’s role in
this
> crisis and their recent unilaterally added conditions [
>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grant_expectations_for_
> Wikimedia_France_-_2017-2018]
> for payment of our FDC-attributed grant, I attach my email to Katy Love
> from Sept 20.
>
> Katy, (Cc WMFr Board and Rémi)
>
> In the WMF "Grant expectations" document sent to the Board of WMFr, you
> mention as a condition for APG funds payment that I do not resign from
my
position
on the Board until the governance review is complete, and that
any
> Board member planning to resign must report and justify it to WMF.
>
> You also mention that you retain the right to cease funding WMFr if you
> consider that legal threats are being used inappropriately to stifle
civil
and
appropriate participation in the chapter. Moreover, you condition
payment to being informed if the chapter leadership feels that legal
action
> is appropriate to take against current or former board members or staff.
>
> Let me be clear: these conditions are outrageous and unacceptable.
>
> First of all, my legitimacy as a Board member of WMFr does not come from
> any commitment to WMF but from being democratically elected by French
> chapter members. WMF has no say in who stays or not on the Board, and
> trying to intervene on such governance issues is, again, putting both
> organisations at risk of being legally recognised as co-employers.
>
> Second, as a (volunteer) Board member I have been subjected to
harassment,
> sexist abuse, and unjustified allegations of
misconduct by community
> members, that have impacted my health and mental well being to the point
> where I was no longer able to do my (paid) job in cancer patient care
and
> my GP put me on medical leave. A large volume
of this abuse took place
on
<http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Le_Bistro>
<http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Le_Bistro>
> <http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Le_Bistro>
> <http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Le_Bistro> and the
> WMF-hosted,
> publicly archived mailing lists wikimedia-l and wikimediafr).
> You personally and on behalf of WMF encouraged French community members
to
> challenge chapter leadership citing
governance issues, without a word
> mentioning the violence suffered by the Board and executive staff at the
> hands of some French members during this crisis. Worse, you presented
the
> Board's email condemning the harassment
as inaccurate and problematic,
> which made the community feel all the more legitimate in their harmful
> attacks.
> When I reported the abuse in person to WMF employees during the site
visit
> you personally empathised with my distress at
the time, and thanked me
for
> being honest about how your email to the
wikimediafr list had made our
> already precarious situation untenable. And then you did nothing.
> My husband Rémi, who witnessed first hand the effects of the harassment
on
my
health, called on you to release the site visit report so the
misconduct
> allegations would stop. You didn't, until 3 days before our General
> Assembly (where the allegations were repeated), on the same day you
asked
> that I stay on as a Board member. Even your
choice of words in the
"Grant
expectations" document is telling: "egregious incivility" is not what we
are talking about here. We are talking about unacceptable and illegal
defamation and harassment with serious real life consequences.
Rémi also called on the wikimedia-l list to stop the unfounded
allegations,
> and was attacked in turn because of "his conflict of interest as the
> husband of a Board member". He also reported the abuse to the WMF
> governance committee, to the Suport and Safety team and mentioned it to
> Christophe Henner and Katherine Maher on Twitter, to no avail. To this
day
> we haven't received any support or
acknowledgement whatsoever. All the
> while the sexist abuse continues, and French editor MrButler was
moderated
> on the wikimediafr maling list for his
continued personal attacks
against
> me. This is exactly the kind of behaviour the
Board's email to the
members
> was calling out, yet you continue to
deliberately ignore it and refuse
to
do
anything about it.
Finally, your asking to be informed of any legal action against chapter
members or staff is yet another example of the WMF taking sides while
posing as a neutral arbitrator. Calling someone out on their toxic
behaviour or actually filing a complaint are no legal threats or
intimidation, but by claiming they are you are trying to silence victims
by
> denying them their basic rights to legal protection. At least two
> complaints have been filed against community members and more may be
> coming, including on my behalf. You will not be informed because it is
not
for WMF
to decide whether they are justified or frivolous.
For all these reasons I am deeply shocked and hurt by your payment
conditions and will not abide by the terms of your grant expectations.
With
> most of WMFr funding hanging in the balance your unilaterally revised
> conditions amount to blackmail but I will not stay in harm's way at the
> request of the organisation who has failed me in every aspect when I
came
> in good faith to work for the community. I
will resign when I see fit to
> protect my health, and continue to speak honestly and publicly about
your
actions
and empty words of safety and inclusivity.
Sincerely,
Marie-Alice Mathis, vice chair of WMFr
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