Hello Kirill,
On the message the AffCom has sent on 20 May, addressed to the chair of the WMPT board, answering to a request for clarification, you stated: "*we would like you not to introduce themselves as WMPT board members, but as members of WMPT*".
It seems quite obvious to me that, had the board headed the AffCom request, and not introduced themselves as such, the obligations of the association towards the Portuguese state could not have been fulfilled. Therefore I believe it is fair to say you were indeed requesting us to do something out of the law.
You also failed to address the second point, about the AffCom requesting that a new General Assembly should be conveyed by some party of your choice, something which is clearly against this country law, as mentioned.
As for the validity of the General Assembly you were contesting, it suffices to say it was and is recognized as perfectly valid by the Portuguese state - the tax authority, namely - and by the biggest bank of the country, Caixa Geral de Depósitos. Only the rogue guy that had been reported to you for severe harassment and for sending very serious legal and personal threats to a number of WMPT members, and the AFfCom itself, saw it as problematic.
I would also like to ask you to not make unfounded and unfair accusations against me, nor indulge in personal attacks, as you have done ("*a remarkable and brazen display of bad faith*"). It is not my responsibility to lecture and educate the AffCom on what they should do ("*an interpretation that you somehow neglected to mention to anyone at the time*"). As far as I know, it is the AffCom duty and responsibility to know the affiliate country law, at least to the degree of not commanding the affiliate do an illegal action, as you have done. It was my responsibility, as a member of WMPT, to denounce your requests as illegal, and I've done exactly that at the time. That's why your request for conveying a General Assembly through a "neutral party" was never headed.
Paulo
Kirill Lokshin kirill.lokshin@gmail.com escreveu no dia quarta, 26/09/2018 à(s) 00:51:
Paulo,
The email that the Affiliations Committee sent to you -- among various others -- on May 18 read as follows:
Dear members of Wikimedia Portugal,
The recent developments in your chapter have been brought to our attention by a number of members of the chapter, as well as members of the community. We are monitoring the situation and in the meantime, would like to request all members of the chapter to cease from taking part in this conflict and to work to resolve differences. You may also officially request a conversation with this committee to discuss a potential mediation plan, which we are more than happy to help with. In the case of no interest in resolving your differences and moving forward, this committee may consider the de-recognition of WMPT, having taken into account also the low activity of the group, based on the the reports submitted.
In addition to this, we request that all communications regarding he present situation be routed directly to the AffCom discussion list ( affcom@lists.wikimedia.org) rather than various personal communications channels. Please also, refrain from presenting oneself as representative of Wikimedia Portugal until this situation is resolved.
Do not hesitate contacting this committee if you have further questions.
The request concerning "presenting oneself as representative of Wikimedia Portugal" was in reference to people stating that they were the official representatives of the chapter in meetings -- a fact of which you were doubtless well aware, seeing as it was your own complaint on the subject which prompted the committee's request in the first place.
At no time did you -- or any of your colleagues -- indicate that you were interpreting the request as having anything to do with the execution of the legal functions of the board, the filing of financial statements with tax authorities, or anything of the sort. Rather, you had responded with questions as to how you might present yourselves to your current and potential partners.
For you to now insist that the committee's request was a demand that you violate Portuguese law -- an interpretation that you somehow neglected to mention to anyone at the time -- is a remarkable and brazen display of bad faith.
Regards, Kirill
On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 6:42 PM Paulo Santos Perneta < paulosperneta@gmail.com> wrote:
Two illegal requests, to be more precise.
Last 18 May, the AffCom demanded (by mail) that the recently elected (15 April) WMPT board stopped acting as such. However, under the Portuguese law, that board, which had been elected in a validated General Assembly, was the only valid board of the association, and the one responsible to fulfill the Association obligations with the Portuguese state. If they doubted that, they should have requested legal advice, instead of taking decisions over a subject they clearly did not understood.
Last 11 June, the AffCom demanded (by hangout meeting) that a new General Assembly must be conveyed by what they called "a neutral party", namely the former head of the table of the General Assembly elected in 2015. That too is against the law. Under the Portuguese law, when there is a legally elected board in functions, as was the case, it's the board (or the head of the table of the General Assembly, in the name of the board) that conveys a General Assembly (Article 173º of the Portuguese Civil Code). A General Assembly cannot be called by some random person designed at will by some external body. If the WMPT had headed the AffCom demands, the recent General Assembly of 1 September (realized by AffCom imposition) would have been illegal under the country law, being conveyed by a party that had not any right to do that.
Concerning the alleged (by the AffCom) lack of validity of the 15 April General Assembly, it was completely unfounded, as any lawyer knowledgeable of the Portuguese law could explain to them. It was with that General Assembly (and not with the one of 1 September, which was a mere imposition of the AffCom, with almost no practical value) that WMPT submitted its tax form (Modelo 22) for the 2017 fiscal year, updated the names of the legal representatives of Wikimedia Portugal in the Revenue Services (Autoridade Tributária - Tax Authority), as well as regularized the access to the association bank account.
Paulo
Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com escreveu no dia terça, 25/09/2018 à(s) 22:01:
I don't want affiliates to get a free pass to create problems or
neglect
their responsibilities such as by failing to produce reports, misusing trademarks, misappropriating funds, etc., and I am glad to see that
AffCom
is taking action when it thinks that there are problems. However, I am concerned that AffCom may currently have some internal issues that
should
be addressed.
As far as I know, AffCom hasn't shared its explanations for some of
these
actions in public, which places limits on the public's ability to
evaluate
AffCom's choices, but the actions being described in this thread give me cause for concern. Included in those concerns is the claim that AffCom
made
an illegal request of an affiliate. I would expect AffCom to do legal research (probably done by WMF Legal on Affcom's behalf) before making requests. I would also expect that the WMF Board would ensure that
AffCom
has access to any support that it needs, such as staff time from WMF
Legal.
Regarding whether a public warning letter from Affcom could lead to the
end
of an affiliate, I can understand how a warning letter could concern potential partner organizations, but given our choice of problems I
think
that this is the lesser problem. I think that Affcom's actions, good and bad, should be public in almost every case. If AffCom makes an error in sending a warning letter, then hopefully the affiliate can explain the situation to the partner organization. If a partner decides to
discontinue
a relationship, that may be regrettable (especially if the warning
letter
was erroneous) but hopefully the loss of a partnership would be a
temporary
setback from which the affiliate can recover.
I think that expecting perfection from anyone, whether AffCom or an affiliate, would be expecting too much. Hopefully organizations and
people
can be "net positives" and can be engaged in continuous learning and continuous self-improvement.
One theme that is common to AffCom and affiliate boards is that they are primarily composed of people who are volunteering their time. My
impression
is that this often correlates with a mixed level of quality and
dedication
from the participants. Improving the quality of governance in general
is an
interest of mine, and I would be interested to hear others' thoughts
about
how to do that, keeping in mind that many of these people are generously volunteering their limited time.
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