Dear all, 

I would like to thank Mr. Nikolai for initiating this discussion and providing an opportunity to explain in detail how the scholarship system for affiliations and community delegates in the CEE region operates. It's important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution in this matter, and each year, we gain new insights from our previous experiences.

Every year, our aim is to foster inclusivity by inviting a diverse range of guests from all communities and affiliations across the CEE region. This conference serves as a unique platform for knowledge exchange, a testament to the collaborative efforts of the conference organizers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the CEE Hub. We deeply value the contributions of the previous conference organizers and extend our sincere gratitude to the WMF for their invaluable financial and knowledge support, which has been instrumental in ensuring that every voice is heard and every community is represented.

One of the challenges we face each year is balancing the number of affiliations from the region and the number of scholarships allocated to them. This task can be particularly challenging due to the fluid nature of affiliations, which often span regional and thematic boundaries. Additionally, establishing a clear connection between an affiliation and its region can pose difficulties. Adding to this issue is the fact that some countries have multiple affiliations. In countries such as Russia, there are many linguistic minorities and communities, and the country is federal, which makes it possible for communities within it to create different language-based, regional, and thematic affiliations. Considering that having representatives of many more affiliations from some countries as opposed to only one affiliation from others would create an imbalance in the overall representation of communities in the region at the conference, the organization committee had to introduce some restrictions in the provision of scholarship. Based on this fact, we had to introduce some restrictions in the provision of scholarships for representatives from large communities and countries since it's impossible to invite everyone who works in one language community or project, which may cause an imbalance in the overall representation of communities in the region at the conference.

For two years in a row, conference organizers have introduced standard criteria for awarding scholarships to affiliations and communities in the region for the conference. One of these criteria is the prioritization of language-based affiliations, where we provide two scholarships to all language affiliations. This is done to ensure that a particular large language community or country would not be in the majority, which would lead to inequality between communities, and we would lose the voice of small communities or affiliations. We value equality between communities and strive to ensure a fair and balanced representation at the conference. I also want to note that we have provided two scholarships for the Russian-speaking community and a total of 4 scholarships for Russia (where other languages-based affiliations are also represented), demonstrating our commitment to fairness and inclusivity. We want to assure you that the scholarship allocation process is transparent and fair, and every decision is made with the best interests of the CEE community in mind.

In the future, there should be a system for Russian-speaking affiliates in Russia that regulates who attends the CEE Meeting from the Russian language community in Russia. From the outside, it is difficult to determine these attendees, especially given the current situation in Russia, so ideally, the affiliates within Russia would come to an agreement, which could also be facilitated if required.

We also provide scholarships for invited guests. These are mainly those who sent submissions to the program and whose submissions were approved by the Program Committee. If individuals wish to participate in the conference and deliver a report to the audience, they still have a chance to receive a scholarship. The program committee and organizers of the Wikimedia CEE Meeting will deal with this issue.

I hope I have explained the current situation clearly and in detail. Please note that there is never a perfect solution, but we try to ensure that our solutions are acceptable and reasonable.

Best,

Mehman,

On behalf of the Org. Committee of the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2023 and 2024.