The initial message was a private message from Romaine (WMBE Board member) on his own initiative; not verified, nor approved by (the Board of) Wikimedia Belgium. Please read this reply carefully in order to try to bring more clarity.
I have immediately notified Romaine that he abused his function in the WMBE Board to communicate private matters on the general mailinglist.
Since Monday I am in private contact, both with T&S and the management of Wikimedia Nederland to follow-up this dispute. This caused delay in replying to this message. The Wikimedia Belgium Board will continue to evaluate the situation and take further measures.
Wikimedia Belgium wants to apologize for any moral damage that the initial message provoked.
What one member of the general assembly did propose is that an internal audit could be requested to investigate the general behavior, the working, the completeness of procedures, and the treatment of cases by the Trust and Safety (T&S), and the grants team.
Specifically, we have encountered as a chapter repeatedly during the last several years a lack of appeal, both in the T&S complaints handling, and in the grants team handling sAPG requests.
Specifically in the T&S handling procedures, the rights of the alleged offender are not sufficiently guaranteed. There is a possibility that rumors are invoking a punishment without careful verification of the facts, without the defendants being sanctioned in a neutral way, and without taking into account certain handicaps like hard-hearing, or autism.
That being said, please stop discussing this specific conflict publicly, because a lot of important details are missing, are single-sided interpretations, or even completely wrong.
-- Geert Van Pamel, chair of Wikimedia Belgium
Thank you for a sensible response.
Hopefully Wikimedia Belgium will be able later to publish some agreed recommendations or conclusions, both for how this case could have been handled more appropriately, and how the WMF procedures or policies should improve better to protect the interests of all those involved in allegations of harassment or similar at our events.
As for others making stereotypical statements about "victims" and "perpetrators", just shut up please. This was not a criminal case, the police were not called, and this is not about you and your need for virtue signalling. There are real people involved and the only thing on the table has been an allegation which should have been resolved at the time, not left with toxic fallout that appears to have now damaged the reputations of both parties, along with Wikimedia organizations.
Thanks, Fae
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org