Hi Everyone!

Thanks so much for your understanding and consideration regarding the holidays - it was very helpful of you to progress the conversation further (in Portuguese) and answer collectively some questions while we were away; thank you so much. 

I just caught up on all the emails using some Google Translate (and I caught Tom on Skype and asked a few clarifying questions, for those things I was not quite so sure about it:)) - I know my understanding of the discussion isn't perfect, so please keep the questions coming and please continue to help answer each other's questions wherever possible!

Thanks so much to Pietro's definitions of the different roles of the volunteers, chapters, and WMF (http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediabr-l/2011-November/008921.html). I think this is very helpful. One more definition I wanted to clarify: "OFFICE". When we say "office," we basically just mean a "legal entity" - not necessarily a physical location. We mean that there will be persons employed by WMF working directly in and from Brazil itself. The purpose, as noted, of having these employees in Brazil is to progress programatic work within Brazil at a faster and more in depth rate than a solely volunteer process might be at this point. This structure is not intended to be permanent: it is very possible that within a few years, there is not need for the "office" in Brazil, and the chapters/volunteers/whatever would be sufficient! 

To reiterate the reasons for having a presence in Brazil, the strategic planning process identified a few areas of the world which were in turning point for tremendous growth: which the Wikimedia Movement would be at a huge loss if it were not able to involve them. The idea is that as a Movement, it is in all our best interest to channel funds and attention to these specific areas for a few years to really encourage participation in our projects - whether raising awareness for readership or soliciting participation.    

I will pause here - are there questions on this? Should we move them to the br.wiki so they are recorded more publicly?

Moving forward, can we also start on the wiki the place for discussing some next steps with the entity? Some things that would be good to strategize together on:
Where is the best place to house these conversations? 

Thanks again for everyone's participation and interest. Though is it true what Rodrigo says about me using "palpiteiro" (my portuguese teacher taught me the phrase at the very beginning of class! he said it was important to understand about brazil:), I do appreciate the general openness and desire to make change and collaborate from you all. This is a much better situation to be in than one of complete disinterest and apathy. But of course we should all continue to remember what Tom reiterated - respect is very important on this list! If we want to truly be in a position to grow the WMBR community, it is critical we maintain supportive and open doors. I am not scared away (thanks for your concerns though!), but others very well might be...there have been very few voices heard even in this heated discussion: only 7 or 8 voices out of the thousands of editors within Brazil! It is an interesting point of reflection: why is this the case?

Hugs! :)
Jessie 


2011/11/26 Everton Zanella Alvarenga <everton137@gmail.com>
Hi, Jessie, Barry and all,

I've started a topic about this job position and this office in
Portuguese [1] to do not disturb you all while in vacation, as
suggested by Pietro. A lot of misunderstanding was solved and I
recommend Ale Abdo to read it. We do not want you all to stop the
process. We are all working together with the same goals and, as we
all agreed during all meeting, we want collaborate for the benefit of
everybody.

In my opinion, Névio has given an interesting suggestion to have this
officen as a center of volunteers support, so maybe we could discuss
that or other ideas. Since I've arrived late on the first day of the
last meeting in São Paulo (sorry, mea culpa!) and I couldn't
participate of the Sunday meeting, I've lost a lot of information
about the office, which was cleared on [1]. But I believe it is still
a good thing to discuss with the Brazilian community to make things as
better as it can be - like to have a strategical place in the city,
how it will be the space and so on.

Hugs,

Tom

Translation to Portuguese // Traduação para o português

Olá, Jessie, Barry e todos,

comecei um tópico sobre essa posição de emprego e este escritório em
português [1] para não incomodá-los enquanto de férias, como sugerido
pelo Pietro. Vários mal-entendidos foram resolvidos e eu recomendo o
Ale Abdo lê-lo. Não não queremos parar todos processo. Nos estamos
trabalhando juntos e temos os mesmos objetivos e, como todos
concordamos durantes todo estes encontros passados, queremos colaborar
para o benefício de todos.

Na minha opinião, o Névio deu uma sugestão interessante de ter esse
escritório como um centro de suporte a voluntários, então talvez nós
poderíamos discutir isso ou outras idéias. Como cheguei tarde no
primeiro dia do último encontro em São Paulo (desculpe,  mea culpa!) e
não pude participar do encontro de domingo, perdi muita informação
sobre o escritório, que foi clarificado para mim em [1]. Mas acredito
que ainda é algo bom discutir com a comunidade brasileira para fazer
as coisas tão bem quanto podem ser - como ter um local estratégico na
cidade, como será o espaço e assim por diante.

Abraços,

Tom

[1] Escritório da WMF e vaga de "diretor nacional" no Brasil

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/wikimediabr-l/xWLqWMyPAtA

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--
Jessie Wild
Global Development, Manager
Wikimedia Foundation