Report of the Board Camp conducted at Bangalore on 20, 21 & 22 September
2014
Dear members and other concerned friends,
A Board Camp (a face to face meeting of the members of the Executive
Committee along with several formal and informal meetings with other
stakeholders of WMIN) was conducted at the office of CIS, Indira Nagar,
Bangalore on 20th, 21st and 22nd of September.
A brief description of the schedule of the camp is given below:
20/09/2014 9:00 15:30 Deliberations and discussions on WMIN’s
state of affairs, immediate and midterm future plans and appointment of a
new Program Director (PD).
20/09/2014 15:30 17:00 Consultation with Mr. MN Rao, the Legal and
financial expert consultant, on various aspects such as rules and
regulations on the membership eligibility, compliance on AGM scheduling and
election rules as per the Government law and the Chapter’s Memorandum of
Association, validation of the legal compliance of all actions performed
by the EC during the previous several weeks etc.
20/09/2014 17:00 19:00 Meeting with the Election Committee. The EC
and Election Committee deliberated and exchanged views on the election
procedure and decided on a tentative schedule for the Election / AGM date.
20/09/2014 19:30 21:00 Informal dinner meetup and discussions with
former WMIN EC members, Executive Manager Sowmyan Tirumurthy and the new
Program Director Designate (Ravishankar Ayyakannu) on the formation of an
Advisory Committee to the board. From among the former EC members, Arjuna
Rao Chavala and Naveen Francis participated in this meet.
21/09/2014 10:00 13:30 Board meeting, passing resolutions on
various chapter affairs and determining AGM date.
21/09/2014 13:30 16:00 Community Meet-up. The EC and the new PD
met some of the community members from Bangalore.
21/09/2014 16:00 21:00 Discussions on Budgets, FDC and other
financial affairs, program planning
22/09/2014 09:30 13:00 Bank documentations and visit to the branch
for transfer of authority signatures.
Major decisions taken and policy stands evolved during the Board Camp:
1.
To the extent and degrees possible, the WMIN will attempt to publish all
its procedures, minutes of the meetings, resolutions and such other
information to the public through appropriate channels such as its members
wiki, members mail list, public wiki, blogs, relevant mail lists and other
media. Matters involving constraints of disclosure due to Government or
company law, privacy and financial or commercial implications may be
excluded from such public presentation.
1.
WMIN will release an extraordinary circular clarifying the steps it
undertook in restructuring the EC after some of its original EC members had
resigned abruptly.
2.
The AGM is to be held tentatively on 23th November 2014. This will be
finalized after consultation with the Election Committee so as to also
conduct the Elections simultaneously. The dates will be announced
sufficiently in advance so that Election Committee will be able to process
all stipulated stages of the election process with adequate time.
3.
The names of all members (as reported in the application forms) will be
enlisted on the chapter’s public wiki along with their membership ID
numbers and location (city, district or state of residence).
4.
As per the bye-law (Article V Section 2), if a member fails to pay the
annual subscription fees even after the expiry of a three month grace
period, the membership will cease to be effective. However, on paying the
defaulted arrears of annual fee, the membership will be reinstated to its
original status immediately. After obtaining the expert advice and the
interpretation by the legal consultant, EC decided to establish and follow
that such renewals shall not be treated as fresh memberships. The
membership in such cases will be in full effect as soon as the payments are
realized within the bank accounts of the chapter. However, in compliance
with the election rules and requirements, such members can tender their
vote in a general election only after the stipulated three months have
passed from the date the membership has been restored. Notwithstanding the
above, in order to comply with Section 4 of Article V, members who have
elapsed their membership for more than 12 months from the beginning of the
fiscal year, shall have to apply for a fresh membership.
5.
Due to legal and technical reasons, there had been a delay in the
completion of the annual financial audit report and the subsequent clearing
and approval of the same from the Government. This resulted in a need of
postponing the AGM than it is scheduled normally. The EC decided to
formally approach the Registrar of Societies and inquire the possibility of
rescheduling the AGM to a later date. [Update: Subsequently, as per the
instructions by the registrar of societies, a formal request has been
submitted to the registrar which shall comply with the necessary legal
requirements for conducting the AGM and elections anytime before 31st of
December 2014.]
6.
The EC also decided to make the membership application process easier
and user-friendly by adapting to better technical means. This may include
the ability for a new applicant to fill up the form online and then create
a print-out. The membership-renewal process may totally bypass the need of
any physical forms. Instead, members should be able to update any changes
in their data via online forms and submit the same along with electronic
fund transfer. The EC also corroborated the possibilities for multiple-year
memberships up to 3 to 5 years.
7. The EC also decided to accelerate the process for establishing
standard documentations on Conflict of Interest, Terms & conditions for
staff, Code of conduct for various positions, travel and incidental
allowances policy etc. The EC initiated the basic steps to form a framework
for the Advisory Committee. These tasks will be pursued upon so that the
upcoming Annual General Body can ratify the same and put them into regular
practice.
Regards,
Jayanta Nath
President
Wikimedia India Chapter
The PDF copy you could found at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/images/a/ab/Report_of_the_Board_Camp_conducted_at_…
Hello, everyone.
I have posted the schedule for the Bangalore Consultation (beginning
tomorrow at noon) on the Meta page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Community_Consultation_2014#Agenda_an…
We will be sharing an Etherpad link tomorrow morning, where you'll all be
able to follow at least some of the discussion in real time.
Cheers,
Asaf
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Dear fellow Wikimedians,
(this is important and a rare opportunity -- please do take a few moments
to read.)
I would like to draw your attention to a major piece of news:
The Wikimedia Foundation is convening a community consultation on the
future of Wikimedia work in India, to be held in October in Bangalore, with
significant representation from across India, the different projects, and
the different language communities.
Please see the following page on Meta for details, context, and to begin
discussion the delegates you would like to see participating. All costs
will be borne by the Foundation.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Community_Consultation_2014
Let's try and keep discussion on the talk page of that page on Meta, so
everyone can follow, even people not on this list.
Also, your help in forward this widely, translating as necessary, etc.,
would be MUCH appreciated. Again, this is an important opportunity, and we
need to ensure we get every community's attention.
I look forward to this conversation very much!
Asaf
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Dear all,
The Executive Committee of Wikimedia India Chapter is holding its Q2 Board
Meeting and a two-day Board Camp on 20th (Saturday) and 21st(Sunday) of
September at Bangalore.
As part of the board's induction and outreach, the EC is also arranging an
informal *Wikimedia Community Meet* of all Wikimedians around Bangalore.
The community meet is meant for general interaction and feedback among
themselves as well as with the EC members and the A2K team of CIS.
There will be no formal presentations or other formalities, perhaps for a
short self-introduction session by each participant.
Vishnu and his team from A2K has kindly agreed to join us for this meet.
They are also helping us in conducting the board Camp efficiently.
This is arranged along with a buffet lunch. You are encouraged to bring
your spouse and/or children along with you.
*Event:*
*Wikimedia Bangalore Community Lunch Meet *with *Chapter EC and A2K(CIS)*
*Venue: CIS Office Premises, Indira Nagar, Bangalore*
*Time: 1.00 PM *
*Date: Sunday, 21/09/2014*
Any Wikimedians in and around Bangalore, (any Wikimedia contributor, not
necessarily a chapter member) are welcome. You are also spread the word
around to such among your friends.
*[However, to have a rough count of attendees, we request you to RSVP
(inform us of your intention to participate in advance), preferably by
Friday Night (19/9/2014) or at least by Saturday afternoon by way of email,
SMS or phone or Chapter's wiki.]*
*Contact & RSVP:*
Email: Jayanta@ / Nikita @ wikimedia.in + Vishnu @ cis
Phone / SMS: Jayanta (+91 9836294438)
Thank you and regards,
Jayanta Nath
President
Wikimedia India Chapter
Hi,
On the eve of India Community consultation 2014, we are organizing a
community meetup in Bangalore on October 3rd (Friday) evening 6 PM - 8 PM.
This is a good chance to meet many Indian community members after
Wikiconference 2011.
We will be doing a professional photo shoot and video documentary to tell
the story of Wikimedia India.
I welcome you all to be part of this and be the face for Wikimedia India.
You are also welcome to bring your family for the evening.
Please register here in advance so we can plan for the logistics -
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiMeetups/Bangalore/Bangalore58#Signed_Up
Thanks,
Ravi
Wikimedia India.