On Mar 7, 2012, at 1:11 PM, Anirudh Bhati wrote:
On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 12:42 PM, Hisham
<hisham@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Nothing is conducted solely by India Program - and hence I said "supported." Everything is conducted by the community - sometimes under the aegis of the Chapter and sometimes independently. The support that we have provided varies - from getting the actual event fixed up to providing presentation material to interested community members to participating in these events.
Can this be clearly specified in the report? That is more helpful than simply "supported". For instance, when you say "Supported the community to get a venue in Guwahati University", it would help us understand more if you could tell us how.
On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 12:45 PM, CherianTinu Abraham
<tinucherian@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Pranav,
In India, it is extremely difficult to hairline separate who has done which event. - Chapter, Community and WMF India Programs.
I agree it's not possible to do that, but it is entirely possible to list out the work done in specific. This enhances our accountability and transparency towards the community.
Let us take the case of the Trichy event, the request came to a community member Rsrikanth to the chapter. Nitika was actively involved along with me and Naveen. The chapter signed the MoU and supplied some goodies. Nitika was actively involved in coaching Sohan, a chapter member and Rsrikanth. One must not also forget that both Hisham & Nitika are also chapter members.
Fact: Nitika is a paid employee of the WMF India Programs and is not a chapter/community volunteer.
Anyone who contributes - in whatever manner - is a community member. All of us in the India Program team have the freedom to do whatever we want to in our free time. fyi: all of us contribute in our personal, voluntary capacity as well as work for the movement in our official capacity. fyi: it's not part of the job description.
Another event in Chennai (Jaya eng college) , where Subha led, his travel expenses was reimbursed by the Chapter, Subha is a Chapter SIG Chair .. The event is supported by Hisham & Nitika too. Subha is also an India Programs executive.
Fact: Subhashish, former volunteer, and now paid consultant with India Programs.
Much water has flown beneath this bridge, but I am disappointed with the suggestion that someone becomes a "former" volunteer just because they join the India Program team. See earlier point.
I actively organize Bangalore Meetups and support several others .. Should I be worrying whether I am doing as a chapter member, board member or a community member?
By a matter of principle, chapter and community volunteers are just... volunteers. Paid consultants are hired to executive specific programs, and hence the results of their work and reports should be presented with clarity. Simply "supporting" something does not clarify the extent of their involvement.
The work that we are doing is actually supporting communities. The healthiest way of us doing our jobs is to work closely (and in most cases, individually with community members) and help them in various ways - and make sure that the individual community members are front and centre of the initiative - as is right. As in the mail I shared earlier on Guwahati, or indeed in the "Nature of Support column on this
page, we document them and share them through wider channels. In other cases, they are discussed on village pumps or individual talk pages or on chats or whatever manner that the respective community member feels most comfortable - and we leave it at that. A lot of our community members do not have the experience and confidence to engage publicly or take initiatives. We will continue to work quietly with them.
The purpose behind my monthly newsletter is to try and document a varied list of the things we do - not from the point of view of documenting every last detail - but to provide a summary and useful links.