Hi Bodhisattwa and all,You raise an interesting point – that the influx of money appears to have a demotivating effect on Indian volunteers. This has also come up in discussion elsewhere.Now I have been one of those who have urged the WMF to spend more money in India. I have always felt that actual spending on the ground has not matched the Foundation's fundraising messages about how money is urgently needed to build capacity in Indian and African languages. And I have argued that hiring staff in India, e.g., makes more sense than hiring staff in the US, where salary expectations may run to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.How would you resolve these competing considerations?Regards,Andreas (Jayen466)_______________________________________________On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 3:21 AM Bodhisattwa <bodhisattwa.rgkmc@gmail.com> wrote:_______________________________________________Hi,Coincidentally, just yesterday afternoon, when we were having a meeting in Kolkata with volunteers from West Bengal and Bangladesh, these concerns came up among other things. We were wondering about the visible impact of the increasing number of WMF staffs in India to improve our editing and reading experiences, significant partnership development or strengthening the communities in the last few years and if they have any impact at all in our language community to make our life easier as volunteers.Anyway, if the volunteer communities or team of organizers are not strong and vigilant enough, there is always a chance to get something hijacked by staffs. This is not new; it has happened before a number of times and it will happen a lot more in the future. This could not be avoided as I feel the spirit of volunteerism in the Indian communities is much much weaker than the past and dying, if not already dead in some of the cases. In the last few years, I have seen long term trusted community members from all over the country leave the movement frustrated, heart broken and exhausted, including from my language community. Increasing flow of unnecessary money are rapidly changing the motivation of volunteers with a strange notion prevailing nowadays that money is the solution of all problems in the region. Community oversight and long discussions on meta talk pages about any huge amount of grant proposals are now a thing of the past. But who cares?Unlike the previous wiki conferences, the wider Indian community did not get the invitation and space to actively take part in the decision making process from the very start of planning this conference which led to giving room to WMF staffs, who took over. Without community vigilance, a 3 days conference asked and spent 3 times more donation money than the last one and has set up precedences of many unwanted things which would burden future community programs and events in India. It's not at all surprising that even though no one was stopped, but a very few number of volunteers from my language community actually applied and participated in the conference, even being one of the most active community in the region.Regards,BodhisattwaOn Thu, May 4, 2023, 00:53 Subhashish <psubhashish@gmail.com> wrote:_______________________________________________I find this email better worded than the other one in this list a few days back which was also about different issues.Some of these issues, though I'm not personally aware of, certainly need to be addressed by WMF.Thank you for upholding the importance of the community by saying -- "I am okay with WMF staff being paid, but it should not undermine unpaid volunteers and the movement's ethos." Can't agree more.While I see public listing of WMF staff and contractors both on-wiki [1] and the Foundation's official site, WMF staff in India might mean staff and contractors who are hired both for long-term and short-term and part-time roles. It could also mean those who play global roles (say, engineering staffers) but reside in India and don't necessarily interface only with the India-based community. Their participation in a national level event could be an one-off thing.But those nuances apart, the volunteer and staff dynamics certainly is a topic worth discussing.A worse social phenomenon in India is a foreigner being treated with more dignity than a local. The intersectionality of caste, gender, fluency in English, intergenerational privilege and many other social factors play a role. I still think this is not a standalone issue and should be discussed (and investigated if needed) keeping in mind the intersectionality.
SubhaOn Wed, May 3, 2023, 11:09 PM Jayantilal Kothari <jayantilalkkd@gmail.com> wrote:--Dear Maryana Iskander and Wikimedia Foundation,I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to request more transparency about the roles and responsibilities of WMF staff in India. I am assuming good faith and believe that any issues arising are unintentional; however, these occurrences seem to be negatively impacting the overall movement.It has come to my attention that WMF allocates a relatively small amount of funds to the Indian community. This implies that a significant portion of donor money is spent on staff, making it crucial to ensure that donors and the Wiki community are aware of how the funds are being utilized and the impact generated.Firstly, I have noticed that WMF hires non-community staff members who may be initially unfamiliar with the Wikimedia community and movement in general. This is not an issue as long as newly recruited staff members are willing to work collaboratively with the community, rather than competing with them. Unfortunately, there have been instances where this has not been the case, such as WMF India staff paying Instagram users without consulting the community, and the recent WikiConference India, where WMF staff overshadowed volunteer committees and took over volunteer roles during conference planning.Initially, I thought that privacy concerns might be the reason behind the lack of transparency. However, during the recent conference, I observed that such staff members were comfortable being on stage and being identified as WMF Staff amongst friends from the industry whom they invited to the conference. It appears that more people from the industry are aware of WMF India staff's existence than the community itself. Some staff members were keen to take credit for the entire movement and even conference planning in front of the volunteer community and friends from the industry. It might help and advance the careers of WMF India staff by showcasing WikiConference India on their resumes, but the main purpose of such community events is to give a chance to community leadership and to celebrate unpaid community members. I am okay with WMF staff being paid, but it should not undermine unpaid volunteers and the movement's ethos.The Wiki community looks up to WMF staff for support, but now there is a fear that WMF staff may hijack community programs and stages, with WikiConference India being a recent example.There seems to be a lot of mystery surrounding the roles and responsibilities of WMF India staff members and their interactions with volunteer communities. The Wiki community is dedicated to the mission and will continue to thrive even without WMF staff. I believe it is crucial for WMF to publicly share the roles, responsibilities, and outcomes of the WMF India staff over the last few years. This transparency will enable community members and donors to appreciate the efforts of WMF India staff, as currently, the impact of their work remains unknown.I kindly request that WMF provides a list of all WMF India staff members and their achievements, so we can celebrate their accomplishments and collaborate with them more effectively.Looking forward to your response.With Regards,Jayantilal_______________________________________________Regards,JayantilalSent from my iPhone
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