On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 12:42 PM, Hisham <hisham(a)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(a)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.
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.
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.
As with Assam meetup recently, coordinated by Shiju,
some of the expenses
were met from a personal grant from the Foundation to me & Shiju.
There was a recent Malayalam Wiki Academy in Bangalore organised by
Malayalam Community. Some of them are also Chapter members. People like me
and Naveen actively helped the event ..Are we doing as chapter board member
or community member? We don't really know.. But we are just genuinely
helping the movement, with worrying about what capacity we are doing it.
I don't think it's a good idea to separate the chapter and the community.
The chapter is a membership-based organization and by definition an
umbrella organization which represents the community. There is no reason
for differentiation as long as it is volunteer work done by a chapter
member.
The various academies that we do, some of the requests comes directly to
the chapter, community or India programs, but each supporting each other in
different capacities.
Now Noopur is a GLAM Champion, Chapter member and Delhi SIG Chair and also
part of Chapter Communications Team. She now also heads the Communication &
PR for the India Programs.
As I explained, it is difficult to separate the contributions of different
entities or individuals for the Wikimedia movement in India.
IMHO, we should be only concerned about the outcomes of the event and not
who gets the credit.
Even though the possibility of interfacing each other is high for different
entities and groups of volunteers working in India, there is a need for
differentiation and it is a question which cannot be avoided. The
volunteers who work on their pet-projects while not being associated with
any of the entities are not expected to be as accountable as (i) the
chapter which receives or may receive grants from the Wikimedia Foundation
and donations from individuals and organizations in the country AND (ii)
the WMF India Programs which is run by multiple paid consultants.
So I don't see why we shouldn't care about differentiation, or why it may
be an undesirable thing to want to differentiate. Ultimately we all want
results, yes, but we also need to understand causality because there are
significant amount of funds involved. We need to differentiate because
there are different degrees of accountability involved both with the
chapter, the WMF India Programs and the volunteer who works with a grant.
Hope this helps.
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