If this was done in Mumbai, why not allow it in Kolkata? I think there needs to be a uniform policy behind this - either its open to all at all our events across the country or its not.

I am very much in favour of ( sincerely wishes so) the active community members being part of the chapter and its leadership and taking the chapter is next level. The chapter will have lose its relevance unless the community takes control of it and shape its future.

Chapter = EC. Each one of us has an equal responsibility ( and opportunity) to take it forward and drive the chapter.

membership was made open to any Indian who is above the 18 years of age. We didn't want to say No to anyone who is coming forward to join the chapter. We wanted it to be open and inclusive, we wanted to set no barriers for anyone to join, anyone who is genuinely interested and enthusiastic , just like in Wikipedia

+1 for recruiting more Wikipedian members. I am one of those Wikipedians who hasn't become a member of the chapter because i am hesitant to get involved in chapter politics and fear of being forced to follow the agenda set by people who know nothing about Wikipedia (except perhaps talking about it). I am sure there are more wikipedians like me who are just observing what goes on from the sidelines. It is people like us who need to be prodded and dragged to become chapter members.(I will send in my membership application soon). Getting non-wikipedians to sign up and increasing the numbers will eventually lead to an organisation completely out of tune with the Wikimedia movement. Numbers for numbers sake is not the road we should take. As Srikanth R pointed out, there are a lot of people who would love to take control. I believe such a thing did happen once before and the chapter was forced to send legal notices to dissuade it. Recruiting numbers for numbers sake might well lead to such a situation again. And when that happens chapter will become yet another talk only organisation completely irrelevant to what Wikipedia actually is. So lets not put up any barriers for membership but at the same time, lets not advertise chapter membership to completely new people by going on membership drives in outreach events. - Bala On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 7:19 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan <srik.lak(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote: > > > On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 19:01, CherianTinu Abraham <tinucherian(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote: > >> I am very much in favour of ( sincerely wishes so) the active community >> members being part of the chapter and its leadership and taking the chapter >> is next level. The chapter will have lose its relevance unless the >> community takes control of it and shape its future. > > Word. > > I keep iterating this often, May I ask to kindly remove the notion that >> Chapter = EC. Each one of us has an equal responsibility ( and opportunity) >> to take it forward and drive the chapter. > > > With the very same intent, I opened up the thread, which EC has not > opened / made much progress, so that we can do something to have more > members who are informed and involved. I would like to point reply of R > Srikanth. There are many such folks on the list, beyond it on various wikis > in the "silent contributors" category who do not like to be a chapter > member and this could be one of the reason. Instead of reaching to events > and getting membership and at some stage tell the world chapter is X > members strong, Chapter must put in more efforts in getting more members of > community as its members and this thread can very well be a start. > > Having said that, when our founding members drafted the MoA, the chapter >> membership was made open to any Indian who is above the 18 years of age. We >> didn't want to say No to anyone who is coming forward to join the chapter. >> We wanted it to be open and inclusive, we wanted to set no barriers for >> anyone to join, anyone who is genuinely interested and enthusiastic , just >> like in Wikipedia > > > It is one thing to say "No to anyone who is interested" / but barriers to > join, another thing to give out forms, ask them to fill up and canvass its > just 100 Rs saying you can be chapter member without letting them know what > it is. > > > -- > Regards > Srikanth.L > > >

Tinu, I understand that we need more members to take the movement forward, but we need to ensure that only genuinely interested people become a part of the chapter. Imagine this: Some comapny is unable to promote their product on Wikipedia. Keeps getting deleted. [Read the mail I sent about Marketing, last week]. One of them joins the chapter, becomes part of the EC after the AGM. What if he/she now uses that position to promote their comapny? Think about it. --~~~~ On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 8:08 AM, CherianTinu Abraham <tinucherian(a)gmail.com -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

Hi, There are some free and open source minded/Linux group members around Kolkata,They have some knowledge about Wikipedia's philosophy. Some of our community member wants joint on spot payment method,as like we have at WCI2011 . They are not so comfortable with other method.Although On-spot India Chapter membership is not our main* *project scope. If India community/Wikimedia India chapter feels wrong, we can withdrawn this facility from this project.