Forwarding esp. for those Indian Wikimedians who are on the Wikimedia-l list Subha ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Abhinav srivastava &lt;abhinav619(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Sun, Jul 7, 2019 at 2:20 PM Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Open Letter to Affiliations Committee : Wikimedia India's Demand For A Fair And Transparent Hearing To: Wikimedia Mailing List &lt;wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt; Dear Friends From Affcom, I am posting an open public request for your notice of Suspension moved at Wikimedia India (WMIN) which we continue to contest and to our ignored demand of having a public hearing as shared with you all over mail and shared again here under Annexure [A]. You have taken an official position on suspension without even hearing us even once, unexplained accusations have been provided and we continue to believe Affcom has been insufficiently investigating facts before making judgements. We repeatedly over and over again provided justifications over Mail but you never took them to your notice and only over calls you heard us, provided your rationale for expectation gaps but never took our oral commentary which refutes your claims,in any action, anywhere. Now you say WMIN won’t remain a Chapter after 14th September and be transformed into a User Group. Republic of India happens to be one of the only few countries where besides volunteer driven Chapter and User Groups has a full-time staff based WMF’s Allied Organisation CIS-A2K [1]. Wikimedia India activities [2] may be less due to no source of funds [3] however, Community Members from India put their efforts, strive hard to take the movement ahead. Whether it be the previous financial year or the present, no Wikimedia Foundation Grants like Rapid Grant, Project Grant etc have been applied by Wikimedia India members to support any Chapter activity. They remain self-financed. We received your notice last year when Wikimedia India was contesting a dispute with CIS-A2K over attribution grabbing for our self-financed projects and ignoring Chapter at important National level initiaves [4]. While working with virtually no source of funds and struggles with WMF’s Allied Organisation, your notice of suspension was the least bad we could have had. We continue to contest your suspension notice. It was Suo Moto (on its own) decision making and as found and re-stated above and below in detail, there were gaps and misunderstanding in your basis. We also continue to contest there has been a Rush-to-decision making. No written responses via Mail to Chapter’s clarification are being provided and invitation for calls are initiated where brief responses are shared on a Cloud Document. It has been subsequently found by both parties on there being gaps in communication. However, even after clarity during call, Affcom has not taken any action over them. The basis of your suspension notice has been shared here for the wider audience. 1. Legal Structure : Affcom asked Wikimedia India to resolve and obtain its necessary license in order to obtain funds. At present, as per Government of India restrictions it is difficult to obtain foreign funding. Wikimedia India informed the Affcom on roughly 13,000 Non-Government Organisations (NGO)s [5] are struggling with a similar crisis to which Affcom responded, “reconsider applying for a User Group.” and “no evidence that the current organization’s leadership will be able to drive this problem toward resolution”. Chapter efforts and commitment in resolving the said crisis cannot be dusted in few words. A Government restrictive policy which has an impact on 13,000 NGOs and Affcom finding flaws in WMIN Board Members capability. WMIN would leave it for public interpretation. Why not a capability audit for hosting zero-budget activities? While most of the time are being spent on resolving the said crisis, WMIN continues to undertake activities as listed. Taking the Open Knowledge Movement forward remains a commitment for the Chapter irrespective of whatsoever political climate may remain. Affcom was asked two questions respectively in this regard however no response has been attained. The questions are 1. Would zero-budget activities, those self-financed not meet sufficiency ? Please elaborate for us to stand better and to improve upon. 2. Would resolving Legal Structure and being able to receive WMF Grants be a necessary criteria for WMIN to meet sufficiency or continued activities not meet the fulfilment criteria? (2) Open Governance : Affcom informed Chapter that a member needs to be in physical presence at the Chapter Assembly to cast vote and raise voice and asked The Chapter to change its bylaws. This information is anything but false. This was communicated during the Call but Affcom did not bring anything in action. Also, as per the Chapter Agreement between WMF and WMIN, a copy of bylaws was provided in English Language to WMF. The bylaws were approved by the then Chapter’s Council. No evidence has been brought to notice on WMIN violating the Clause 7.2 of the Chapter’s Agreement, “The Wikimedia Chapter shall be required to advise the Foundation of any planned or actual change in the bylaws or status of the Chapter which might affect the Foundation or the continued existence or effectiveness of this Agreement.” (3) Active Contributor Involvement :The November 10 email carried the statement, “The chapter lacks broad and diverse membership, community representation, as well as buy-in and involvement “ and “Membership seems to be sourced through university leadership rather than through open community participation and representation.” Chapter till date received no evidence or logic construction on how the said argument was reached. Later during the call, Affcom did acknowledge that there has been a communication gap. Chapter further floated the idea of sharing the Member’s data base after discussing privacy policy over them. (4) Capacity : WMIN was able to submit its annual reports on 21st December, 2018 (3.5 months late) due to a notice by Income-Tax department which caused delay in preparing our Financial reports. Although we do not have any annual grants or use any money to support any activity, as per Chapter’s agreement, affiliate is required to submit Financial Results. Meanwhile, WMIN reported its activities on every quarterly basis and shared it with the wider Indian community via India Mailing List and also other channels [6], [7], [8],[9]. Annual activity report is a compilation from the quarterly reports. Affcom claimed via Cloud document that no high level response submitted and repeated delay is not accepted. WMIN informed Affcom that previous delay needs to be looked at independently from earlier financial period and suspension notice (WMIN then had a grant), but we received no response. (5) Organizational Best Practices : Affcom asked us to ‘Resolve’ issues relating to Organizational Best Practices, however, no information had been received on respective deliverables not been met. The November 10, email carried the statement, “There are concerns about whether” referring that Affcom was also not sure themselves. WMIN shared the best practices after placing it in front of the community on member’s mailing list for more than 15 days. To this Affcom responded that you are late with your submission hence we are terminating your contract. They never shared an evidence and when WMIN took its time placed it in-front of the community and then submitted, they said delayed and instead of sending their response in writing over mail they again invited us for a call. We continue to insist on providing a written response via Mail but no action. (6) Action Plan : Affcom asked us to submit an Action Plan and we kept asking what deliverable are needed. We cannot commit on resolving Government restrictions within a said timeline as more than 13,000 NGOs struggle with the similar crisis. We emphasised again and again we have been running zero-budget activities and working for the movement. We asked them to review Organizational Best Practices, based on gaps we could have taken things into consideration. They rather said, you have missed the deadline, so WMIN has to be closed now. To sum up, Affcom friends, you made up your own decision, you made up you own hearing and you made up your own decision. It was a monologue masked in the name of a dialogue. I encourage you all to be in our boots someday, hosting activities on zero-budget, fighting with the Government bureaucracy to attain some funding as a help, the challenge of having a staff-based organisation in parallel, struggle with self-financing activities and most importantly working with Affcom to save yourself from their de-recognition threats. If you believe you are correct, please abide to the request made under Annexure [A] and put everything in public domain. Let community read for themselves and decide. If Affcom is more transparent about its investigation and actions then community would be able to better understand the work and provide an opinion. Regards, Abhinav ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K [2] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2019-April/013994.ht… \ [3] Foreign Currency (Regulation) Act, 1960 compliance do not permit India Chapter to receive money from its primary fiscal sponsor, Wikimedia Foundation. [4] Board of Directors at CIS, acknowledged in March, 2019 for a compliant made in August, 2018 for CIS-A2K Staff not doing their duty to the order. [5] https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/07/democracies-need-a-little-help-from-th… [6] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2017-July/013030.html [7] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2017-October/013089.… [8] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2018-January/013188.… [9] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2018-April/013295.ht… --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Annexure [A] Reallocating the Affcom - WMIN Communication To Meta : No communications over email, video call, social media, instant messaging, or anywhere but wiki! While this would not just be aligned with the editing spirit, it would promote greater transparency and also helpful for us to communicate the message to our community members. While, we understand Affcom had been advocating the same, however, taking care of privacy concerns, do let us. Once we hear from Affcom on having no privacy concerns, we may reallocate the discussions. If there a consent to this, would request a green light also for 1. Archiving the entire email conversation over a cloud document and linking it to the relevant Meta page. 2. Documenting Internet Calls in an attempt to resolve communication gaps and linking them to Meta page for greater transparency. 3. Based on Principal of Free Speech, allowing anybody to use the discussion page for expression of their views. 4. Any Volunteer is free to translate the text into the language of their choice. 5. Upload All PDF sent via Mails to Commons and link them to the Meta Page. 6. All relevant customs and procedures which exist for any Meta page to be in action. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>