Jyotis,
(This is my personal view.)
I concur with the broad idea behind points 3-7 though specifics need to be
worked out to suit the legal entity that the chapter is.
In fact, some of these have been addressed in the MoA, I think.
However, what is the additional role that you envisage for the administrative
council given that a general body of members exists?
Also, I suggest that a separate page be opened in wikimedia.in wiki to discuss
this.
- Sundar
Some thoughts around this:
1. Local Representation:All local wikis should elect a respected member of
their community for a period of a year (or two) and form an administrative
council for the chapter. This could be per language basis or per project basis,
based on their community size. I would not exclude
English, but would limit the
participation to one member in council. for the rest of
projects - It could be
probably like for every project that has more than 50 (this is just a number, we
can look at the real world situations) active people (not including bots) - we
can allocate one member per project to the council. other wise, one member per
language projects would be enuf. this is just to ensure that we have enuf
coverage per project and per language depending on the size of people.
2. Formation of EC: From the administrative council, the EC can be elected
in
for a term. This election should be by the chapter members / local language
wikimedians.
3. Limit on Term in EC: It may also be worth enforcing that no project gets
more than one (or at the most 2) consecutive term in EC
(if we have enuf
representations to fill in all slots). This will ensure that all projects gets
it share of EC terms over the years.
4. Communication: A Monthly or quarterly report of the chapter activities
should be published by the EC and admin council. Individual representatives are
and should be responsible for communication between chapter and projects. Should
there be a reason to replace the member by the local community, such a provision
should be provided.
5. Removal of member: Inactivity and lose of trust by the general public
should
be considered as a reason for removal as usual. On the other hand, if the rest
of the administrative council members feels against one member, chapter should
be able to request for replacement citing proper reasons for it.
6. Funds and Grants: All funds and grants from chapter account probably can
be
openly discussed and approved on the foundation wiki or meta wiki (like the
foundation grant process)
7. Audit and Annual report: End of every financial year, an audit committee
for
the financial and functional aspects of the chapter's actions should be formed
from the administrative council and audit results should be made public along
with the annual reports.
We can go on like this, but I would leave it open to further discussions.
"That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for
the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted."
- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture
From: Jyothis Edathoot <je(a)jyothis.net>
To: Wikimedia India list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Sun, February 13, 2011 11:59:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Moderation policy on WikimediaIndia-l
Achal,
Good points. Thank you.
To have additional mods, it is fairly a simple process to add them in mailman. I
would suggest that atleast as a start, we can ask people here to nominate
themselves for the positions and we can pick two. Would be great if they are
already familiar with the work. Please note that it is not a title, but a daily
work that comes your way.
About the chapter issues, I dont think we need to say more that what Tinu and
many others have already mentioned about. While not counting out the efforts
that were made by the existing EC on building this out, Transparency is the
primary issue that echoes thru. It is probably worth remembering that chapter is
just a support system and has no control over the projects or its actions. It is
neither an administrative power nor a place for people who just want to have a
title on their business card or get their expenses covered. Chapter will be
answerable to every single paisa spent to the community and community should
stand up and demand for the clarity and visibility on things. If the chapter
cannot do it, trust me, it will not last for ever. Probably the interim EC
should not have re-elected themselves behind closed doors. Instead, they should
have probably opened the memberships and conducted the
election for the first
official EC.
However, my vision about the future of EC is slightly different from what we
have now. Unlike many other chapters around the world, Indic chapter have a
unique challenge: Many different language Wikimedia projects, ranging from
highly active to dead, (and more on the way) rolls up under its umbrella. To
deal with this, we can probably take a page out of our democracy itself and
consider building a representative assembly style administration system for our
>future.
>
>
Some thoughts around this:
1. Local Representation:All local wikis should elect a respected member of
their community for a period of a year (or two) and form an administrative
council for the chapter. This could be per language basis or per project basis,
based on their community size. I would not exclude
English, but would limit the
participation to one member in council. for the rest of
projects - It could be
probably like for every project that has more than 50 (this is just a number, we
can look at the real world situations) active people (not including bots) - we
can allocate one member per project to the council. other wise, one member per
language projects would be enuf. this is just to ensure that we have enuf
coverage per project and per language depending on the size of people.
2. Formation of EC: From the administrative council, the EC can be elected
in
for a term. This election should be by the chapter members / local language
wikimedians.
3. Limit on Term in EC: It may also be worth enforcing that no project gets
more than one (or at the most 2) consecutive term in EC
(if we have enuf
representations to fill in all slots). This will ensure that all projects gets
it share of EC terms over the years.
4. Communication: A Monthly or quarterly report of the chapter activities
should be published by the EC and admin council. Individual representatives are
and should be responsible for communication between chapter and projects. Should
there be a reason to replace the member by the local community, such a provision
should be provided.
5. Removal of member: Inactivity and lose of trust by the general public
should
be considered as a reason for removal as usual. On the other hand, if the rest
of the administrative council members feels against one member, chapter should
be able to request for replacement citing proper reasons for it.
6. Funds and Grants: All funds and grants from chapter account probably can
be
openly discussed and approved on the foundation wiki or meta wiki (like the
foundation grant process)
7. Audit and Annual report: End of every financial year, an audit committee
for
the financial and functional aspects of the chapter's actions should be formed
from the administrative council and audit results should be made public along
with the annual reports.
We can go on like this, but I would leave it open to further discussions.
>
>
>Thanks.
>
>Regards,
>Jyothis.
>
>http://www.Jyothis.net
>
>http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jyothis
>http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jyothis
>I am the first customer of
http://www.netdotnet.com
>
>woods are lovely dark and deep,
>but i have promises to keep and
>miles to go before i sleep and
>lines to go before I press sleep
>
>completion date = (start date + ((estimated effort x 3.1415926) / resources) +
>((total coffee breaks x 0.25) / 24)) + Effort in meetings
>
>
>
>
>