Caro Gonçalo,
Obrigada pela mensagem. I am replying as Board liaison to the Affiliations
Committee.
Wikimedia Portugal received its suspension notice on July 2018, along with
a roadmap to resolve its outstanding issues and a deadline, October 30th.
You were to:
* Organize General Assembly meetings that comply with the relevant portions
of the Chapter's bylaws and applicable local laws and have a valid Board by
September 15th, which you submit you did on September 1st.
* Complete and submit the required overdue chapter 2017 financial
reporting, which you submitted on September 2nd.
* Submit a plan for active contributor involvement and improved chapter
capacity, which you submitted on October 1st.
Further concerns related to the ability to manage conflicts and to
fulfilling the basic transparency and disclosure commitments of your
jurisdiction and your governing documents in order to ensure open
participation.
As you know, the Affiliations Committee is currently reviewing the
documentation provided, and WMF has engaged the relevant Portuguese legal
expertise to ascertain that the September 1st General Assembly was indeed
valid and in accordance to your bylaws and local law. The Affiliations
Commitee is being thorough with its due diligence, as per our values
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Organizational_best_practices>.
I do not diminish the strain this situation must hold for the members of
Wikimedia Portugal, while you await for AffComs' decision in the next few
days, nor the efforts you must have taken to improve the situation and
reactivate the local community - but we do come from a situation where the
chapter was not in compliance and was suspended, and there has to be a
review to determine its future viability. While it is regrettable that the
review may take a longer time than you might perhaps have expected
originally, it seems unavoidable under the circumstances. Your
characterisation of AffCom is unjust, we all want a strong, active and
engaging affiliate in Portugal - and I would make the argument that you'd
be the most invested in having AffCom conduct the most thorough review
possible, vis a vis the movement and your own local community. Your appeal
to the Board is premature, when AffCom has made no decision yet. I urge
you, in this period of uncertainty, to try to set an example and not give
in to frustration, challenging as it may be.
Wishing you the best,
Kind regards,
María
El jue., 25 oct. 2018 a las 12:21, GoEthe.wiki (<goethe.wiki(a)gmail.com>)
escribió:
Dear members of the Board of Trustees,
We are writing to you in regards to the lifting of the suspension of
Wikimedia Portugal (WMPT) as a Wikimedia Affiliate.
As you may know, WMPT received a suspension notice in July from AffCom,
and was given a roadmap to follow that would lead to our de-suspension.
During the past months, we have followed the roadmap carefully and
diligently. Despite that, AffCom has now raised the possibility of
de-recognition, for unclear reasons, while acknowledging that the roadmap
was fulfilled ahead of the deadline.
From the start, AffCom seemed to us to have served as an echo chamber for
the unsubstantiated claims of our former president, João Vasconcelos, and
has made decisions that seem to be based on a superficial reading of the
Portuguese Civil Code. We are certain that if AffCom had NOT intervened,
the situation in Wikimedia Portugal would be much more stable by this time
and the conflict with João Vasconcelos would probably have long been
resolved. From the very beginning we have been in close contact not only
with AffCom, but also to Wikimedia Legal and Trust and Safety departments,
which have helped us deal with some of João Vasconcelos’ attitudes, and
protect the Wikimedia movement.
João Vasconcelos resigned as President of WMPT in March of this year, and
in May said he wished to leave the association. We did not prevent him from
doing either, and it is unclear why he tried to derail our General Assembly
of September 1st, and keeps making threats, legal and otherwise, to members
of WMPT. Our consciences are clear, and AffCom is witness that we tried to
resolve the situation with João amicably from the start, but his actions
are unfortunately no longer compatible with membership in our association,
so we intend to take disciplinary action against him as soon as possible.
It is even more unclear to us why AffCom continues to make decisions
without listening to all parties, and to make rulings without obtaining and
reviewing proper legal advice. We are happy that finally, after we wrote a
public appeal to AffCom, they are consulting with a legal expert (even
though we have not been asked to provide any clarification to this expert
nor participate in the process). But we worry that if there is an intention
to de-recognize, other reasons could be raised to back such intentions,
without us having a possibility to counter-argue. We would like your
assurance that no de-recognition would happen without us being given a
chance to hear and respond to any concerns.
Despite all this, Wikimedia Portugal is today on a sustainable path. We
have been working with WMF departments in order to develop and improve our
capacities, we had months full of activities, many more to come. But
planing all this, along with João Vasconcelos’ menacing on top of AffCom’s
inability to deal with our situation, left us reaching our physical,
psychological, and motivational limit. A number of us have started to
question whether continuing to contribute to this movement under these
conditions is worthwhile.
We are at the mercy of AffCom and the Board of Trustees to remain an
Wikimedia Affiliate. We are tired and broken from the lack of support of
AffCom, and we feel that we have not been heard properly throughout the
last six months. It is no longer sustainable to continue to have this
shadow above us. We would like to ask the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
Trustees to allow us to prove, to you, to AffCom and to the Wikimedia
Movement, that Portugal can have a vibrant Chapter that you can be proud
of. Please help us by lifting this suspension.
Thank you for your attention!
Gonçalo Themudo
*Presidente*
*Wikimedia Portugal*
*Email: *goethe.wiki(a)gmail.com
*Website: *http://pt.wikimedia.org <https://sites.google.com/view/themudo>
*Imagine um mundo onde cada ser humano pode partilhar livremente a soma de
todo o conhecimento, na sua própria língua.*
--
María Sefidari Huici
Chair of the Board
Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org