Hello everyone,
The Board of Trustees is preparing a Call for Feedback about the upcoming
Board Elections, from *7 January - 10 February 2022*.
While the details will be finalized the week before the call, we have
confirmed at least two questions that will be asked:
-
What is the best way to ensure fair representation of emerging
communities among the Board?
-
What involvement should candidates have during the election?
While additional questions may be added, the Movement Strategy and
Governance team wants to provide time for community members and affiliates
to consider and prepare ideas on the confirmed questions before the call
opens.
We apologize for not having a complete list of questions at this time. The
list of questions should only grow by one or two questions.
The intention is to not overwhelm the community with requests, but provide
notice and welcome feedback on these important questions.
Do you want to help organize local conversation during this call?
Contact the Movement Strategy and Governance team
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
on Meta, on Telegram <https://t.me/wmboardgovernancechat>, or via email at
msg(a)wikimedia.org.
Kindly reach out if you have any questions or concerns. The Movement
Strategy and Governance team will be minimally staffed until 3rd January.
Please excuse any delayed response during this time.
We also recognize that some community members and affiliates are offline
during the December holidays. We apologize if our message has reached you
while you are on holiday.
Regards,
Chitraparna Sinha (Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CSinha_(WMF)>)
Facilitator, Movement Strategy and Governance
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy_and_Governance>,
SAARC, Wikimedia
Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear Wikimedians,
Greetings for the New Year 2022!
We are excited to announce that submission for session proposals has been opened for Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2022, the upcoming online wiki-event which is to be conducted from 18 – 20 February 2022 during the occasion of International Mother Language Day. The submission will remain open until 23 January 2022.
You can submit your session proposals here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2022/Submissions
A program team has been formed recently from highly experienced Wikimedia volunteers within and outside India. It is currently under the process of expansion to include more diversity in the team. The team will evaluate the submissions, accept, modify or reject them, design and finalise the program schedule by the end of January 2022. Details about the team will come soon.
Guidelines for submissions:
* The sessions will be on any Wikimedia related topics.
* Submissions are not restricted to India. Wikimedians from outside India are also welcome to submit proposals.
* The decision to accept or reject a submission will depend on the Program Team. Their decision will be final.
* The event will have different formats of sessions, like presentations, workshops, panel discussions and 5-minutes lightning talks.
* All sessions will be conducted online.
* The organisers will provide the support to help the presenter understand the use of online platforms like Zoom etc prior to the event..
* The organisers will also communicate with the presenter prior to the event to help understand the entire process, or for general preparation.
* A session can be around 20 minutes long or more. A lightning talk should be no longer than 5 minutes.
* There can be more than one presenter in one session. Feel free to make a group for your session.
* The presenters for long duration sessions must ensure that they will be available for the preparation and during their sessions.
* The presenters for lightning talks however can pre-record their sessions earlier, if they want and send it to the organizers to play the recording during their allotted time.
* A session will be conducted in English or any Indian language.
* Similar topics may be grouped together, or format may be changed by the program team. The program team will contact the session presenters if those decisions are taken.
We are sure that you will share some of your most inspiring stories and conduct some really exciting sessions during the event.
Our fist newsletter also is published here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2022/Newsletter/20…
Best wishes for your submissions!
Regards,
Jayanta
(On behalf of WMWM India 2022)
Dear All,
As a part of the Wikimedia Foundation Chief Executive Officer Maryana’s Listening Tour, a meeting is scheduled for conversation with communities in South Asia.
Please see the event page here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Maryana%E2%80%99s_Listening_Tour_%E2%80%95_…
The meet will be on Friday 26 November 2021 - 1:30 pm UTC [7:00 pm IST]. Maryana Iskander, Wikimedia Foundation Chief Executive Officer (CEO), will be the guest of the session.
We invite you to join the meet. The session will be hosted on Zoom and will be recorded. Please fill this short form, if you are interested to attend the meet.
Registration link: https://forms.gle/bDrJgdHFXTQh4otPA
Please follow the event page for updates.
Regards,
Jayanta Nath
CIS-A2K Team
Dear Wikimedians,
As you may already know, the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) provides a
baseline of behaviour for collaboration on Wikimedia projects worldwide.
Communities may add to this to develop policies that take account of local
and cultural context while maintaining the criteria listed here as a
minimum standard. The Wikimedia Foundation Board has ratified the policy in
December 2020.
The current round of conversations is around how the Universal Code of
Conduct should be enforced across different Wikimedia platforms and spaces.
This will include training of community members to address harassment,
development of technical tools to report harassment, and different levels
of handling UCoC violations, among other key areas.
The conversation hour is an opportunity for community members from South
Asia to discuss and provide their feedback, which will be passed on to the
drafting committee. The details of the conversation hour are as follows:
- Date and Time: 16 September, 5:15 pm to 6:45 pm NPT
- Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/dnd-qyuq-vnd | add to your
calendar
<https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=NmVzbnVzbDA2Y3BwbHU…>
You can also attend the global round table sessions hosted on 18 September
- more details can be found on this page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/2021_consultation…>
.
--
Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (he/him)
Movement Strategy and Governance, Wikimedia Foundation
Dear Wikimedians,
Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2021 Board election. The
Elections Committee has reviewed the votes of the 2021 Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees election, organized to select four new trustees. A record
6,873 people from across 214 projects cast their valid votes. The following
four candidates received the most support:
- Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight
- Victoria Doronina
- Dariusz Jemielniak
- Lorenzo Losa
While these candidates have been ranked through the community vote, they
are not yet appointed to the Board of Trustees. They still need to pass a
successful background check and meet the qualifications outlined in the
Bylaws. The Board has set a tentative date to appoint new trustees at the
end of this month.
Read the full announcement here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>
.
--
Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (he/him)
Movement Strategy and Governance, Wikimedia Foundation
Dear Wikimedians of Nepal,
Thank you for participating in the 2021 Wikimedia Foundation Board of
Trustees election
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>!
Voting closed on August 31 at 23:59. The official data, including the four
most voted candidates, will be announced as soon as the Elections Committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>
completes
its review of the ballots. The official announcement of the new trustees
appointed will happen later, once the selected candidates have been
confirmed by the Board.
6,946 community members from 216 wiki projects have voted. This makes 10.2%
global participation, 1.1% higher than in the last Board elections. In
2017, 5167 people from 202 wiki projects cast their vote. A full analysis
is planned to be published in a few days when the confirmed results are
announced. In the meantime, you can check the data produced during the
election
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>
.
Diversity was an important goal with these elections. Messages about the
Board election were translated into 61 languages. This outreach worked
well. There were 70 communities with eligible voters voting in this
election for the first time. With your help, next year’s Board of Trustees
election will be even better.
--
Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (he/him)
Movement Strategy and Governance, Wikimedia Foundation