Hi Bobby,

Il'l start from the end - As we do recognize the importance of this conference and we do want to support it (hence was my surprise by not receiving a proposal), I will allow an extension to the deadline. But it won't be very long as we depend on the Conference Committee review that will happen in less than 2 weeks and we have a very limited budget this year so we will not hold back other events in the movement to accommodate further extension. You can submit your proposal by Wednesday, March 1. And please mind that it means you will not have a revision period and it will go directly to the committee's review and final decision. So if you have any pressing questions or need to consult regarding the proposal please let me know immediately. 

As to the other points you have raised - 
I am sorry to hear that you were not aware of the submission deadline. Please mind that the deadline was published a year in advance for each round on the Conference meta page. 

In one of our last conversations I did offered my help to work with you on a set of selection criteria (those are not WMF criteria - it should be decided by wiscom) to optimize the process and to also align on the timelines for your announcements for the future hosts so we can make sure the chosen hosts are eligible for funding *before* the announcement, as a learning from last year premature announcement which, as you know, caused some challenges. I did ask to postpone the first meeting, but as you can see in the email you have attached, in the very last communication I sent you a Doodle link which is still active, inviting you to choose a suitable time for a meeting that you actually never answered to. 

So it might be a case of poor communication, but I urge you - the next time you require my help or advice, there is no need to wait 4 months if you feel like you can't get a hold of me regardless of the circumstances. Things happen, meetings get canceled sometimes, and even emails remain unanswered from time to time. But I don't see what it has to do with WISCom's ownership of the bidding process that you run every year and with missing the submission deadline. There are many channels of communication and more people you can reach out to if you need help in resolving an issue you are not certain about. Veronica for example (and also Dumisani as the WMF liaisons) already agreed in our last conversation with you a few months ago, to be the foundation representative for WISCom to complete this work on the bidding process.  

As to WikiIndaba 2023 and 2024 - I have received your other email regarding the future hosts and I would like to congratulate you and WISCom for this decision. I think that knowing and planning 2 years in advance is a great idea and can have a major impact on the success of the events and will definitely benefit the organizers. 
I have already asked the grant admin team to look into Wikimedia UG Morocco's eligibility and hope to have an answer soon (don't wait up, and start working on the proposal anyway. I will let you know when I have an answer). I had a great experience working with them on WikiArabia in the past and based on that, I have no doubt they will be a great organizing team. 

Looking Forward for your proposal,

Chen

On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 10:48 PM Bobby Shabangu <bobbyshabangu@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Chen,

It is with great shock to learn that we’ve missed the deadline on this. And yes you are correct, we are about to announce the next host for 2023 and 2024 respectively. 

We understand the importance of meeting the deadline and apologise sincerely for this delay. I only learned today after reading your email that the due date was actually last week - 6 February 2023 and went ahead to inform Wiscom about this. 

We really think there has been poor communication between yourself and us, because the last time we spoke about the next host you informed us that you would like to assist in selecting the next host for the conference and speak about WMF's funding criteria. However, you kept on postponing and that meeting never happened until we were a few days from WikiIndaba 2022 as can be seen in the email conversation attached. So although we were waiting for you to come back to us, we also initiated the process to select the new countries so that you could meet us halfway with the selection process and talk further on the criteria. 

We have finalised the process and are looking to bring the conference to a Francophone speaking country for 2023. In fact, your email comes right when we are about to send our choices to you (on a separate email) to check for us with the Trust and Safety team if they both qualify to host the conference. Here we want to further outline our selection process and criterion which we feel was fair, transparent, inclusive and accountable. Then sometime next week we make the announcement to the community at large.

Seeing that we are now faced with this situation, I’m requesting an extension on the deadline, so that we find time to support the next country to do the application thoroughly but speedily as well. WikiIndaba has become an important platform for the African community, especially with our rapidly growing community in which to share experiences, best practices, and to identify ways in which we can work together to support and grow African Wikimedia projects, so we can't afford to skip a year without the conference.

Without getting this email too long, we are grateful for your understanding and would appreciate it if you could grant us the extension.

Best regards, 

Bobby Shabangu 

WISCom

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Chen Almog (she/her) · חן אלמוג Lead, Program Officer Conference & Event Fund Wikimedia Foundation