[Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone

[Dariusz Jemielniak]

hi Erlend,

I want to shortly comment on your letter, which raises legitimate concerns,
in my view, and I would like to address them.


On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 11:28 PM, Erlend Bjørtvedt <erlend at wikimedia.no>wrote:

> However, the gap between the legitimate demands of a donation-backed
> funding process, and the resources available in a chapter with 0 employees,
> is too big. Thus the hen-and-egg-problem that some have already pinpointed:
> Getting the first employee demands the resources that only come with the
> first employee. One result is the frustration of valuable volunteers,
> another is the under-utilization of critical resources.
>

 In the FDC we recognize the obvious fact that small chapters have
different resources and abilities than the large ones.

In my own view (not discussed with other FDC members), there are 3
categories of applicants:
*

a) the small chapters in incubation phase (typically below 100,000 USD),

b) medium sized mature chapters,

c) large organizations (above 1.000,000 USD).


We should expect from the large organizations to meet the highest standards
of budgeting, planning, and strategy. We should also be definitely more
lenient and supporting for the small chapters, as well as recognize their
limited resources. However, the FDC process is focused mainly on
organizations, which want to professionalize and focus on structural
growth. I think that bureaucratization should not be an aim in itself and
that all applications, irrespective of the size of the organization, should
have a clear mission-driven component, and basically aim at making some
impact in line with our movement philosophy. And this is something that not
all chapters agree on - it would seem that sometimes the administrative
growth may be perceived as valuable on its own.

*


> The gap between WMF headquarters and national hubs has rapidly increased,
> until now. WMF has a great number of employees in San Fransisco, and a very
> low number of resources in other global hubs, let alone elsewhere in the
> USA or in national language "markets" overseas. For any global
> organisation, this imbalance is not optimal.  The FCA initiative is a
> reflex of this imbalance, but is presently to weak to cure it. Resources
> pile up in the center, with a headquarter location probably given by its
> address of registry. Are there really more wikipedians in California, than
> in the rest of the world combined?
>

Among  seven FDC members there is no-one from California, and only one is
American.

best,

Dariusz ("pundit")