[Wikimediaindia-l] Scholarships WCI2011

[Vickram Crishna]

Hello fellow Wikimedians

As you know, we received 7,070 applications for Scholarships. The
Scholarships Team have now finalised *100* *scholarship awards* on the basis
of merit according to the set criteria, and individual emails are now being
sent to the awardees. As you are probably aware, a fixed sum of money has
been budgeted for this award, and, as it happens, there will be some money
left over.

We Intend to further send out emails to the candidates who are not going to
receive scholarships, a process that is also getting underway now.

However, and we request your *urgent* participation in this process, there
have been a number of calls for using the Scholarship Budget for the purpose
of evening out potential imbalances in attendance at the Conference on
several counts. The remaining money will support a few additional
scholarships, perhaps between 15-30. The number is a variable, as the
Scholarships cover only travel to and fro Mumbai and lodging for the days of
the Conference. The cost of lodging is fixed, but the cost of travel depends
on the journey involved.

The potential categories that can be given a little boost are:

1. Gender (the number of present Wikimedians is heavily weighted towards
males)
2. Persons with disabilities (several Wikimedians with disabilities have
contributed significantly to improving the accessibility of Wikipages for
all persons)
3. Age (very young Wikimedians need to be encouraged to participate, and
very old persons also need to be recognised for their youthful spirit,
enthusiasm and dedication)
4. Indic contributors (as a reflection of the need, and also of the worthy
performance of localised Wikipage creators and supporters)

Awardees within categories 2 and 3 need attendant caregivers (on request, in
some cases, but mandatory for those under 18), and therefore the awarded
Scholarships cover 2 persons each, in 2 cases, so the total awards actually
cover *102 persons*.

Separately, we will inform you of the breakup of these categories from the
current awardees, but *could you please* take the trouble to vote (+1 = Yes,
-1 = No) in each category, about your own opinion about supporting this
endeavour?

Please address your reply to <*wikiconferenceindia at gmail.com*> rather than
spam the list (or me), if you don't mind, using the words [WCI2011
Scholarship Poll] in square brackets in the subject line, as shown. This
poll will close at *midnight Thursday Sept 29, 2011*. We will collate the
votes and advise the lists accordingly.

Your assistance via participating in this poll is highly appreciated, and
your patience in wait for this announcement is also much appreciated. We are
sorry it has taken us a little longer than planned to complete this phase of
the Scholarship awards.

-- 
(on behalf of the Scholarships Team)
Vickram
Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/attachments/20110922/0b1d5ab7/attachment.htm