The conference workshops are sound fascinating and I would love to hear
more about the talk you are giving on Mentoring. Having recently been
looking to be adopted or mentored I am interested in ideas from the other
side of the keyboard (so to speak).

It seems that there has been lots of discussion about very important
issues, reasons why change can't happen and not much actual, easy to
identify,change. I have questions about value/buy-in from those in
Wiki-world who have the power to say for example: The question of
applicable, measurable goals has been discussed with the appropriate
stakeholders, let us adopt this standard for any entity that requests
funding. I say this recognizing the various and multiple issues that are at
play in a multinational society.

I am happy to facilitate conversation, write papers, examples, etc. but I
would prefer to have the sense that the work won't be wasted. If I was
doing this with a group that I could invite to a conference room - the
first activity would be to identify a shortlist of previously identified
challenges to, i.e. the funding process, establish priorities and since
people from every level of involvement would be present, there would be
someone who could provide immediate feedback on "management's opinion". (I
think that is one of the longest run-on sentences I have created in a long
time.)

I have found that work groups like this benefit most from representatives
of every group that will be touched by the issues at hand, this promotes
buy-in and has always resulted in a variety of outlooks, skill sets, and
brilliant ideas. In the case of Wikipedia I would recommend that new
editors are specifically invited to participate in discussions and given
meaningful tasks and/or opportunities to assist. The saddest request I have
ever seen is, "Be kind to me, I'm new and I have no clear idea of what I am
doing." An atmosphere of supreme kindness, tolerance and clarity of
responses must be created-until those ideals become a way of life, improved
levels of anything will not be able to move past hopeful conversations.

I bow to the experience of the more experienced for information on best
place to start or challenge to take on first.

I am always optimistic and my experience has shown me that negative
assumptions can be dismantled and consultative change can begin.

Regards,

Nora


On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Sydney <sydney.po...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Awesome, Nora.
>
> At the Diversity Conference, there is going to be several sessions that
> touch on this topic.
> https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference/Schedule
>
> I hope to find some more people interested in helping out among the people
> going to these sessions. In the mean time, I'm interested in hearing your
> ideas.
>
> Sydney
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Oct 25, 2013, at 14:31, "trueself56 ." <truesel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I would be interested in doing more work in this area. If interested
> people would like to contact me directly or through the list, we can see
> what we know to be true. Of course, the assistance of Sydney and/or other
> experienced people will be needed to move *this *goal to an effective
> action state.
> Regards,
> Nora (Norawashere)
>
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> Gendergap mailing list
> Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
>
>
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