Hi Itzik, I understand your good point regarding the difficulty of scheduling due to chairpersons' availability for volunteer activities. Would having online meetings make scheduling be easier?
I think that I understand your choice to use an external facilitator. I am willing to support spending money when I think that the benefits make the costs worthwhile. Also, I support spending money on pilot projects when I think that the risks are reasonable. I want people to feel okay about taking some risks with pilot projects. If a pilot project fails completely, sometimes that is okay after a well-considered decision was made to take the risk and the people who attempted the pilot project did a reasonably good job in the circumstances. I wouldn't want a failed pilot project to have unanticipated costs of hundreds of hours of volunteers' time or many thousands of donated dollars to clean up, so not every failure of a pilot project is okay, but I can support some failures and reasonable expenses. I have failed myself on more than one occasion, and with experience I am getting better at understanding how failures happen and recovering faster, and having a more positive attitude about some types of failures. So, I support other people making pilot projects, taking some risks, and spending some time and money, even if some projects fail. The chairs' meetings seem to be successful, and I hope that the meetings will continue. Thanks for your work on these meetings. Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) On Tue, Jan 1, 2019 at 10:58 AM Itzik - Wikimedia Israel < it...@wikimedia.org.il> wrote: > Hi Pine, > > So far the chairperson meetings took place during Wikimedia Summit or > Wikimania, and some other were online. So yes, undoubtedly there are ways > to prevent more travels, and this is what we did for the past four years. > > You mentioned three factors about international meetings, but you forgot > one important one. The chairpersons are volunteers, so the element of > vacation days is also a factor which we need to consider when we evaluate > such volunteers meetings. Adding another two days meeting to Wikimania for > example (which was this year in a distant destination) - can mean almost a > week off to the ones that would have participated. Also, we worked to > arrange this meeting for a quite long time, additional to other > work-related and our affiliate's obligations. And even if we wanted, we > couldn't be ready enough with this meeting enough time before Wikimania, in > a way that will also give enough notice time to the chairs (some of them > didn't attend Wikimania this year). > > As far as we were concerned, it was a pilot, so it was very important for > us to be assisted by an external facilitator and to be immediately > attentive to feedback to assess the value of the meeting. > > Thank you for the warm words in your email summary. > > > *Itzik Edri* > Chairperson > it...@wikimedia.org.il > +972-54-5878078 > > > > > On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 5:39 AM Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi Itzik, Frans, and Vojtěch, > > > > I am very behind on email but I wanted to say thanks for sharing this > > report from the chairpersons' meeting. > > > > I am wondering whether, for the purposes of (1) increasing the cost > > effectiveness of travel expenses, (2) reducing the negative environmental > > effects from travel, and (3) increasing the number of chairpersons who > > participate, if future meetings could be scheduled immediately before or > > after Wikimania or the Wikimedia (WMF + Affiliates) Summit. > Alternatively, > > future meetings could be held online so that travel is not necessary. > What > > do you think? > > > > Thanks again for sharing this report. I get the impression that the > > chairpersons found the meeting to be valuable, and I hope that similar > > meetings will happen in the future. My guess is that being a chair of a > > Wikimedia affiliate can require significant time and involve difficult > > conversations. I'm grateful for those who volunteer their time to serve. > > > > Regards, > > > > Pine > > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > > > > > > On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 8:31 PM Itzik - Wikimedia Israel < > > it...@wikimedia.org.il> wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > For four years now, since Wikimania 2014 in London, the chairpersons of > > the > > > recognized chapters have met as a group twice a year, during Wikimania > > and > > > the Wikimedia Conference (now the Wikimedia Summit), usually for 1 - 2 > > > hours during one of the lunch breaks. > > > > > > I started to arrange these meetings as an opportunity for the > > chairpersons > > > to meet, and the concept of these meetings at the beginning was to host > > > every time a different person from our movement. > > > > > > Later on, Tim Moritz Hector (WMDE) and Frans Grijzenhout (WMNL) joined > to > > > help me arrange and plan these meetings, and as result also from the > > > feedback of the other chairs, we changed the concept to discussions and > > > presentations format in order to speak about issues related to the > > > organizations we represent and our movement in general. We also > created a > > > mailing list as a place to get updates but also to raise questions and > > > share information (such as questions related to the organization's > > > policies, ED, board issues and other). > > > > > > About half a year ago, Frans and me thought we had to take these > meetings > > > to a higher level, and, for the first time, we proposed to organize a > two > > > days meeting, where we can have a dedicated time, without interruptions > > > (and lunch on our tables...) in order to focus on bigger issues. > > > > > > We already have board trainings for new board members, but we don’t > have > > > any program which supports the chairpersons as leaders of their boards > > and > > > their organizations. So we decided to focus on improving the > > interpersonal > > > skills and leadership competencies of chairpersons and give them other > > > tools to become better and more effective in their roles. > > > > > > In order to achieve this, we decided to contract an experienced > external > > > trainer & facilitator. > > > > > > In the beginning, we planned to have this meeting with all the > > > chairpersons, from the big and from the small chapters. But as the > WMF’s > > > grants program were temporarily not accepting new grants requests, we > > > weren't able to get support to finance the participation of the small > > > chapters which didn’t have the budget to cover the costs. > > > > > > So in the end, we hold a smaller meeting a week ago (hosted by WMCZ in > > > Prague), with 17 chairpersons which could cover the travel and meeting > > > costs (with a small grant from the WMF to help to support part of the > > > facilitator's fee). > > > > > > During the meeting (or you can also call it a retreat) we had workshops > > and > > > sessions to know each other better, to speak about effective and > > > accountable boards, team dynamics, failures (and how to continue) and > > work > > > on interpersonal skills and more. > > > > > > We decided to share with you the results and feedback we received, > which > > > may be used by other groups or similar events: > > > > > > > > > https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MOBru_m1wQu-IESItb5IWjWp9mVVdRuG/view?usp=sharing > > > > > > You can read more about the meeting on Meta: > > > > > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_Chairpersons_meeting_November_24_-_25,_2018 > > > > > > And also the notes of some of the session: > > > > > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Affiliate_Chairpersons_meeting_November_24_-_25,_2018 > > > > > > We felt this information will be valuable to share with the rest of the > > > movement. > > > > > > Yours, > > > Itzik, Frans, and Vojtěch (WMCZ) > > > > > > > > > > > > *Itzik Edri* > > > Chairperson > > > it...@wikimedia.org.il > > > +972-54-5878078 > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
