On 31 March 2014 08:10, Jon Davies <jon.dav...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
> Apologies for delay in replying but I have been away.
>
> As previously stated our relationship as a chapter in this isntance is with
> Kwaku as a volunteer.
>
> We organised an editathon last year with BTWSC/BBM as you know. Not funding
> was involved.

It might be an idea to let one of your employees handle international
events and answer questions like these when you are on holiday rather
than leaving a silence. Questions were raised as far back as 20th
March, which is a long time in advance of the event for there to be no
answers on basic logistics or matters of governance and reputation.[1]

I am puzzled by your statement that WMUK ran an editathon last year in
partnership with BritishBlackMusic.com without offering to support
with any expenses. For the workshop on Saturday in Accra, the UK did
provide funding and official merchandizing though the amount paid or
promised has not been published.

I am concerned that your statement that there was no relationship with
BTWSC or BritishBlackMusic.com for Saturday's workshop in Ghana as you
are retrospectively contradicting the published advertizing:
* Wikimedia UK's events page listed the workshop with a link of
"BritishBlackMusic.com_in_assn_with_BTWSC/Wikimedia_UK" which is an
unambiguous claim that BritishBlackMusic.com were providing it in
association with Wikimedia UK.[2]
* The official Eventbrite listing states that the workshop in Accra
was organized by BritishBlackMusic.com and that this was officially
supported by Wikimedia UK.[3]

Wikimedia UK was alerted to these questions well in advance of the
workshop. Why did you take no corrective action before the wokshop if
the advertising by BritishBlackMusic.com falsely claimed a partnership
with Wikimedia UK?

Wikimedia UK did not contact the local Wikimedian community in Ghana,
a significant failure to use the opportunity to create positive
relationships with the proto-chapter there, or to ask them for help to
ensure that the money the UK chapter was spending was put to best use.
Luckily, the local community took the initiative to coordinate their
own attendance and response.[4] However there are serious questions
about the UK charity's management and support of this workshop:
* "I'm not being jealous or envious here for the Wikimedia UK
'empowering' Kwaku, but the question is, on what basis was he given
such a privilege? The less than 50 edits? Or because he's
black-skinned and says verbally he comes from Ghana?"
* "Even after your asking, [no] email has *officially* come in from
[Wikimedia UK]. We're just negligible in their eyes."

As you have a personal interest in inter-chapter relations, you may
wish to follow-up to ameliorate this damage to the reputation of the
charity. As you took time to remind me 11 days ago, it is up to you
what you wish to spend your time on.

[Adding wikimedia-gh as I have quoted statements on that public list
in this email.]

Links:
1. 
https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Water_cooler&diff=54401&oldid=54324
2. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Events&oldid=54679
3. 
http://web.archive.org/web/20140327135842/http://www.eventbrite.com/e/talking-wikipedia-in-ghana-tickets-10971368659?aff=es2
4. http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-gh/2014-March/001510.html

Fae
-- 
fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae

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