As I recall, there was a reason for that professionalisation. Something to do with a mismanaged conflict of interest by a board member, compounded by a PR scandal involving a certain other. Be careful where you point those rose-tinted spectacles.
And re: Richard, diversity of experience is of course to be welcomed. The skills required run an office, keep the books, manage staff, or ensure compliance with byzantine charity and company law are not the same skills required in writing and researching encyclopaedia articles about castles or war memorials for example, but diversity is not achieved by only recruiting people who are *not* from a specific background any more than it is by recruiting *only* from a given background. (I'm trying to choose my words very carefully here. My criticism is not of the Wikimedia UK staff and certainly not of any individual staff member, all of whom I know to be dedicated and hard-working, some of whom I am fortunate to count as friends, and none of whom deserve to be singled out on a public mailing list - something I've been careful to avoid.) Harry Mitchell http://enwp.org/User:HJ +44 (0) 7507 536 971 Skype: harry_j_mitchell On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 10:09 PM Fæ <fae...@gmail.com> wrote: > Seems negative Harry. This is surely the outcome that everyone > expected when the WMUK board was professionalised by going from > volunteer led, to appointing trustees without even minimal Wikimedia > project experience. Add to this a significant reduction in > transparency and reducing elections, while claiming improved > governance, means that volunteers are disengaged and uninformed. We > all saw this happening a long time ago. > > As evidence that something is amiss, the last AGM failed to be > quorate, but this was spun as a great success. Underpinning this was > the weirdness over membership numbers, which I guess is not important > as members no longer have access to any regular reports of membership, > so we cannot really make any comment about it. > > WMUK is a very different organisation from the one we established, and > its function appears to be mostly as a funding partner for GLAMs to > set up residential programmes, with a few editathons, rather than > fostering a creative community of open knowledge volunteers doing new > and different stuff. If us unpaid volunteers think we need > coordination rather than just acting individually, then it makes sense > that we go back to the way things used to work before 2010 and > coordinate ourselves as a free society, rather than waiting for a > charity which no longer has those skills, and certainly will not > allocate the employee time, to do it to us. > > P.S. before someone sends me a haranguing email telling me what a > terrible person I am, I refuse to feel bad about spending my volunteer > time supporting open knowledge, or my lack of interest in covering > every issue with soft soap. > > Thanks, and I hope everyone is planning lots of fun stuff for the New > Year, not just talking about Brexit, > Fae > -- > fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae > > On Mon, 7 Jan 2019 at 20:49, Harry Mitchell <hjmw...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > The Wikimedia UK wiki used to see a lot of activity. It was never > coherently organised, but the staff and volunteers who were running > projects used it as a sort of filing cabinet for documentation of events > etc, and a small group of us used to keep an eye on the recent changes for > spam and other rubbish but those days seem to be long gone. > > > > With the key functions of the wiki non-functioning, it is close to > useless as a coordination hub and discussion venue and therefore the WMUK > community, such as it is (a smaller subset of the community on this mailing > list with a more specific function) is essentially homeless. That this does > not seem to be a high priority, much less cause for alarm, is in my opinion > a reflection on the fact that there is nobody in any senior position at > WMUK with any deep background on the Wikimedia projects - something it's > hard to shake the feeling is a deliberate hiring decision. > > > > Harry Mitchell > > http://enwp.org/User:HJ > > +44 (0) 7507 536 971 > > Skype: harry_j_mitchell > > > > > > On Sun, Jan 6, 2019 at 10:09 PM Lucy Crompton-Reid < > lucy.crompton-r...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote: > >> > >> Thanks Chris, and apologies that these issues are still not resolved - > I appreciate that this is very frustrating. I'll need to look into this > over the next few days and get back to you, but just wanted to acknowledge > your message in the meantime. Cheers, Lucy > >> > >> On Sun, 6 Jan 2019 at 17:27, Chris McKenna <cmcke...@sucs.org> wrote: > >>> > >>> This issue was raised on the wiki and this mailing list at the end of > >>> November. We were assured then that the problem, apparently also > affecting > >>> QRpedia among other things, and action was in hand to resolve this > problem > >>> and prevent similar issues in the future. > >>> > >>> However, over a month later (albeit with Christmas in the way) there > is no > >>> evidence that anything has happened (I have made two edits to the > sandbox > >>> today, should anyone wish to do their own testing). > >>> > >>> This leads to some questions: > >>> -Is it really the case that there is only a single volunteer who can > fix > >>> the wiki? > >>> -If so, how and why has this been allowed to happen? > >>> -What contingency plans does WMUK have in case this volunteer dies or > >>> otherwise becomes permanently (or long term) unvailable, with or > without > >>> warning? > >>> -If not, why has the problem not been fixed yet? > >>> In either case: > >>> -What is the timescale for fixing the problems? > >>> -What concrete actions have been undertaken since November to prevent > this > >>> happening again? > >>> -What concrete actions are pl > > Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote.anned > to be undertaken in the future to > >>> prevent this happening again (short and long term), and what is the > >>> timescale for them happening? > >>> > >>> ---- > >>> Chris McKenna > >>> > >>> cmcke...@sucs.org > >>> www.sucs.org/~cmckenna > >>> > >>> > >>> The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, > >>> but with the heart > >>> > >>> Antoine de Saint Exupery > >>> > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Wikimedia UK mailing list > >>> wikimediau...@wikimedia.org > >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > >>> WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Lucy Crompton-Reid > >> Chief Executive > >> Wikimedia UK > >> +44 (0) 203 372 0762 > >> > >> Wikimedia UK is the national chapter for the global Wikimedia open > knowledge movement, and a registered charity. We rely on donations from > individuals to support our work to make knowledge open for all. Have you > considered supporting Wikimedia? https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk > >> > >> Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, > Registered No. 6741827 > >> Registered Charity No.1144513 > >> Registered Office Ground Floor, Europoint, 5 - 11 Lavington Street, > London SE1 0NZ > >> > >> The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate > Wikipedia, amongst other projects). Wikimedia UK is an independent > non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility > for its contents. > > Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote. > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Wikimedia UK mailing list > >> wikimediau...@wikimedia.org > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > >> WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia UK mailing list > > wikimediau...@wikimedia.org > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > > WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia UK mailing list > wikimediau...@wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
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