Wikimedia Canada was not the requester behind having Wikimania in Montreal, so it cannot be blamed for that. A "Wikimania Montreal Committee", now defunct, was behind the request to WMF to have Wikimania in Montreal and they did not coordinate with the chapter in doing this. As a chapter, we are picking up some of the slack right now to ensure a smooth conference, but I don't think it is fair to blame the chapter for not doing this.
Jean-Philippe Béland Vice President, Wikimedia Canada User:Amqui On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 6:57 AM, Lodewijk <[email protected]> wrote: > I wonder, do we keep track of the number of visa rejections year over > year, so that we know in comparison? > > There are of course many factors that go into venue selection - one of > them is visa (another is security, political stability etc). The countries > that I remember going relatively smoothly were the ones where the > organizers sought a collaboration with the foreign affairs of their > country, to get some help. I don't know if Wikimedia Canada was able to > accomplish that. But it does mean that a general bad reputation is not > necessarily a bad rejection rate for this particular conference. (if memory > serves me well, WMIL did a great job in this respect in 2011, for example) > > Lodewijk > > On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 12:48 PM, Felix Nartey <[email protected]> wrote: > >> This is a big issue and I think should be looked into more seriously. >> Similar challenges were faced by participants from the Global South >> selected to attend the CC Summit in Toronto early this year. >> >> This should inform future selection for all conference venues as it >> allows for poor representation of the Global South at international >> conferences. >> >> Cheers, >> >> >> >> On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 10:13 AM, Gnangarra <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> These issues are a symptom of the closed processes that have occurred >>> firstly with Montreal and next year with middle eastern attendees to Cape >>> Town . Acknowledging that the change was because of the amount effort put >>> in by unsuccessful bidders was said to be wasted its showing that some >>> things need to be opened for community discussion before decisions are >>> made. >>> >>> That it may be better for the WMF to require applicants to first obtain >>> a visa before being confirmed for the scholarships in the future. >>> Perth/Australia is another place that visas for attendees wouldnt have been >>> a big issue. >>> >>> On 22 June 2017 at 17:43, cs <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> That’s one of the reasons why I proposed Bangkok, Thailand, for 2019 >>>> - apart from its extremely tolerant social cultures and very low cost, >>>> while being a very modern hi-tech city easily accessible by direct >>>> flights from most parts of the world. Almost everyone can enter the >>>> country for at least 15 days without even a visa. Thailand only makes >>>> it difficult for people wanting to stay longer (years) in the country on >>>> the pretext of being tourists. >>>> >>>> It’s a shame for the visa refusals, but perhaps this will open up the >>>> possibility to some refused scholarship applications. >>>> >>>> Kudpung. >>>> >>>> On 22Jun, 2017, at 16:23, Bodhisattwa Mandal < >>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> The main topic of discussion among the scholarship recipients from >>>> global south this month is the high visa rejection rate by Canadian >>>> embassies from these countries. >>>> >>>> This year, we had 7 scholarship recipients from Bengali community, 4 >>>> from India and 3 from Bangladesh. Already 3 out of 4 scholarship recipients >>>> from Indian part of the communities got their visa rejected, others are >>>> waiting. Although I am hoping for the best for all the scholarship >>>> recipients, but may be news of more rejections are coming soon. >>>> >>>> Wikimania should be organised in a visa friendly country, and not in >>>> those countries where global south citizens are not allowed to enter even >>>> for a 6-days conference. Otherwise, a global community is not truly >>>> presented. >>>> >>>> Best wishes, >>>> Bodhisattwa >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> GN. >>> President Wikimedia Australia >>> WMAU: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra >>> Photo Gallery: http://gnangarra.redbubble.com >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> *Felix Nartey* >> *Cofounder/Director Finance & Admin* >> *Open Foundation West Africa <https://openfoundationwestafrica.org/>* >> *+233242844987 <+233%2024%20284%204987> | +447440959477 >> <+44%207440%20959477>* >> *Skype:Flixtey* >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > > -- Jean-Philippe Béland [image: Wikimedia Canada] Vice-président — Wikimédia Canada <https://ca.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?uselang=fr>, chapitre national soutenant Wikipédia Vice president — Wikimedia Canada <https://ca.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?uselang=en>, national chapter supporting Wikipedia 535 avenue Viger Est, Montréal (Québec) H2L 2P3,[email protected]
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