Hi Gerard, You don’t have to be able to communicate in English to vote for the representative who needs to communicate in English Cheers, Peter
-----Original Message----- From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Gerard Meijssen Sent: Sunday, 06 March 2016 9:45 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Access and Participation in the ASBS Hoi, I am the last one to say that multi-linguality is not important. However, given that the affiliates board is selected by an organisation that NEEDS to communicate in English, I disagree. It is vital for people of the affiliates to have a reasonable understanding of English and when they do not, this is not the place to start remedying it. Thanks, GerardM On 6 March 2016 at 08:36, attolippip <attolip...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear all, > > As you are (probably) aware, the 2016 affiliate-selected Board seats > process has started already. And I do think that the process is broken > somewhere [1]. The democracy principles even in my country, though it > is far from being a role model for transparency and governance, state > that people are equal and they have rights and responsibilities. But > the process at the moment is not fair and equal footing is not > provided for. It is great to have dedicated friends across the > Movement that can translate your statement into German or Chinese, but > as long as not all statements are translated into the languages used > in all affiliates eligible to vote, I deem the process broken. > > Thus I formally request that WMF spend enough resources to have all > nominations pages translated into all languages requested by the > affiliates eligible to vote [2] [3] and all languages used already by > the nominees. I am sure that the three facilitators cannot provide it. > And there are limits to what volunteers can do [4] or how fast. If WMF > refuses, I am going to use my own money [5], it costs 150 UAH (around > 6 USD) to have a page translated into Swedish, for example :) I can > manage 7 pages translated into as many languages as my personal budget > will allow, but I shall do it fairly at least, so we won’t have > Susanna’s statement only in English and Spanish, while Osmar’s is also > in German, Catalan and French. WMF spends considerable resources > (mostly in staff time) on supporting the three "community-elected" > seats, but these two seats are not lesser board seats than the three > "community" ones. > > The nominees write their statement in English. Nothing wrong with > that, of course. But for a tiny little (and big) thing: not everybody > understands it well enough to make an informed choice. But even among > seven board members of Wikimedia Ukraine, two DO NOT SPEAK English, so > they can read the statements only if they [the statements] are translated > into Ukrainian. > They have no choice, actually. In discussing whether to endorse my > candidacy, they either have to believe the rest of the Board members > that I am the most wonderful candidate and the others are just not as > wonderful and that’s it, or they are to ignore the Board meeting where > this decision is to be made. They can spend time editing Wikipedia or reading > instead. > > And beyond the language issue, there is the informing and > participation > issue: I am not sure how this process is organised in other > affiliates, and how you make your decisions to vote for this or that > possibility (in terms of this, I believe that there are seven > possibilities presented at the moment, by us, as nominees. So you can > accept or decline what we seven offer). You (actually) do not know us > and if we are going to be great or poor as Board members of WMF, and > if we are the right-for-the-moment choice, but you are going to > choose. Are you really going to choose just based on your personal > contacts? Remember, in most cases administrators are chosen more > objectively, as it is almost impossible to get to know them first > personally. They are ‘judged’ by their deeds before, during and after… > Were you going to ask your communities what they think about the > candidates? And the members of your affiliate? If not, please consider > this option. We do have a sad example of an appointed Board member being not > accepted by us, as the Community. > > I am sorry for the long letter. I do believe I have a right to request > (and > suggest) this. I was a part of a team that made sure that the > Ukrainian community REALLY knows about the elections so the eligible > users on UKWP have voted [6] [7] And we really worked to make that > happen. As you can see, Board elections may be of great importance to > the whole community. So (at least) informing your own members is important, I > believe. > > Best regards, > > antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv > > Wikimedia Ukraine > > [1] There is a question about the ‘turnout in this selection process’ > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Qu > estions#Turnout_in_this_selection_process > so you’d think that people care. But do they? Really? > [2] I think that contacting each affiliate eligible to vote and asking > them if they need help to translate the statements and if yes, what > languages are required by memberships/affiliates’ leadership to read the > statements. > By doing this we also make sure that they are aware of the upcoming > elections and are engaged > > [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters > > [4] Because they just may be not willing to do it > > [5] well, I was going to translate into Ukrainian all statement > anyway, translating is the best way to read the statement thoughtfully > :) [6] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2015-May/077966.html > [7] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/St > ats _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > 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 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> ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2016.0.7442 / Virus Database: 4537/11757 - Release Date: 03/05/16 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines 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>
