Hi Anders, There is an expression in Macedonian that says „Секое вештачко нешто се распаѓа на природен начин.“ (Every artificial creation breaks down naturally.). This is exactly what is going to happen with this strategy.
Best regards, Kiril On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 7:05 PM Anders Wennersten <m...@anderswennersten.se> wrote: > There is a Swedish expression "har man tagit fan i båten får man ro > honom i land" (If you have taken the devil into your boat you must row > him ashore" > > Independent if this process has been bad or not, I see it is as just > some six month left of it. And it is important to do the best of it. It > would be a bad move to stop it at thois point in time, and would also be > too late to correct the process if it has been flawed. > > Anders > > > Den 2019-03-27 kl. 14:05, skrev Itzik - Wikimedia Israel: > > > Hi, > > > > Two weeks ago I sent this email to my strategy working group (resource > > allocation). I didn't plan to send a public email, just to share with the > > rest of the group my reason to leave and just to disappear. > > I receive feedbacks with many of the group members and also requesting > > permissions to transfer it with others outside of the group, which leads > to > > more conversations that I had around it. > > > > Last week we had our weekly phone call, during which we discussed our > > feelings and opinions about the process so far. From our long > conversation > > and the conversations with the others, I learned that many of these > > feelings exist among the other members, as well some ideas on how to make > > it easier and less demanding and at the same time publishing the > > conclusions sooner. > > Yesterday, following a good conversation with one of the WMF's board > > members about it, I was asked to share these thoughts with the movement's > > list, so that it may also involve the community's feedback as well. > > > > > > > > *Itzik Edri* > > Chairperson (volunteer) > > it...@wikimedia.org.il > > +972-54-5878078 > > > > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message --------- > > From: Itzik - Wikimedia Israel <it...@wikimedia.org.il> > > Date: Wed, Mar 13, 2019 at 2:08 PM > > Subject: I decided to leave the working group > > To: <wg2030-resourceallocat...@wikimedia.org> > > > > Dear friends, > > > > For a long time I have been considering leaving the working group but > each > > time I decided to give it another chance. Yesterday, after long > > consideration, I decided to write this email. > > > > I must be honest - I was skeptical from the first moment about this > > process. The huge amount of money which the board allocated to this > process > > together with the complicated and (very) long process planned for it - > make > > me doubt the ability to really have a real outcome in a reasonable time. > > For the past two years, it seems to me like the strategy took over almost > > every movement event and activity. I feel bad for investing millions of > > dollars from our donations and uncounted hours of volunteer time into > this > > process. > > > > I also felt hypocritical in the way the foundation acts - while > "freezing" > > grant programs (such as APG) and holding affiliates from increasing their > > programs and budgets, "because of the strategy process" while > > simultaneously approving itself to increase its budget and staff year > after > > year by tens of percentage. > > > > Despite my distrust of the chances of this process and the criticism I > felt > > for it, I instructed my organization to give it the full support we been > > asked, as all our movement did. Later on, I decided to join this working > > group as I felt we almost reached the final step of the process and I > > wanted to help shape the recommendations. I was totally wrong. > > > > In the first months of the workgroups, I felt it was completely wasted of > > time. I saw how wonderful volunteers tried to lead the process within > each > > group (thank you Daria!) - but it wasn't their job, nor none of us. I > felt > > like I was returning to university, and every few weeks I received > > instructions and homework from the lecturer, with assignments to the > > following week - and in between, that we need to lead it and solve things > > by ourselves. It took the core team a few months to change it and bring > > external support, but even after the (right) change, it continues to feel > > like I came *to work for *the strategic process, not with. > > > > I felt like nothing happened for the past year(or years?) before the > > working groups started to operate. As if we didn't have hundreds of > > meetings around the world, with a total of tens of thousands of people > and > > an enormous amount of hours of conversations - and aside from a short few > > sentences of a strategic direction, we started from scratch. A completely > > new process. > > From scratch to have discussions about what this process is, definitions > > and concepts. What is the problem with the current system? What are the > > challenges? What people shared during the first phase? Information which > > wasn't available and ready for the group, and still isn't. Eight months > > after we start, the real conversation about the subject which I joined to > > discuss about and help shape recommendations around it, is far, far away > > from even to start. > > > > The more I spoke to more and more people who are part of the process, I > > realized that this despair is not only with me but with many. But we are > a > > real Wikimedians, and we are committed to the things we start. We are bad > > with stopping things when they don't work or have real reviews of the > > things we do when we have the belief that this is the right thing. I > > completely stopped thinking it is the right thing to our movement. > > > > Last month, in our in-person meeting in Berlin, one of the opening > > activities was to sum up the number of years we were all members of the > > movement. Just think about doing the same, and sum up the number of > > volunteer (and staff) hours invested until now in this process. We are > > talking about tens of thousands of hours of work not even taking into > > consideration the huge amount of money involved. > > And the end of the process is very far away. > > > > In one of our discussions, we doubt if to include volunteers as a > resource > > which can be allocated. We decided at the end it can't as such, but just > > try to imagine it was, and try to think about a future whatever-will-be > the > > resource allocation body/structure: how he would deal with the decision > > whether to approve such a huge amount of volunteer time and money in the > > process. Did the WMF's board even consider and discuss these resources > and > > how it will affect the movement during the process years? I doubt. > > > > We tend to say that the movement newest project is WikiData. I think we > may > > need to start address WikiStrategy as the newest project. Just think > about > > what we could do with that amount of resources. > > > > The idea to massively involve the wide community within this process was > > the right decision - but the implementations from my point of view were > > wrong. > > If the last strategy process was totally handled by outsiders - we took > > this one completely to its opposite, without finding the right balance. > > > > A strategy process is important, there is no doubt. And our movement > needs > > one, there is no doubt. > > But a strategy process can't take over the organization' activities for > > *years.* > > > > I want to warmly thank you, my teammates. It is heartwarming to see the > > commitment and amazing energy of all the members of this process, and of > > course, the core team which is dedicated to bringing a change. I have no > > doubt that we all want to secure the future of our movement to years to > > come and I don't know of such a high level of engagement and commitment > > anywhere else. But at the same time, I think we should put limits to it > and > > reconsider it - and think how to make it shorter, lighter, less demanding > > and expensive - both from the perspective of staff/volunteer time and > money. > > > > > > Yours, > > Itzik. > > > > > > > > *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>
