Tony1 has made some comments about the 2014 Annual Plan:
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Proposal_talk:2014_Annual_Plan and I hope we will be hearing more from others! In regard to his comment about WMAU being represented at international events, it's probably worth a broader discussion of some of the issues here. In 2013, we didn't budget any money for participation in international community events, precisely because we (the committee) were doubtful about the benefits from "chinwagging" relative to the costs. However, that has been interpreted by others as not engaging with the broader community, etc. In particular we had a certain amount of criticism for not being represented at the Chapters Conference. The other issue here is that, despite all the electronic means of communication, people still seem to need face-to-face meetings (and, in particular, the act of eating together) to build trust and goodwill; this is something that I have seen so many times in my years in international standards development (even though almost all the people I worked with were IT people and hence those who one might think most able to work effectively electronically). And trust/goodwill is important when it comes to getting money, so it may be that an international airfare for some carefully-chosen event (meaning "who" will be there) might be an excellent investment. So that's why it's on the list of possibilities for discussion. Kerry
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