I'm shocked to read about this. Grant recieving & execution is a serious process especially since the Chapter is a legal body and there has been much disgruntlement in the past on financial matters. Misappropriation of funds is a criminal act.
I would caution all people requesting grants to :- * Plan & propose the detailed plan, with specifics, estimated costs. timeline, deliverables and outcome. * Spend money wisely & appropriately. Rs 6,100/- for an anniversary cake is completely ridiculous. Cakes can be cheaper and no fancy graphics required. * Keep proper bills & accounting of all expenditure. * Put up all accounts after the event & re-imburse unspent money. * Each expenditure to show which person is responsible or who carried it out. * Publish the expenses to the community as a matter of principal routinely. It is extremely easy to lose one's reputation which cannot be restored in your lifetime! On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 4:20 PM, sibi kanagaraj <civil.si...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all , > > This is to bring to the attention of the larger Wikimedia Community about > concerns regarding Abhishek Surywanshi’s ( User profile - > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ACentralAuth&target=AbhiSuryawanshi > ) wikimedia activities and use of movement funds. > > While edit counts are not the only way to assess the value of a contributor > and people are encourage to do outreach, I am seeing a clear pattern that he > has been very active consistently only in offline activities that involve > large scale funds. > > History of programs or events where he has used or applied to use movement > funds: > > 1)A Travel and Participation grant request for travel to US from India for > Wikimedia Outreach in US - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:TPS/AbhiSuryawanshi/NASA_LARSS_program > . The community and EC members of Wikimedia India disapproved of this grant > request. > > 2)Wikipedia Summit Pune - > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Summit_Pune . How much was > spent and how? Where is the expenses report? Following failure to abide by > terms regarding financial transactions, Wikimedia India banned supporting > him financially and passed a resolution regarding this. ( As per > http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Grants/WikiConnect_Pilot_-_January_2015 ) > > 3)Various (mostly flight) travel and stay to many different conferences / > meetups across India in the recent past. Community approval for these are > not clearly seen. > *Swatantra conference 2014 > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Requests/Swatantra_2014/Participation#Request_for_Support > (On behalf of which community?) > *India Community Consultation 201 4 - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Community_Consultation_2014#Hindi > (Self-nomination (?) on behalf of Hindi Community where he has made 425 > edits. > Bengali Wikipedia 10 years celebration in Kolkatta during Jan 2015 (On > behalf of which community?) > > > Following are some of his proposed activities that will need a grant made > in near future: > > 1)Wikipedia Summit India in Pune during 2015 - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/WikipediaSummitIndia > > 2)Travel and participation grant request for 1125 US dollars for round trip > travel from Pune to United States for conducting Indic outreach in United > states - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Harvard_India_Conference_and_Wiki_Workshop > > 3)WikiConnect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiConnect - No > idea about the budget. The pilot he is doing in Nashik needs 6100 INR for a > cake itself and reimbursement for 15 days of his stay and food. > > 4)Further outreach in US - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Indic_Language_Wikipedia_Outreach_in_United_States > > > Some of the concerns: > > 1.He is using and proposes to keep using movement funds in large scale with > questionable impact which are against the learnings already documented at > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation > > 2.He is using fictitious and misleading titles like Ambassador, Wikipedia to > establish non-transparent relationships with numerous organizations in and > outside India - > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiConnect/Pilot_Project#mediaviewer/File:Wikipedia_Nashik_Workshop_Participants_January_2015.jpg > . This has the risk of damaging goodwill and brand name for Wikipedia. > > 4)When a current GAC member and former Wikimedia India EC member seeks > details regarding his grant request and reminds the current EC about the > ban, he is hinting legal action against chapter (As per > http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Grants/WikiConnect_Pilot_-_January_2015 ) > > As a community member, I request the funding agencies in the movement to > take stock of this situation and implement intense scrutiny for funding > requests with proper evaluation of program design and due process for having > community approval by experienced Wikimedians. > > Please donot proceed ahead without community discussion or approval. > > Executive decisions circumventing community approval will never help the > movement. > > > -Sibi Kanagaraj > User:Commons Sibi ( > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ACentralAuth&target=Commons+sibi > ) > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > -- Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur ------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
