In the meeting this Saturday we officially recorded the deep regret of everyone present at the withdrawal of the Pune community from the conference organisation. What is more regretful is that no explanation was given for this drastic step, and no open discussion took place on the issues which led to this split. While the policy questions about the composition of working groups, and scholarships and hosting for volunteers were resolved, it seems personal disagreements still linger. We are already quite thin on the ground in Mumbai, and need more volunteers and enthusiasts for the conference to be successful. For Mumbai's sister city of Pune to secede at this nascent stage in the formation of the all-India Wikipedia movement is indeed sad. At our meeting on Saturday, we discussed these points, and how we can strengthen the working group by assigning official Points of Contact (PoC) in every team/committee. For each team there will be a "backup" PoC if the main PoC cannot attend weekly online meetings, and devote time to their organisational duties. This conference needs all the help it can get. Certain teams (logistics/venue, technical/IT, party/fun) will benefit from PoCs based in Mumbai, but all working groups can benefit from participation by Wikipedians anywhere in India, including Pune. S.K. On 09/18/2011 05:12 PM, Kundan Amitabh wrote: -- Shekhar Krishnan 58/58A, Anand Bhavan 201, T.H. Kataria Marg (Lady Hardinge Road) Mahim, Mumbai 400016, India http://heptanesia.net http://web.mit.edu/shekhar _______________________________________________ WikiConference-India mailing list WikiConference-India(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikiconference-india

Thank you Pradeep for the sentiments. It is indeed sad that we could not work together but our mutual respect continues and indeed we continue to support the WikiConference. Individual members of the Pune community continue to work in their individual capacities. We are confident that with effort of Mumbai community supported by all Indian Wikimedians including friends from abroad, the Conference will be a great success. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur ------------------------------------------------------ On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 10:09 PM, Pradeep Mohandas &lt;pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com <mailto:pradeep.mohandas@gmail.com>> wrote: Dear Mandar and the Pune community, I'm writing this email on behalf of Pranav, myself and everyone else in the Mumbai Community. We are really sorry that Pune has pulled out of being co-hosts. In this email, we wanted to apologise for our contribution in your making this decision and acknowledge the effort that the Pune community has put in into this Conference. We feel bad that the situation has come to this. It is not fair for only one party to take the blame for making such a decision. For all the faults that we may have committed knowingly or unknowingly, “Sorry”. At this point, it will be unfair if we did not acknowledge the role that Pune has played in bringing the Conference to this point. Let me re-assert that the Conference would not have taken off without the help of the Pune community. For everything that you have done, please accept our heartfelt “Thank you”. We also want to say that we need a lot of help in taking forward the conference and we do hope that the Pune community will be involved in any and every capacity they choose for the conference. Warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas On 19 September 2011 17:36, Shekhar Krishnan &lt;shekhar(a)mit.edu <mailto:shekhar@mit.edu>> wrote: In the meeting this Saturday we officially recorded the deep regret of everyone present at the withdrawal of the Pune community from the conference organisation. What is more regretful is that no explanation was given for this drastic step, and no open discussion took place on the issues which led to this split. While the policy questions about the composition of working groups, and scholarships and hosting for volunteers were resolved, it seems personal disagreements still linger. We are already quite thin on the ground in Mumbai, and need more volunteers and enthusiasts for the conference to be successful. For Mumbai's sister city of Pune to secede at this nascent stage in the formation of the all-India Wikipedia movement is indeed sad. At our meeting on Saturday, we discussed these points, and how we can strengthen the working group by assigning official Points of Contact (PoC) in every team/committee. For each team there will be a "backup" PoC if the main PoC cannot attend weekly online meetings, and devote time to their organisational duties. This conference needs all the help it can get. Certain teams (logistics/venue, technical/IT, party/fun) will benefit from PoCs based in Mumbai, but all working groups can benefit from participation by Wikipedians anywhere in India, including Pune. S.K. On 09/18/2011 05:12 PM, Kundan Amitabh wrote: organisation of the <http://www.angindia.co/> <mailto:mvkulkarni23@yahoo.co.uk> <mailto:mvkulkarni23@yahoo.co.uk>>> <mailto:wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> <mailto:wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>>>, <mailto:wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> <mailto:wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>>" <mailto:wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> <mailto:wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>>> <mailto:1316184174.35491.YahooMailNeo@web24004.mail.ird.yahoo.com> <mailto:1316184174.35491.YahooMailNeo@web24004.mail.ird.yahoo.com <mailto:1316184174.35491.YahooMailNeo@web24004.mail.ird.yahoo.com>>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > Dear All, > This to formally communicate to all that Pune wikipedians are > withdrawing from the co-hosting of the Conference due to the differences > came in?Mumbai > and Pune communities and many other unresolved?issues. > For your information pls. > With Regards, > Mandar V. Kulkarni > ----------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-in-mum mailing list > Wikimedia-in-mum(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:Wikimedia-in-mum@lists.wikimedia.org> -- Shekhar Krishnan 58/58A, Anand Bhavan 201, T.H. Kataria Marg (Lady Hardinge Road) Mahim, Mumbai 400016, India http://heptanesia.net http://web.mit.edu/shekhar _______________________________________________ WikiConference-India mailing list WikiConference-India(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:WikiConference-India@lists.wikimedia.org> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikiconference-india -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-in-mum mailing list Wikimedia-in-mum(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-mum