Talk:Elections2014

Minutes of Conference Call by Election Committee Members on 25th August 2014
Pointed Noted


 * The list of electorate shared by WMIN Office to the election committee (On August 18) consists renewing members alone
 * There is no authentic information on new memberships and their eligibility to take part in elections. we also noticed some unanswered membership related status enquiries in WMIN-members list 1 2
 * From the conversations With executive manager elecom members understands there was a delay in processing many new membership applications by EC and WMIN office (due to non functioning of office after executive managers resignation and delay in EC approval) and application date for those applications is not considered.
 * As of now the members of WMIN does not know who all are the members. Knowing electorate is essential for candidate nomination process outlined in WMIN Election And Appointment Rules. Geographically dispersed community of WMIN members cant depend on availability of eligible voters list in office for a Wiki based online process of nominations.
 * Elecom members believe it is the role of EC to clarify the list of eligible voters, Since its members are not aware about the delay in approval of their memberships. This makes election committee functioning and candidate nomination process much easier.
 * Elecom understands the need of following a transparent and documented process for Elecom Functioning with all member signatures on all decisions.
 * Elecom Understands this effort may delay the election process than AGM legal deadlines. But we understands conducting WMIN Election fair and truthful with primary commitment to its members and Wikimedia community is our Role

Decisions


 * 1) Elecom Requests EC to share Eligible Electorate in Members Mailing list. We also request EC  to clarify on the status of Electorate eligibility for its New memberships along with the same announcement . We also request a copy of same in EC letterpad uploaded in Chapter wiki
 * 2) Elecom will issue Election notice after verifying the Electorate
 * 3) Elecom decided to open a page on Chapter wiki for documenting its functioning.

Signed by Elecom Members


 * 1) Anivar Aravind 01:46, 29 August 2014 (IST)
 * 2) D B Srinivas Rao 21:38 29 August 2014 (IST)
 * 3) Pavithra 11:47, 30 August 2014 (IST)

Minutes of Meeting with Executive committee on 20th September 2014
As per EC's invitation 2 members of Elecom DB Srinivas Rao and Anivar Aravind met Executive committee members during board meeting camp on September 20th 5PM. Pavithra couldn’t attend this meeting.
 * The EC and Election Committee deliberated and exchanged views on the election procedure and decided on a tentative schedule for the Election / AGM date.
 * EC agreed to put up membership list and eligible voters list in the wiki as per Elecom request
 * Based on EC and Elecom members convenience Nov 23 is suggested as election and AGM date

Update: WMIN EC Published membership list (as of September 30) at http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Membership_List_as_on_2014_September_30

Minutes of Elecom meeting on 5th Oct 2014
2 Elecom members, Pavithra H and Anivar Aravind met during Wikimedia India Community Consultation 2014 and finalized schedule of Election announcement. DB Srinivas Rao joined over telephone.
 * 1) Elecom decided to select Anivar Aravind as returning officer and Pavithra H and DB Srinivas Rao as polling officers.
 * 2) Elecom Requested EC for publishing eligible voters list as well. (membership approved on or before August 23rd 2014)

Election notice drafts
Election notice drafts are prepared by Elecom


 * 1) Elections2014
 * 2) Elections2014/Announcement
 * 3) Elections2014/Nominations
 * 4) Template:NFEC2014

Approved by
 * 1) Anivar Aravind 16:29, 11 October 2014 (IST)
 * 2) D B Srinivas Rao 16:51, 11 October 2014 (IST)
 * 3) Pavithra 18:09, 11 October 2014 (IST)

Email Communications with EC

 * On 11th Elecom again requested EC to provide Eligible voters list(as of August 23rd) and Pavithra H, Poling officer send a reminder for same on 16th Oct 2014
 * On 11th we requested Chapter EC to put up an election notice on Chapter wiki home page .Even though Ec updated it on News Template. Homepage is still not reflecting the change . We requested EC to sort out these technical glitches
 * Update WMIN Chapter Program Director informs following
 * Display issues in homepage fixed.
 * Chapter Wiki sitenotice and homepage carry Elections 2014 announcement.
 * WMIN FB and Twitter channels carried Elections 2014 news.
 * Jayanta informed that EC published eligible voters list

Hi Anivar, Srinivas and Pavithra. The homepage is open for editing by everyone. Feel free to highlight the election news. Let me know if you need more help publicizing the elections, IRCs. And, please call me Ravi :)--Ravi 17:21, 18 October 2014 (IST)


 * Hi Ravi, Thanks for the timely act. Please publicize the election announcement in language wiki lists and inform about IRC on Monday 20 Oct: 9.00PM - 10.30 PM . I think many members are not part of wmin-members Google groups. So it will be good if WMIN can issue a election announcement mailer to its member database . I think you have a mail chimp list of members. Sowmyan must know the details. --Anivar Aravind 00:56, 19 October 2014 (IST)


 * Anivar, I will take care of emailing the members and announcing the news about IRC in social media channels. Any volunteer is free to publicize in various language mailing lists and wikis. I will be glad to help with requests that specifically need access to restricted channels (like sitenotice, social media channels).--Ravi 13:48, 19 October 2014 (IST)

Verification and Approval of candidates
Elecom observes following points after verifying 14 applications received via WMIN wiki. No applications received by Post
 * Aishwarya Shendage - not seconded and form is not complete. This is a disqualification as per rule C 2. Elecom Decision: Disqualified
 * Edits on Sanket Oswal's nomination 14 hour after nomination deadline . Elecom decision : Rolled back edit after deadline
 * Karthik Nadar's nomination is seconded by 2 people . But Balasubramanian Jeyaraman(INDI -293) is not part of Electoral roll. Elecom decision: Striked invalid seconding.
 * Sibi Kanagaraj's seconder Balasundara Raman Lakshmanan signed with name sundar . Elecom decision: Corrected it as per membership records
 * None of the candidates have serve two consecutive terms.
 * None of the people had more than 4 nomination+proposal+seconding. (This can not be more than the number of vacancies, 6 in the present situation. Rule C2).
 * All nominated people, proposers, and seconders are eligible members who can vote.

Summary: 13 Nominations are accepted.Approved candidate nominations are following 


 * Dr. Abhiraj Suryawanshi (Proposer: Yohann Thomas, Seconded by: Sanket Oswal)
 * Dr. Ekbal Bappukunju (Proposer: Sreejith Koiloth, Seconded by: Manoj K)
 * Dr. Mahesh Mangalat (Proposer: Dr.Ranjit kumar.P, Seconded by: Hrishikesh K B)
 * Hiran Venugopalan (Proposer: Nandaja Varma, Seconded by: Sebin Abraham Jacob)
 * Karthik Nadar (Proposer: Viswanathan Prabhakaran, Seconded by: Srikanth Ramakrishnan)
 * Netha Hussain (Proposer: Viswanathan Prabhakaran, Seconded by: Prasobh G Sreedhar)
 * Nikhil Kawale (Proposer: Yohann Thomas, Seconded by: Priyanka Tiwari)
 * Priyanka Tiwari (Proposer: Sandra Thomas, Seconded by: Ninad Tarambale)
 * Sanket Oswal (Proposer: Yohann Thomas, Seconded by: Nikhil Kawale)
 * Sibi Kanagaraj (Proposer: Karthik Nadar, Seconded by: Balasundara Raman Lakshmanan)
 * Viswanathan Prabhakaran (Proposer: Netha Hussain, Seconded by:  Kalyan Sarkar)
 * Yohann Thomas (Proposer: Nikhil Kawale, Seconded by: Sanket Oswal)
 * Yogesh Khandke (Proposer: Karthik Nadar, Seconded by: Srikanth Ramakrishnan)

Signed by Elecom members


 * 1) --Anivar Aravind 13:42, 26 October 2014 (IST)
 * 2) --Pavithra 15:01, 26 October 2014 (IST)
 * 3) --D B Srinivas Rao 18:18, 26 October 2014 (IST)

Communications with EC and Mailing Lists about New Account Creation Blocking

 * Anivar wrote to wmin-members list on 30th Oct asking to remove newly introduced block on user creation and link Q&A Page . But the block is not removed but Q&A page got linked. He sent reminder again on 31st mentioning this will affect election process. Absence of response on this he wrote to EC . They mentioned it is due to increase of SPAM. Elecom requested EC to remove default block on user creation till Nov 15th.


 * A member informed Anivar and informed that non-members of a society must not interfere with its election process as per the Karnataka Society rules . The member said opening Q&A page for community may be a violation of this. Elecom this year followed last year template and example and not looked deeply into this. While we are analyzing this issue on deep, temporarily we have enabled mentioning membership number along with wiki signature mandatory for Q&A page as a compliance measure . Edits without membership number on Q&A Page will be reverted. --Anivar Aravind 18:03, 31 October 2014 (IST)


 * After analyzing the legal ground Elecom decided to restrict wiki Q&A page participation to members alone . and all questions without mentioning valid membership number will be reverted . Considering increased spam mails originating from spam user accounts in WMIN wiki, we agreed with EC's suggestion to block anonymous automatic account creation and allow account creation only via member email requests. --Anivar Aravind 17:33, 3 November 2014 (IST)

“”

Rule that the community that the chapter serves cannot participate in debates
Please share the specific rule that debars the community that the Chapter serves from participating in debates, kindly do not just share URL of the bylaws please quote relevant clauses too. Yogesh Khandke 16:13, 6 November 2014 (IST)
 * It looks like you havnt gone through the election related documents mentioned in Election page . What is the definition of "community" you are mentioning? Define it in the light of Chapter bylaws for helping us to answer your questions. Also let us know what you mean by "debate" --Anivar Aravind 16:39, 6 November 2014 (IST)
 * I haven't read, community is what the a Chapter's programmes target, debate is views shared on a subject. Yogesh Khandke 17:11, 6 November 2014 (IST)
 * We are volunteeting for conducting elections. you are not even ready to read and understand related documentation linked on Election page. We already pointed you releavent links. As clarified on mailinglist, Election is an internal affair of a membership based society. Target audience of society (Here as per bylaw Membership is open to any indian citizen) does not have any role in Election process. Participation in election process is a priviledge limited to members who are in electoral roles 3 months prior to AGM. Check documentations in case if you have a doubt  We are keeping high levels of transperancy by keeping the candidate nomination and Q&A process open to public observations. If you have any legal doubt in this regard write to WMIN Office . --Anivar Aravind 22:09, 6 November 2014 (IST)


 * "A member informed Anivar and informed that non-members of a society must not interfere with its election process as per the Karnataka Society rules . The member said opening Q&A page for community may be a violation of this. Elecom this year followed last year template and example and not looked deeply into this. While we are analyzing this issue on deep, temporarily we have enabled mentioning membership number along with wiki signature mandatory for Q&A page as a compliance measure . Edits without membership number on Q&A Page will be reverted." May? Yogesh Khandke 18:44, 6 November 2014 (IST)
 * Check the followup update. We are documenting steps here for openness and transparancy on each decisiopn point. It is not for cherrypicking. As clarified to you on mailinglist, we checked with WMIN office for legal advice and put up an update --Anivar Aravind 22:09, 6 November 2014 (IST)

Please link exact clause, is that too much to ask? Yogesh Khandke 10:25, 7 November 2014 (IST)

Need for mandatory participation of candidates in IRC
Dear Elecom, Firstly, thanks for all your volunteer efforts. I would like to request the Elecom to mandate participation of all candidates in the IRC with members. This is an important part of the process for members to understand candidates, their priories & understanding of issues facing the chapter and also their understanding of the bye laws. Please do formally communicate to the candidates to join the IRC. I would request the Elecom to not allow those candidates who dont participate in the IRC with members, from proceeding further in the Election process. The last IRC saw very poor participation from candidates. I also request that a few reminders are sent to candidates and members during the day. Thanks for your consideration. Arunram 14:56, 10 November 2014 (IST)
 * We asked EC for all candidate emails and sent mails and reminders to them on 8th November, ie 2+ Days in Advance . --Anivar Aravind 11:38, 11 November 2014 (IST)