Announcements/Communication on Chapter Accomplishments and EC vacancies

Date:25 Jul 2012

Dear Members & Wikimedia India Community,

Greetings from EC.

As we are getting started for this year's AGM and Elections, here is a summary of the Chapter accomplishments from the time of last AGM and also update on the EC vacancies.

Statutory

 * Last AGM was conducted on 24 Sep 2011. All statutory reports were filed with Registrar of Societies and Income Tax Department.
 * Chapter applied for FCRA prior permission and obtained the same. This gave financial stability to the Chapter with no additional government applications required for 3 years.
 * TAN was obtained, which is required for complying with Income Tax when making payments to Consultants, any future staff etc.

Finances

 * Bank accounts for FCRA was set up with SBI
 * Online operation of Bank account was put in place.

Communication

 * Press page and kit were prepared.
 * Updates and Interaction with members, community, WMF and other stakeholders were maintained using various mechanisms.
 * Wikimedia India site is revamped with portal for all Wikimedia India sites and Wiki project sites, advanced search facility, which was well received.

Membership

 * Chapter membership reached a high of 197 at the end of Financial year 2011-12
 * There were 39 renewals and 61 new applications adding up to a total current year membership of 100  as of 18 Jul 2012.

Projects and Events

 * Chapter co-hosted first national WikiConference India 2011 and helped in organizing it successfully.
 * Chapter supported over 15 Wiki Academies at colleges and other institutions in India from Sep 2011 till March 2012 initiating around 600 people into Wiki editing
 * Coordinated the conduct of Wiki Academies along with India programs as relevant.
 * Kick started Wiki Loves Monuments 2012.
 * Community meetups, Indian Langauge Wiki Anniversary events were  conducted  with help of City/Language SIGs across India.
 * Supported WikiSangamotsav Malayalam Wiki Conf and Wiki Eleven Celebrations at several places, Anniversary of Assamese and Kannada Wikipedia were some of the prominent events.

Governance.

 * Chapter had a smooth induction of new EC members, revamped the structure and assigned the responsibilities to support further growth.
 * CIS support for using their office as Chapter Address has been extended till end of FY 2012-13
 * Consultant, Auditor are appointed and have been offering their services for smooth conduct of chapter operations
 * Special Interest group for Language and Cities were created.
 * Special Projects team was formed for GLAM
 * Teams for Administration,Fundraising,Communications were started
 * MoU with Crafts Museum for GLAM project..
 * Policies for conduct of chapter operations, elections, funding have been put in place. Wiki is used effectively as the knowledge repository for the Chapter operations.

As you can see from the above, Chapter bootstrapping is completed and it now ready for the next phase of growth.

EC Vacancies
From the present EC, the following members (in alphabetical order of their first names) have decided to step down from EC after the upcoming AGM.


 * Arjuna Rao Chavala
 * Arun Ramarathnam
 * Naveen Francis
 * Srinivas Gunta
 * Tinu Cherian

Anirudh Singh Bhati and Sudhanwa Jogalekar will continue on the EC. Further Anirudh will be continuing till his term ends, i.e Jan 2, 2013.

All the EC members who are stepping down will continue to perform their roles till a revised EC is put in place following the Elections for EC.

We thank you for your support over the past few years and would request you to continue the same to grow Wikimedia movement.

Regards

On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter Executive committee

Arjuna Rao Chavala

President