West Bengal Wikimedians/Bylaws/FAQ

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About

Who are you people?

We are a group of Wikimedia volunteers based in the Indian state of West Bengal, who share the same vision on open and free knowledge. Our community was built in 2008 but we have decided to form a Wikimedia user group in 2017.

Are you a registered organization?

No, we are not legally registered. We are just a bunch of like-minded people with the same vision and goal who work together to promote the vision of free and open knowledge.

Why do you have bylaws then, if you are not legally registered?

We have created the bylaws to govern ourselves, so that we can efficiently operate and contribute towards our mission.

Why are your bylaws in English language even if you are not a community of native English speakers?

Speakers of any language can be the general member of the user group and since English is the most spoken language in the world, we decided to write our bylaws in English language for better understanding.

Can I translate your bylaws in my language?

Sure, you can. But if there are any conflicts between different language versions of the bylaw, we would follow the English version.

General Membership

I think, I like your values. How can I become your member?

It is very easy. We have General Membership for you. You can just sign up here. The membership is totally free and open for anyone who shares our vision!

But, I am not Indian. I am a Sri Lankan citizen working in Germany for 20 years. Can I join too?

Yes, of course, our general membership is open for any human being on this planet from any country. As long as you align to our values and vision, you can always decide to stay as our general member.

What can I do to support the user group as a general member?

We have a number of Wikimedia programs, projects and events happening around the year. You can participate in any of those programs and events of your interest and actively engage with us. That would give us the opportunity to work together and let you understand on how we operate. That would also give us the opportunity to understand your strengths and skills, so that we can develop future projects together with you.

I am a newcomer to the Wikimedia movement. Can I still join your programs or events?

Yes, you can. We work on digital conservation of nature, built and intangible cultural heritage, language and history of the region. If any of these are interesting for you, you can always participate, even as a complete newcomer. Your perspectives and knowledge from outside the Wikimedia movement can bring new fresh ideas to our already existing programs or help create new exciting projects.

I am a veteran Wikimedia volunteer for a long time. Can I organize any of your events ?

Of course, you are always welcome to organize workshops, edit-a-thons, data-thons etc. in West Bengal. You can take lead of any user group projects too! We look forward to learn from you.

Representative Membership

I want to represent the user group in different places. What should I do?

We have a Representative Membership for that. But, unlike General Membership, there are certain criteria to fulfill.

What are the privileges for becoming a representative member? Do you get paid?

There is none. Representative membership is a volunteer unpaid responsibility to represent the user group in different forums. They are expected to lead user group projects and mentor potential leaders for the future. There is no option to take salary or remuneration to take this responsibility.

I am a native Santali speaker from Santiniketan, but I live in London now for my research purposes. Can I become your representative member?

Yes. Representative membership is open for any current and previous permanent resident of West Bengal and who speaks any one of the indigenous languages of West Bengal as mother tongue for e.g. Bangla, Kurukh, Santhali, Kurmali, Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi and Nepali.

I am a native Hindi speaker from Asansol? Can I then not be a representative member then?

Unfortunately no! While Hindi and English are considered as official languages, they are not the indigenous languages of West Bengal. As a Hindi speaker, you can find yourself useful in an already existing user group focused to your language.

I have organized a Wikipedia edit-a-thon in West Bengal a few months ago. Can I become your representative member?

Yes, if you have planned, conducted and executed at least one (1) Wikimedia offline community event in West Bengal within last 12 months, you are eligible to become a representative member. Offline Wikimedia events include edit-a-thons, data-thons, proofread-a-thons, photo-walks, hack-a-thons, workshops etc. except meetups. Not only that, if you have negotiated partnerships with any cultural heritage institutions or open knowledge organizations in the last 12 months, then you are eligible to become a representative member too. We value your recent offline contributions in representative membership.

I have organized a user group project in West Bengal a few months ago. Can I become your representative member?

Yes, if you have planned, conducted and executed a user group project in West Bengal within 12 months, you are eligible to become a representative member.

I am good at administrative responsibilities. Can I be a representative member?

You are most welcome to help the user group to fulfill its administrative obligations like proposing projects, requesting for grants, writing for financial and activity reports etc. We fully understand that these obligations require a certain kind of skill and we value those skills as representative members.

I have edited online on different Wikimedia projects for almost 7 years. Can I become a representative member of the user group?

Wikimedia is primarily an online project and without passionate people like you, Wikimedia could not have become the largest knowledge repository in history, known to human. This is why, we value our prolific editors a lot. If you have 10,000 non-bot edits on any one Wikimedia project of any of the indigenous languages of West Bengal or on Wikimedia Commons and has at least 20,000 non-bot global edits excluding Wikidata and Meta-Wiki, then you can become our representative member.

I do not have such impressive edit counts, but I am a very active editor for last one year. Does that mean that I am not eligible to become a representative member of the user group?

We understand that 20,000 global edits takes a considerable amount of time of our life and it would not be fair for those online editors who have not got the opportunity to spend that time, but still willing to become a representative member of the user group. If you have 3,000 non-bot edits on different Wikimedia projects of any indigenous languages of West Bengal and on Wikimedia Commons combined in the last 12 months, you are still eligible to become a representative member. We value your recent online contributions.

=== How did you decide about these numbers of edit counts, i.e. 3,000, 10,000 or 20,000 as threshold? Don't you think that these numbers are too high We have taken feedback from our existing general and representative members and reached consensus while deciding these numbers. Wikimedia projects in indigenous languages of West Bengal are full of prolific and active editors who can easily cross this threshold, see Bangla Wikipedia for example.

Why did you exclude Wikidata from these thresholds?

Gaining edit counts on Wikidata is easier compared to other non-Wikidata Wikimedia projects. There are several powerful tools like OpenRefine, Quickstatements etc to make semi-automated edits in large batches, so it makes no sense to have Wikidata edit counts as our threshold.

Why did you exclude Meta-Wiki from these thresholds?

We have already included offline contributions as criteria of representative membership and as almost all these activities are documented on Meta-wiki, it would be redundant to include online contributions in this wiki into the criteria.