[OKFN-MENA] FWD: Refining the Local Groups Network structure

Wed Apr 16 12:40:33 UTC 2014

Dear all,

I hope this finds you well :) Apologies for long silence, I've been
travelling and frequent powercuts in Cairo weren't particularly helpful
for sending emails and doing stuff online...

Please find below a message from Christian Villum, the International
Community Manager, on the new way Ambassadors and Local Initiatives will
from now on be set up.
A short background info: until now, anyone could apply to be an
Ambassador (Abderahman and Tarek will confirm as they are the
Ambassadors for Morocco and Egypt, respectively). A group of people
could also apply as Initiative.

The International Review Committee then reviews the applications
(Disclosure: I am on the Committee, along with Charalampos from Greece,
Prakash from Nepal and Oleg from Switzerland). And it is where the whole
was getting super messy as people with really wildly varying involvement
levels within the Open Knowledge Foundation could apply. I'll skip the
details on frequent 'open washing' proponents or conflict of interest
afficionados.

The Ambassador/Initiative application process was thus redesigned to
include a more uniform criteria set and to especially require that
people have been involved with OKF for some time prior to decide to
apply for a representative. Give the new program a read and share your
opinions if you like :)

Rayna

Dear Local Groups coords,

During the past year of running the Local Groups scheme
(Ambassador/Initiative/Chapter) our global network has grown
tremendously (over 40 groups by now), and we've been collecting valuable
experience across the field. Additionally, many of you have been
providing us with really valuable feedback and advice - in particular
those of you engaging in the International Council. A huge thanks for that!

Based on your feedback, we have come up with a plan to refine and
simplify the structure of the global Local Groups network to make it
even more agile - as well as ensure that it supports both your ongoing
work and continual growth in the best possible way.

You can find the refining plan here:

Local Group restructuring proposal
<https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/document/d/1x3aw0pWhqVmKr3NlexuYDIXpTjiYAEn-MYDQ6Ixu4OU/edit>

The idea is to ideally implement these changes over the next couple of
weeks. Feedback as always very welcome!

Next, we'll dive into the process of restructuring the International
Council - and the first step is reaching out to you all to give us
feedback on that as well (more on that within the next couple of weeks).

We are here to discuss if anything is unclear!

-Christian, Neal, Katelyn & the Local Groups team 

-- 

Christian Villum
International Community Manager

skype: christianvillum  |  @villum <http://www.twitter.com/villum>
Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/>/ - See how data can change the world
/http://okfn.org/ | @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN>   Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/OKFNetwork> | Blog <http://blog.okfn.org/>

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