---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Wojciech Pędzichwpedzich@gmail.com
Date: Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Subject: Resignation of Philip Kopetzky from the Steering Committee
To: CEE Hub ceehub-l@wmceehub.org
Dear CEE Wikimedians,
in late December 2024, The Steering Committee (SC) of the CEE Hub was informed that Philip Kopetzky, one of the Hub’s founding figures, would be vacating his seat on the SC with immediate effect.
We would like to thank Philip for the years leading from the early ideamaking and research, through early development, recruiting Wikimedia-minded people to the SC, finding staff to support the Hub, liaising with the WMF to where we are now: ready to develop and be an even stronger asset to the region.
The remaining SC members decided that until the CEE Meeting, when the composition of the SC for the next year will be proposed, the SC will continue its activities in the 9-person group. We do not want to introduce a recruitment process halfway through the year, when sudden onboarding of a new colleague would slow down our progress in the current tasks. We also feel that the nine of us can safely deliver the Hub through the remainder of Year 3.
If you want to reach out with questions or comments, please feel free to do so at sc@wmceehub.org.
Dear HUB work enthusiasts, this update might be of your interest as CEE Hub primary co-founder Philip Kopetzky resigned from the Steering Committee of Wikimedia CEE Hub a month ago was just announced below on Friday in internal mailing-list and briefly commented by Toni and Gergo.
To be fully honest, if it was not Philip pushing inside and outside of CEE more than 5 years not only for CEE Hub, but also Hub concept there would not be even structural opportunities to do it, let alone the basis for establishing the project in CEE. Without him around I think it is super important to ask more questions.
IMHO his work was more than 50% of all volunteer time (also a lot of the privately funded travel and stay) in coordination before professionals from WMCZ, WMPL and others chipped in time, labour and technical resources. It was his personal privilege, years of insights and passion he had generously shared with huge dedication. This is not an available option just for anyone and anytime, not globally, let alone regionally.
However as CEE Hub development became more of a compromise of positions of people who had their professional sustainability and their affiliates in focus, it also started changing its priorities and modalities of work. I personally had doubts that this can work for the benefits of being new and under-represented and started stepping out of core 2,5 years ago, mostly disappointed last year when it was obviously a non-progressive platform for change as we initially wanted it to be in MS2030 visions.
I wonder if recent uncovering of the CEE Hub executives Barbara and Toni doing a big private side project of applying to 22k euros Open Data grant in Zagreb without informing local, national or regional Wikimedia communities, while being well paid for full time, but using Wikimedia CEE Hub position as a reference - had also something to do with it. It could be that there were more problems than this.
Is CEE Hub hiding this info and making damage control with a month delay in announcing something as dramatic as resignation with immediate effect one month later?
as much as I value discussion, I despise rehashing some things over and over again.
Zeljko. Your intrusion into Barbara’s and Toni’s private time is morally wrong and totally unacceptable. Your freedom of inquiry ended where it began invading into the private lives and equally private pursuits of our staff members. Same as with everybody else, we all have our hobbies (mine is concert photography), we all seek ways to support it (mine is a personal WMF grant) and we are all mature enough to notice our hobbies must not impact our professional life or primary volunteer commitments.
Please cease all this nonsense, both through private channels, public forums, and through supporting institutions.