User:John Vandenberg/Marriage announcement

The following email was sent to the following private lists on 26 July: global "internal-l" mailing list, Wikimedia Australia members list, and w:WP:functionaries-en.

Some of you may have noticed (via Facebook, etc) that Siska and I have been together often over the last two months. I am pleased to announce that we will be married in Australia on 4 August. There will be a small ceremony in Brisbane on 29 July, and a large ceremony in Jakarta on 16 September. Many of you are friends as well as colleagues, and we'd love to send invitations to those able to make it to the Jakarta ceremony. Please let us know if you are interested.

This announcement is not public, and we hope that the members of these closed mailing lists will respect our privacy until 16 September, when we’ll announce it publicly.

If any person can show just cause why we may not be joined together – let them speak now or forever hold their peace. I'll forward any concerns to the marriage celebrant for them to consider. :-)

This announcement is also being put out to clarify that we believe that we have not misused Wikimedia funds for personal matters. We feel that since both Siska and I are responsible for Wikimedia Indonesia and Wikimedia Australia funds, it is imperative that we provide an open account of our relationship and our Wikimedia activities where there may appear to be overlap, especially when seen retrospectively. We hope this will address concerns, and we also invite questions arising from this matter.

Siska has come to Australia four times, and I have been to Jakarta once.

Siska was brought to Australia in May 2011 for the Meta 2011 conference, which was sponsored by Wikimedia Australia, and where I presented about Wikimedia. I paid my own costs, and Wikimedia Australia covered Siskas travel costs. In addition to the benefits of the conference itself, this was an opportunity for WMAU and WMID to learn about the training programs that were running in Australia and Indonesia, and we also discussed the emerging proposal for a languages conference in Indonesia, and many other Wikimedia related items, such as the Batak font and public domain encyclopedias. There were also social activities with other members of Wikimedia Australia, and these activities were funded by the participants as individuals.

Siska came back to Australia in November 2011 to attend GovCamp NSW and Wikimedia meetups in Sydney and Canberra meetups in order to get to know more of our community, and also so Siska could provide some insight on projects that Wikimedia Australia members were planning. This trip was not funded by Wikimedia Australia or Wikimedia Indonesia.

In around April 2012, Siska and I started discussing more than business ;-) In order to help with the planning of a smaller languages conference, and to spend more time with Siska, I rearranged my employment arrangements in order to work from Jakarta for July-December.

In June 2012 Siska came to assist me deliver two workshops in North Queensland. There were several workshops in this program through the first half of 2012, with two trainers for each set of workshops. Liam organised one; Craig organised one; I organised two. The overall expenditure for the regional workshop program was about 50% of the budget. For the June workshops, my travel expenses were covered by Wikimedia Australia; Siska’s travel was a personal expense. There are a few meal receipts where Siska’s food was included with mine.

Anyone wanting to investigate any of this is encouraged to ask questions to Siska and I, or to the WMAU treasurer Craig Franklin (treasurer@wikimeedia.org.au) or the WMID treasurer Mulwardi Tjitra (mulwardi.tjitra@wikimedia.or.id)

Best, John Vandenberg