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BYLAWS

The Bylaws of the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group is the guiding document for the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group for its governance, and activities.

Chapter 1 - General Provisions

Article 1. West Bengal Wikimedians User Group is created by users of Wikimedia projects in and from West Bengal. The official English name of the association is West Bengal Wikimedians User Group, and the official Bengali name is পশ্চিমবঙ্গ উইকিমিডিয়া ব্যবহারকারী দল (literally means "Wikimedia User Group of West Bengal" and hereinafter as "the User Group").

Article 2. The User Group shall be a non-profit, operated under the relevant laws and regulations of India, for promoting the Wikimedia projects maintained by Wikimedia Foundation Inc.(USA).

Article 3. The User Group shall be organized within the territory of the Republic of India.

Article 4. The missions of the The User Group are:

1. Popularizing Wikimedia projects and helping the communities to plan and execute the projects.
2. Popularizing the ideas of Wikimedia projects such as free knowledge, open licenses, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and etc.
3. Cooperating with relevant organizations and projects which support the objectives of the Wikimedia movement.
4. Holding various kinds of meeting, outreach, education and any other activities related to Wikimedia projects.

Chapter 2 - Membership

Article 5. The membership of the User Group is categorized as four kinds and listed below alphabetically:

1. Founder Members.
2. General Members.
3. Honorary Members.
4. Representative Members.

Article 6. Membership is not necessary for participation in public activities or events of the User Group.

Article 7. Any citizen of the Republic of India or any foreign citizen who is legally residing in or outside the Republic of India can become the General Member of the User Group. To become a General Member, one should sign up here.

Article 8. Any citizen of the Republic of India or any foreign citizen who is legally residing in or outside the Republic of India, who can provide valuable inputs regarding the activities, funding etc. can become the Honorary Member of the User Group.

Article 9. A Representative Member shall officially represent the User Group in different local, national and international events.

Article 10. Any General Member, except the foreign citizens who is legally residing outside the Republic of India, is eligible to become a representative member of the User Group, if the member fulfills the following criteria:

1. Plans, conducts and executes at least one User Group project in West Bengal within last one year.
2. Conducts at least one Wikimedia offline event like workshop, edit-a-thon, data-thon, label-a-thon, photo-walk etc. in West Bengal within last 6 months. Organizing meetup shall not be a criterion to become a Representative Member.
3. Helps or takes initiatives actively in online User Group activities like creating project proposal, requesting grants, writing financial and annual activity reports etc.
4. Has at least 10,000 main namespace non-bot edits in Wikipedia/Wiktionary/Wikivoyage or 10,000 page namespace non-bot edits in Wikisource or 10,000 file edits in Wikimedia Commons. Wikidata and Meta edits shall not be criteria to become a Representative Member.
5. Has at least 30,000 global non-bot edits in total and at least 2,000 non-bot edits in last 6 months in different Wikimedia projects excluding Wikidata and Meta.
6. Is not blocked in any Wikimedia sites. If unblocked, one shall be eligible as a Representative Member.
7. Is at least 18 years old and agreed to reveal the real identity to the Representative Committee.

Article 11. All persons who support the purpose of the User Group are eligible for General membership, as deem fit, and no one can be denied General membership unless an absolute majority decision by the Representative Committee has determined that such exclusion is warranted. If Representative Committee decides to exclude someone from having a general membership for whatsoever reason, opportunity should be given to that person to explain his/her stand openly on Meta-Wiki. If the person provides some unsatisfactory justification or fails to provide any explanation, the committee will decide to exclude the person from general membership of the user group.

Membership is free until any decision is taken by the Representative Committee.

Article 12. Honorary membership shall be decided by the Representative Committee. An Honorary Member shall not become a Representative Member unless he/she fulfills the criteria mentioned in Article 10.

Article 13. General Members shall have to apply to become Representative Members and after careful objective judgement of the criteria mentioned in Article 10, the Representative Committee shall approve or disapprove the application. If disapproved, an General Member shall not represent the User Group as an official capacity.

Article 14. Representative membership shall be reviewed every year in December and declared publicly in meta every year on first week of January. The membership shall be terminated if the members cannot meet the criteria mentioned in Article 10. After termination of representative membership, the member can remain a General Member.

Article 15. If any hard evidence is found against any Representative Member to defame the User Group in any arena, to obstruct User Group activities in bad faith or to violate Friendly space policies, the Representative Committee shall analyze the gravity of the situation and decide to continue or terminate the representative membership.

Article 16. General, Representative and Honorary memberships are completely volunteer based. Money shall not be paid as a salary or reimbursement or any other way, to execute member activities. If any evidence is found against any Representative Member for any sort of non-disclosed paid online Wikimedia editing or accepting payment by any person or organization as a capacity of representative of the User Group, the Representative Committee shall analyze the gravity of the situation and decide to continue or terminate the Representative Membership.

Article 17. The Founder Members are the contact persons who signed the Wikimedia user group agreement and code of conduct and were the active contributors needed for the User Group application. The Founder Members of the User Group shall not receive any special treatment and shall have the rights as a General Member except in extraordinary situation mentioned in Article 30. The Founder Members of the User Group shall be:

Bodhisattwa Mandal

Jayanta Nath

Biswarup Ganguly

Chapter 3 - Financing

Article 18. The fiscal year of The User Group is set according to the calendar year Indian IT financial year (1 April–31 March).

Article 19. The following constitute the funding sources of the User Group:

1. Wikimedia Foundation Grant.
2. Donations from persons, enterprises and non-government organizations.
3. Interest of the bank account.

Article 20. The User Group is not allowed to have any debt, to lend or to invest the fund in any non-Wikimedia activities.

Article 21. The Representative Members shall decide the annual project plan, the annual budget of income and expenditure two months prior to the beginning of each fiscal year. Within February 16 each year, the User Group shall have the annual project report and within two months after the end of the fiscal year, the year-end conclusion of fiscal receipt and expenditure.

Article 22. If the User Group should be dissolved for any reason, the residual assets shall be donated to non-government and no-profit entity designated by the decision of the Representative Committee, if there is no previous agreement.

Chapter 4 - Organization

Article 23. The Annual General Meeting of Representative Members shall be held on first week of January every year to review and monitor past year's activity, to declare new Representative Members and Representative Committee Members and to plan for next year.

Article 24a. The Representative Members shall be eligible to become Representative Committee member if they meet the following basic criteria:

1. Takes initiatives actively in online User Group activities like creating project proposal, requesting grants, writing financial and annual activity reports etc.
2. Takes initiatives actively in coordinating offline User Group activities and projects.
3. Has at least 25,000 main namespace non-bot edits in Wikipedia/Wiktionary/Wikivoyage or 25,000 page namespace non-bot edits in Wikisource or 25,000 file edits in Wikimedia Commons. Wikidata and Meta edits shall not be criteria for become a representative member.
4. Has at least 50,000 non-bot global edits in total and at least 2,000 non-bot edits in last 6 months in different Wikimedia projects excluding Wikidata and Meta.
5. At least 3 out of the 5 members in Representative Committee must have at least 25,000 main namespace non-bot edits in Bengali Wikipedia/Wiktionary/Wikivoyage or 25,000 page namespace non-bot edits in Bengali Wikisource. Wikidata and Meta edits shall not be criteria to become a representative member.

Article 24b. The term and replacement of a Representative Committee member shall be based on the following points:

1. Every year, 1 out of 5 Representative Committee members will be replaced by new eligible members based on criteria set in Article 24c.
2. The maximum continuous term to be served by a Representative Committee member shall be 5 years.

Article 24c: One Representative Member shall be selected each year in Representative Committee replacing one existing Representative Committee member by taking into consideration of:

1. recent online contribution for the last 1 year.
2. recent offline community leadership, planning and execution of user group activities and projects.
3. absolute majority consensus of Representative Members as per Article 29. The eligible new Representative Members shall refrain from giving opinion about themselves in the process.

Article 25. The functions and the authority of the Representative Committee are as follows:

1. To convoke the annual General Meeting and extraordinary General Meetings of Representative Members
2. To decide the report, budget, and final audit of any User Group project.
3. To nominate, coordinate and provide support to the manager of any User Group project.
4. To ensure submission of annual activity report and grant reports within scheduled time limit.
5. To keep the communication with Wikimedia Foundation.
6. To safeguard the reputation and the lawful right of the User Group.
7. To hear official complaint against any Representative Member of the User Group.
8. To take decision on approval, continuance or termination of any representative member, following the criteria set above in Chapter 3.
9. To take decision on selection for the most appropriate candidate by majority vote, be it national or international event, where an User Group member is officially invited to represent.

Article 26. Any member from the Representative Committee shall be discharged from his/her position in the event of one of the following:

1. Losing the Representative Membership of the User Group.
2. Resigning from the position.
3. Being recalled or discharged.
4. Being suspended for longer than 6 months.
5. Blocked in any Wikimedia sites.
6. Death during the Representative Membership.
7. Replaced by another member during the Annual General Meeting as per Article 24b.1.

Article 27. The General Meeting of Representative Members shall be held in following situation.

1. Convoked by the Representative Committee.
2. Asked by at least 20% of Representative members.
3. Convoked by the Founder Members in extraordinary situation mentioned in Article 29.

Article 28. The General Meeting of Representative Members shall be invalid if:

1. At least 50% members of the Representative Committee fail or reject to attend the meeting.
2. More than 50% of Representative Members fail or reject to attend the meeting excluding those who announce their abstention before the meeting.

Article 29. Any decision taken by the Representative Committee shall require absolute majority （2/3） of the Representative Members.

Article 30. If the Representative Committee fails to carry out its function mentioned in Article 25 threatening the existence of the User Group, Founder Members shall have the right to convoke an Extraordinary General Meeting of Representative Members, dissolve the Representative Committee and take over User Group activity.

Article 31. Article 29 and Article 30 cannot be amended or changed by Representative Committee.

Article 32. If a Representative Member, be in the Representative Committee or not, is a concerned party for any decision taken by the Committee, the member shall abstain from voting due to conflict of interest.

Chapter 5 - Appendix

Article 33. Any change or amendment to this constitution, except Articles 29 and 30, require absolute majority（2/3）of the General Meeting of Representative Members, and approved by the Representative Committee with absolute majority（3/5).

Article 34. All matters not provided for in these Articles of the endowment shall be governed by the relevant laws and regulations.

Article 35. The Bylaws of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group is passed by the Meeting of General Members on 02/02/2019.