There is a lot happening in Pune next week. We have a lot of visitors in town who would especially like to interact with the Pune Community. Our help and cooperation has been sought for the Campus Ambassador training event next weekend. Our MEETUP DATE IS NOW CHANGED FROM 11 JUN TO 04 JUN 2011 (Saturday) at 1800 hours at SICSR, Atur Centre, Model Colony. Room No 704. 7th floor.

Hisham Mundol, National Program Coordinator, who is leading the Campus Ambassador programme, will be in Pune for a week for masterminding the event. Bishakha Datta, Trustee, will be gracing the event on Saturday. Tinu Cherian, the quintessential Indian outreach activist, will also be coming for and participating in the meet - a rare treat for us. I spoke to Arjuna Rao Chawala and he has promised to confirm attendance by an Indian Chapter representative soon.

We have a number of people visiting us from abroad. Frank Schulenburg, Head of Public Outreach and Annie Lin, who leads the Ambassador Program are visiting Pune for the Campus Ambassador training event on 04-05 Jun 2011. We also have P.J. Tabit coming down to India between June 1st and August 21st to support the launch of the Wikipedia India Education Program. PJ is a Campus Ambassador in the US and is on the Ambassador Steering Committee for Wikipedia.

We also have Tory Read who is coming over to document and write the exciting story of how Wikipedia is developing in the world. She will meet and interact with prominent Pune Wikipedians during that time. Tory will be in Pune for the Campus Ambassador training and after Pune, will be going around from one Wikipedian community to another in various cities of India.

We, the Pune community, welcome Frank, Annie, Tory & PJ to Pune and hope they have a wonderful stay. We also welcome any members of the Wikimedian community in India from outside Pune who are going to be with us for this event. Do let us know if we can help you in any way.

Broadly speaking, the campus ambassadors will be trained on 4th and 5th Jun by the outreach team comprising lndian and foreign Wikipedians. In the evening on Saturday, the campus ambassadors and the outreach team will be present for our meetup. After the meetup, the Outreach Team has invited the Pune Wikipedia community for a SOCIAL EVENING WITH DINNER. Venue for social evening will be indicated at the meetup.

Coming to another issue, the Campus Ambassadors themselves.

The first batch of Campus Ambassadors has been selected. To those selected, we say - heartiest congratulations, you will shortly be learning to edit and to evangelise Wikipedia. It is a most challenging task and we assure you of the community's support. We invite you to be part of our community and we promise to help you, guide you and partner you in this extraordinary journey you will undertake.

We also know that some other aspirants have not been selected this time round. In most cases, this is due to their lack of Wikipedia skills. To all of them we say - there will be another round of selection coming up in a few months, so have a great heart and wait. The fact that all of you stood tall and came forth means you already belong to the select batch of people who are doers and achievers. We, the Pune community, invite you to join us for this meetup and become part of us. We will help you get the skills to make you ready for the next round of selections.

Many of you all who are interested in becoming Wikipedians are requested to join all of the above :

• Marathi Wikipedia Group
• Mailing list for Wikimedians in Pune, India
• Mailing list for Wikimedians in Pune, India

Also please join the following groups on Facebook :

• Wikimedia India
• WikiPuneri

IMPORTANT: All those attending the meetup from Pune (excepting those selected for the Campus Ambassador program or those organising the event or visiting from outside Pune) need to confirm attendance so that we can plan accordingly. Send your confirmation to :

ashwin.baindur@gmail.com with subject : "Attending Pune meetup". Those not attending need not respond.

So till then, Au revoir & Namaste, Khuda Hafez and Sat Sri Akal,

Jai Hind