Hi all, You might be interested in Manuel Schneider's summary of the Chapters Meeting last weekend, which I attended on behalf of Wikimedia UK. All of the documentation is publicly visible on meta, so if you're interested in any topic please take a look at the meta page and comment on the corresponding talk page.
Thanks, Mike Begin forwarded message: > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Chapters Meeting Report (english version) > Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:34:20 +0200 > From: Manuel Schneider <[email protected]> > Organization: Wikimedia CH > To: Mailing list for Wikimedia CH <[email protected]> > > Dear all, > > last weekend the annual Chapters Meeting took place in Berlin. Each year > two representatives of each Wikimedia chapter meet there. During the > meeting South Africa was recognized as the first african chapter. > Wikimedia CH and Austria have been represented by Manuel Schneider and > Kurt Kulac. With this report we'd like to share our experiences with the > Wikimedia community. Additionally all sessions have been logged and > published on Meta: > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation > > A short TV report on the meeting for ARD Tagesschau (in german) can be > viewed online: > http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/sendungsbeitrag101886_res-.html > > == Current State of the Chapters == > Traditionally each chapter meeting starts with a three minute report of > each chapter about their current state: Members, budget, past and future > projects, good and bad experiences. > > Most of the "State of the Chapter" presentations have been linked on Meta: > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Schedule#State_of_the_Chapters_I > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Schedule#State_of_the_Chapters_II > > * WMCH: http://wikimedia.ch/State_of_the_Chapter_2011 > * WMAT: > http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Archiv/2011-03-26_State_of_the_Chapter > > == Fundraising Summit == > There will be again a Fundraising Summit for all chapters participating > in the Wikimedia Fundraiser by the end of the year. This year's summit > will be organised in June by Wikimedia Österreich. > > * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Fundraising_Summit > > == Movement Roles == > There are the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Chapters as branches of > the Foundation, but there are also other entities and organisations > withing the Wikiverse. While the relationship between Foundation and > chapters has been settled by the chapters agreement there are many open > questions in how to handle other organisations which are not chapters. > > A "Movement Roles Working Group" has been set up a year ago that is > researching this topic. Recently surveys have been sent out to chapter > people (I have forwarded them to the respective boards) and a public > survey is planned to be published soon. > > All members and inhabitants of the Wikiverse are urged to participate in > this process, to shape the roles of chapters, foundation and their own. > > * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project > * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/New_group_models > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/Sue_Gardner%27s_input_on_Movement_Roles_Project > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Movement_Roles > > == Collaborations with Galeries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs) == > The other chapters have presented their experiences with talking to > GLAMs. In many countries discussions and talks happen and GLAMs are > willing to cooperate, but a there is little visible output. > > The Wiki Loves Monuments project interacts here, aiming to be a > pan-european project to define, list and illustrate all monuments > throughout Europe. Ideas are currently being discussed, WMAT started > talking to the administration bodies taking care of monuments, lists > need to be digitized and unified. A photo competition and reimbursement > of travel costs should foster the communities will to take good pictures > of all monuments. WMNL has been able to get sitenotices up to attract > more people for the project. Other ideas are to provide extensive > amounts of swag, such as sticker, pins, T-Shirts etc. > > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Working_Groups:_GLAM > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/GLAM_outreach > > == Hiring Employees == > Many chapters - as Wikimedia Austria and Switzerland - have been > thinking about hiring employees or to outsource work to paid people. > Many projects are time-intensive and participating at the Wikimedia > Fundraiser is hard to be handled on a volunteer basis due to the high > amount of donations which need to be booked correctly, thanked and reported. > > Several times statements like "Wikimedia chapters are no fan clubs" have > been made. Conclusion: Wikimedia chapters are primarily administrative > organisations which enable volunteers to do their work better and > "enable others to be fan-clubs". With the needed professionalisation of > the chapters their boards change from executive to overseeing > committees. Along with this it is important to transfer (seed) the > enthusiasm by the board members into the director / manager of the > chapters office. > > A few chapters have already stepped forward by applying different > strategies: > > * WMDE: "Management Approach" - They hired an employee that can manage > himself and is looking for new tasks and implemented them on his own. > This is important as management and monitoring of employees - which is > also a big effort - can be minimised. A good manager can also fund > himself by finding new opportunities and is able to find new employees > to support him as the work load increases, a scalable solution. > > A manager writes proposals which the board will review and decide. By > that the board actually gets more power as it can act strategically > rather than ad-hoc under pressure of daily tasks. > > * WMPL: "Outsourcing" - legally neccessary tasks have been outsourced > early. Problem: different people for different tasks which do not know > each other and do not act strategically. WMPL: "...in the end we had an > accountant, but nobody had time to bring her the receipts so she could > do her work." > > New approach: Hire someone who can do different things on his own and > have him sit in the WMPL office. > > * Office space: Rent offices teogether with other "lime-minded > organisations", such as the parlamentarian group digital sustainability, > Free Software Foundation Europe, Swiss Unix Usergroup, Creative Commons... > > * Job profiles: Look at what the other chapters have done, for instance > the "office manager" of WMUK who has handled the fundraiser. > > * If you develop your organisation then get a "manager type" of employee. > * If you only need a service center for your administrative tasks then > outsource it. > > * Selection of emplyees: It is helpful if the employee is a Wikimedian > but this is not the qualification you are looking for. If you have to > choose between a manager which is not a Wikimedian and a Wikimedian > which is not a manager, choose the manager (Pavel, WMDE). > > * Managing remotely is extremely hard. It takes longer to find out if > something goes into the wrong direction (Thierry, WMFR). A manager will > also manage itself. > > * An employee should have one or at max two bosses and not the board as > a boss. Otherwise it takes too longe to make management decision. > > * At least a weekly Skype meeting is recommended, the verbal contact is > very important rather than writing e-mails. > > * Application process (WMFR): > ** received 40 applications, two filters: eight left. These eight > applicants have been interviewed by eight people from the board and > involved members. > ** a Wikimedian has the advantage that you already know him and how he > works. But be careful with "super members", there is the risk of leading > into demotivation and problems. It is sometimes better to employ someone > from the outside. > > Invitation by Pavel (WMDE): "We have gained a lot of experience. Just > come a week to Berlin and look how I deal with it." > > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Professionalization:_The_first_employee > > == openZIM (Wikipedia Offline) == > The ZIM libraries have been recently included into the book printing > funtion - now everyone can easily create ZIM files from the Wikis. > > To make the code and the work on it more visible it should be > transferred to svn.wikimedia.org. Each commit is sent to IRC and > mailinglist, also many developers have a copy of that repository so the > hurdle to look into the code and work with it is much lower. > > == Internal Organisation / Roles within the Chapters == > Several sessions dealt with the tasks withing the chapters or the > motivation of members. We agreed on the following types of members: > * proactive (they initiate things and do work on their own) > * active (they are active when being asked) > * inactive > * counter-active (trolls) > > The goal is to convert inactive members to active members and active to > proactive. Trolls are part of the ecosystem and sometimes have a > corrective function. In doubt when there is to much hassle nobody should > hesitate to exclude them from the chapter. > > * Each organisation needs to fill in four functions - of which a single > person can at max. fill in three: > ** Production (get things done) > ** Administration (organisation) > ** Innovation (new ideas, development) > ** Integration (people person) > > * Convert members to active members: > ** often it helps to contact people directly and personally - often > nobody responds on mailinglists > ** keep a list of tasks in your chapters wiki to give interested people > a hint where they can start working on. Ask on your members on the > mailinglist to sign up for these tasks. > > * Each board should consist of the following positions: > ** people person, social integrator > ** secretary / administrator > ** contact person for the community - must have a good standing inside > the Wikimedia projects before becoming a board member > > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Volunteer_management > > == Communication == > Different chapters communicate in different ways. The suggested monthly > report is provided by a small number of chapters only (WMCH: No report > since a long time). There has been a lot of discussion on the effort > needed in writing those reports and the possibility to re-use them. Many > chapters write blog posts, others communicate on Twitter or Facebook, > usually in their own language. Other chapters have no benefit from that > and can't learn from each other or simply know what is going on in the > Wikiverse. > > The following solution was agreed on: > * each chapter should have a blog and post there regularly > ** messages for other chapters should be tagged with "chapter" > ** all chapter blogs should be aggregate by two Wikimedia planets: > *** there are already Wikimedia planets for different languages > *** a new Wikimedia planet for chapters (all languages) should be created > ** link your blogs with social networks to make your posts to appear there: > *** Twitter > *** Facebook > > * publish interesting news also on the Wikimedia SignPost > > * monthly newsletter to the members > ** newsletter can be prepared publicly on the chapters wiki, so everyone > can contribute his or her project > ** one person writes a summary of what is going on at Wikimedia > > * print hand outs or even bulletings when you have conferences or assemblies > ** handouts should always be available > ** get an ISSN for bulletins to make your publications more visible > > * a template for the chapters report should hold the minimal information > needed by the Wikimedia Foundation > ** this template will be published on Meta > ** the state of the chapter presentations will have the minimal > information, they should go directly to the chapters pages on Meta so > they are updated once a year > > * format for chapter reports: > ** Revenues > ** Expenses > ** Activities > ** Members > > * > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/International_communication_and_coordination > > == Group Photo == > * > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Conference_2011_group_photo.jpg > > That's it with the summary of the chapters meeting. All members are > invited to participate in the processes and discussions on Meta. > > > Best regards, > > > Manuel > -- > Regards > Manuel Schneider > > Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens > Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge > www.wikimedia.ch _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list [email protected] http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
