Affiliate Chairpersons meeting July 20, 2018

Invitation Affiliate Chairpersons meeting July 20, 2018

Place: SunSquare Cape Town City Bowl Hotel in the Wale Room. Note: the meeting room is in a DIFFERENT HOTEL. The City Bowl Hotel is on a 5-minute walk from the conference hotel.

Time and date: Friday July 20, 2018 from 14:00-16:00 hrs

Please note: This meeting is open only for chairs of Wikimedia chapters and thematic organizations.

Etherpad: [Link not yet opened]

Attendees

Present:

Frans Grijzenhout WMNL (moderator)
Josie Fraser WMUK
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight on behalf of Kirill Lokshin WMUS-DC
Filip Maljković WMRS
Laurentius (talk) WMIT
Heikki Kastemaa Kulttuurinavigaattori WMFI
Robert Myers WMAU Treasurer as delegate Pru.mitchell (talk) 10:30, 17 June 2018 (UTC) WMAU[reply]
Marin Dubroca-Voisin, treasurer of WMFR on behalf of Pierre-Yves Beaudouin
Itzik Edri, WMIL
Rahul Deshmukh (talk) President, Wikimedia India
Elena Sanz (secretary) on behalf of Wikimedia España. --Millars (talk) 21:00, 27 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Lukas Mezger on behalf of Tim Moritz Hector for WMDE (notes)
Philip Kopetzky (talk) WMAT
WikiTatik (talk) 19:04, 15 July 2018 (UTC) (WMAR)[reply]
Nahid Sultan (General Secretary, WMBD) on behalf of Wikimedia Bangladesh - Tarunno (talk) 20:49, 15 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Mykola Kozlenko User:NickK (treasurer) on behalf of Ilya Korniiko for Wikimedia Ukraine --Ilya (talk) 21:25, 15 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Pharos (talk) board member representing Megan Wacha WMUS-NYC
Alex Lin, board member for Wikimedia Taiwan--Alex S.H. Lin 10:14, 20 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
SPQRobin (talk) (WMBE, replacing Geert Van Pamel)
Oscar Costero WMVE
Michal Buczynski WMPL
Maria Sefidari (WMF)
Carmen Alcázar WMMX
Marco Correa (WMCL)

Agenda

Opening
Notes Affiliate Chairpersons meeting April 20 2018
Funds dissemination: Discussion with members of the revenue working group (moderated by Philip Kopetzky)
Conflict management. New initiative. How can affiliates help each other during periods of (governance) crisis and conflicts: Discussion note (Rahul Deshmukh)
Boards Training. Explore possibilities of a Regional Board member trainings: Discussion note (Frans Grijzenhout)
User groups and encouraging their participation
Discussion about the scope of societal activity of affiliates.
Next chairs' meeting. Discuss possiblity of organizing a two day conference in Prague in November 2018. See Reflections_on_the_Chairpersons_meetings
Closing

Notes

Opening

Christophe Henner came to say goodbye to the attendees. Maria Sefidari is now chair of the Board of Trustees of WMF and will attend the chairs meetings from now on.

Notes Affiliate Chairpersons meeting April 20, 2018

The notes were approved.

Funds dissemination

Philip: The working group on funds dissemination is just in place and will start with their work during this Wikimania.

Conflict management

Rahul Deshmukh explained the 5 steps of the theoretical model that he described in his discussion note. In the discussion that followed several remarks were made and suggestions were given.
The framework does not answer the "who?" question. AffCom? But AffCom can take the affiliate status away and its members are volunteers, probably without much experience in this field. The FDC? But FDC decides or influences the budget of an affiliate. Lowering the budget of an affiliate might escalate the situation and not be helpful. WMF staff? WMF staff always only comes as the 'cavalry' when the conflict is already out of control. We need an independent body to act in case of conflicts. The Movement Strategy process should address this issue.
Suggestion: let's think about creating something like an 'ombudsman' or a 'buddy project'. Let’s also pay attention to prevent conflicts to escalate into real a real crisis.
Rahul will extend his discussion note with suggestions about how to answer the ‘who’ question. Rosie, Kvardek, Lukas, Lorenzo, Mykola are willing to help and give feedback. Will be on the agenda of next meeting.

Boards Training

The character of the Wikimedia Conference will change and that means that the training is probably not feasible during the Wikimedia Conference anymore. Is it possible to transfer the training to regional events? The attendees doubt whether it is possible to set up a training with the same character (Wikimedians for Wikimedians) and wonder whether there are enough people at a regional conference with an interest in a board member training.

User groups and encouraging their participation

A proposal to invite the leading persons of user groups is discussed. There is a wide variety of user groups so we might not invite all user groups but the more mature groups only. Suggested criteria: invite user groups involved in the application process for the chapter status (around 5). Or invite user groups with a stable structure (board, budget, having a sAPG grant etc.). We will investigate how many user groups comply with these criteria and invite them for the November meeting or in 2019.

Discussion about the scope of societal activity of affiliates

Grant agreements have a requirement not to fund any lobbying activities. This is due to US law requirements but is seems that this clause is no longer interpreted as strict as it is formulated. For example the lobbying in Brussels, supported by Germany and other chapters and also supported by WMF. Suggestion to contact WMF with the aim of removing or rewording this clause.

Next chairs' meeting

The idea of organizing a two day conference in Prague in November 2018 is discussed. A chairs’ meeting in autumn, to bridge the time gap between Wikimania and the Wikimedia Conference. Especially now phase 2 of the Movement Strategy has been started. Itzik, Frans and Vŏjtech will start with the preparations. Itzik asked to fill out the survey, we need the results to plan the meeting and to make a budget proposal. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScs2EVn4tGEGjoeZKhxmqcGPA8t8nWLihp9gqvBMustbCAkUA/viewform

Closing

Frans closes the meeting at 16:00 hrs

Addendum Movement Strategy

Nicole Ebbers and Kaarel Vaidla organized an extra meeting for chairpersons on Saturday evening. They informed us about the status of the working groups. These groups are still incomplete, more diversity is needed (suggestions from chairs are very welcome), but they did not want to wait with the kick-off. Ideas were exchanged about the contribution and the role of chairs in the strategy process. The November meeting is probably a good opportunity to discuss the intermediate results of the working groups.

Original notes see Etherpad