Wikimedia South Africa/Board Meeting/3 March 2020

Board meeting 3 March 2020

Attendance

Bobby gives update on his first two months at UNDP Wikimedian in residence.
Concerning the internal Wiki for UNDP; they want a Wiki spread out over many data bases to be centralised onto one Wiki, from 1994 to 2020. A huge task!
Has started creating the internal Media Wiki.
Got help from Media Wiki Telegram group (Wikimedia community).
Looking at setting up the wiki on an South African server instead of the UNDP server in New York so as to help reduce bureaucracy.
Ayo wants to change Bobby's position name from "Wikimedian in residence" to "Knowledge Management Officer" due to the pre-existence of a Knowledge Manager position at UNDP.
This will allow for the renewal of his position in 2021. Bobby is currently called "Wikimedian in Residence and Knowledge Management."
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are a major current focus of UNDP and Bobby in the context of his position there.
Wynand sugests Bobby contact the Knowledge Management society. Bobby asks for contacts. Contact http://kmsa.org.za/ . Phone number (011) 061 5000
Suggestion for Knowledge Audit of Wikimedia South Africa, board and outside stakeholders. Supported. The intention of this would be to pinpoint expertise in various areas, and how we can use this to our benefit. Bobby and Wynand to discuss further.
Has been speaking with John Cummings (Wikimedian in Residence UNESCO). Learning from his experience at UNESCO and how it relates to Bobby's situation at UNDP SA.

Adri: Berlin summit has been cancelled for 2020 due to CONVID-19 outbreak. Most notably for attendees from Italy. Looking at taking the whole conference online instead but waiting on more information.
Bobby: heard that Wikimania 2020 in Thailand might also be cancelled due to CONVID-19 but not confirmed.
Flights need to be cancelled/rescheduled

Douglas needs to start on this, anyone that wants to help is welcome. It's especially important for people to join in order for knowledge sharing to happen.
Wynand, Bobby & Deon volunteer to assist (as a learning experience) with grant proposal writing.

Chapter meeting towards strategy session required. Suggested Sunday 5th April at Codebridge (Codebridge is good place to dial people in from). Douglas to email Addi
This will be combined with a regular Meetup

Deon: following the 31 January 2019 workshop with Academy discussions around getting funding to continue those workshops.
Academy funded first meeting, but don't have funds for more, but would like to see it continue. Request for Wikimedia funding
2019 Workshops content: Wikipedia editor training. Highlighted the need for some higher level training.
Impact of workshops in 2019:
Douglas asks whether the names of participants have been recorded, can measure impact
If the WMF can see impact, more likely to fund. If they can't, will be resistance
Venue is covered, only asking for travel costs
Wynand notes importance of knowledge audit and strategy session to prioritise this.
Also notes that we are very poor at communicating to members about what we are doing (e.g on Wikimedia South Africa website)
Douglas states this worked well when we had someone responsible (Theresa), but is poor at present.
Agree to provisionally assign some responsibilities now
Website and Twitter - Ian
Facebook and Instagram - Adri
Bobby suggest option for using Wikimedia ZA as a career builder, can take matriculants. They can do some work, use this in their CVs
Deon and Douglas to discuss funding proposal in more detail
Deon also has meeting later this week, looking to try get funding for prize for an Afrikaans front page article

Deon and Wynand were going to do joint presentation, no longer happening due to clash of time.
Suggestion to propose something for annual LIASA conference, ~800 attendees (Wynand)

Bobby has met enthusiastic potential WIkipedian in UKZN, PhD student studying African anthropology
Bobby could not meet him last time he was there
Need to strongly consider him next time we run a workshop there
He is Ghanain, has met some of the Ghana team
Bobby will reach out to him remotely
Wynand asks whether we can ask WMF for funding for stipend for Masters+ students to do research?
KZN roadshow not yet done for 2019/20 FY. Agreed that Bobby will organise a Roadshow for April 2020. Will work with KZN libraries.

From 21 January to 3 March:

Twitter: 1550 followers -> 1552
Facebook (English): 968 follows (896 likes) -> 971 (895)
Facebook (Afrikaans): 506 members -> 625
Mailing list (Afrikaans): 314 members. Suspect most are fake, aol addresses, no valid activity for years -> 314
Mailing list (English): 272 members -> 271
Instagram 145 Followers -> 154
Meetup: 118 members -> 122
Youtube: 48 subscribers -> 51
Zulip: 13 users -> 13

Dumi debt issue. Douglas needs to discuss with Dumi
Overdraft has been cleared. Douglas may need to do again later this year
Bobby asks whether he has returned a loan from WMZA for Nigeria.
Dumi has signed forms 3 times to be removed as director, still being asked, there are charges from the accountants, need to check this
Maroela Media followup. Reply has been sent from Adri and Douglas (asking them to hold off until Copyright Amendment Bill is passed, in the meantime to just edit). Letter has been signed, Deon to give Douglas email of person to send to