Meeting:Committee (2023-06-19)
This meeting has two pages: one restricted-access page (only for members of the current Board) and one public-access page (which may have sensitive information redacted).
- Present: Amanda, Alex, Bunty, Jeremy, Kelly, Peter, Pru, Tom (and Belinda)
Meeting opened: Monday 19 June 2023 5pm AWST / 6.30pm ACST / 7pm AEST
Previous meeting
- Monday 15 May 2023 Meeting:Committee_(2023-05-15)
Matters arising
First Nations focus group approval
This was passed in principle at the last meeting subject to final negotiations.
Motion: That WMAU contracts Prof Bronwyn Carlson to conduct First Nation Focus Groups at cost of $15,000
Prof Bronwyn Carlson has undertaken focus group research with First Nation people about being online and using social media. We met to discuss our proposal around First Nation Focus Groups/Community consultation phase to inform the WMAU Committee and community. Dr Carlson prepared a proposal in response, advising on how to proceed and costs budgeted for 30 participants who will be provided reimbursement for their time.
Deliverables for First nation focus groups:
- In consultation with Wikipedia develop a discussion guide for focus group(s)- up to 30 participants, designed to elicit information about participants' experiences using Wikipedia.
- Apply for ethics approval from MQ Human Research Ethics Committee.
- Complete focus group(s) with up to 30 First Nations participants.
- Project Report and Recommendations: A final report, including the methodology, recruitment process, analysis approach, key findings, and recommendations. This report can also reflect on any challenges faced during the project and lessons learned.
Proposal and quote for $15,000 to be approved.
Proposed Rule changes & Committee terms
Proposal: That WMAU changes the current constitution to allow for Committee members to be elected and serve for 2 year terms, with the option to renominate after 2 years. Optional proposal to add in a maximum term of office
Rationale: This would provide a greater level of continuity and stability in decision-making and implementation of WMAU activities, particularly as both the strategic plan and WMF funding are for 3 years. The aim would be that only half the committee would need to be elected at the AGM.
Actions required: WMAU members would need to be informed 3 weeks prior to the AGM that a Special motion is being proposed and the details included.
Proposed changes to the text of the rules. This change would only affect rules related to the term.
MOTION: That Wikimedia Australia put forward a special motion at the AGM to change the terms of the committee to two years.
Changing from Committee to Board
Proposal: that WMAU Committee refer to itself as the WMAU Board rather than Committee.
Rationale: To attract more people to volunteer and to signal the role of the Board as having an advisory capacity to WMAU staff rather than conducting day-to-day operations as occurred in the past. Board carries more status and therefore may attract people who would also benefit professionally from participating. It also signals more clearly our role in advisory and strategic decisions that support the staff.
This would involve changing some of the language on the Website but not changing the Rules as the terms are interchangeable so it doesn’t matter that the rules refer to committee but we refer to a Board in general descriptions.
The legal impact - none:
According to Not for profit law (Aust): "The board or committee of a not-for-profit organisation runs (governs) the organisation. The terms ‘board’ or ‘committee’ can be used interchangeably. The governance of an organisation is different to the everyday work of the organisation. Boards and committees make strategic decisions about an organisation, while management and staff or volunteers action the governance decisions."
And according to CAV: "The committee looks after the association’s affairs. It has legal duties under the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 (the Act). It is sometimes referred to as the ‘management committee’ or ‘board’."
Interest-bearing bank account
MOTION: That Wikimedia Australia establishes an interest-bearing bank account to be used for holding grant income until it is required for operational activities as the year progresses.
Funding First Nations Resident, APO
EMAIL MOTION: That Wikimedia Australia allocates $10,000 to Analysis & Policy Observatory for a partnership program involving a First Nations Resident to contribute to their project enhancing Australian First Nations’ policy literature on Wiki projects.
Moved: Pru; seconded: Amanda; outcome: approved by email on 8 June 2023
Wikimania scholarships
EMAIL MOTION: That Wikimedia Australia endorse the recommendation for 2023 Wikimania scholarships to Bianca Valentino and Thomas Shafee.
Volunteer Support Fund applications
EMAIL MOTION: That WMAU approve funding of $2000 from the Volunteer Support Program for travel and accommodation to Wikimania 2023.
EMAIL MOTION: That WMAU approve funding of $800 from the Volunteer Support Program, for accommodation costs at Wikimania 2023.
Matters for discussion
Staffing matters
Recruitment Sub committee: Amanda, Tom and Kelly (and Belinda) Actions: EO to review job descriptions and discuss with Sub committee what roles to advertise.
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
AGM Sun 6 August 2023 5pm (AEST)
Roles, reports and nomination process
Timeline:
- 9/07/2023 AGM notice to be sent to all currently financial members
- 21/07/2023 Nominations open. Nominations of members, by members to open positions made to agm@wikimedia.org.au (delivered to secretary, president & EO). Nomination must be seconded by another member, and accepted by the nominee (as email to the agm@wikimedia.org.au). Secretary then loads nomination details to WMAU AGM web page asap
- 26/07/2023 Nominations close. If an election is required, the secretary may organise opportunity for nominees to present to the membership via email or online.
- 28/07/2023 Election opens. Managed by neutral party with EO
- 4/08/2023 Election closes
- 5/08/2023 AGM Proxy forms to be submitted to the Secretary
- 6/08/2023 AGM 5pm AEST
Note: If there are not enough nominations people can nominate at the AGM meeting.
Craig Franklin Award
Proposed motion for discussion to move this along:
In principle motion: That Wikimedia Australia institute the Craig Franklin Award for ”An activity in the past year* making a positive impact on the Wikimedia movement in Australia". The award to be announced and presented annually at the WMAU AGM.
- past year to refer to the period since the previous AGM
Rationale: Recognising a project/program/activity rather than an individual is in keeping with the collaborative nature of our movement. The criteria is sufficiently broad that it can cover large/small/local/national/funded/un-funded/WMAU-initiated/other organisations' activities. We can use qualitative assessment, eg which project are people most excited about, or quantitative assessment based on dashboards, number of edits/uploads or people involved.
Process: The nominee/s can be identified by the committee and/or EO at the time of annual reporting, and/or we can call for nominations more widely. In the case of multiple nominees or worthy candidates we can either offer a shared award, or set up a subcommittee to determine a single winner.
To be discussed: whether we offer anything tangible for the award, eg a cash prize or an in-kind financial prize (eg travel to an Australian conference), or intangible: a certificate, badge (online or physical), write up, media release, and/or diff blog post.
Moved: Tom; seconded: Alex; outcome: approved
Community Engagement activity 2023
Document circulated by email to gather ideas and identify preferred option.
Also need to plan for the Committee Strategic planning meeting - better to make them at the same time to avoid unnecessary travel.
Polling of committee indicates that 18-19 November is the most preferred date.
City options include Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Discussion of community day and SP meeting ongoing.
Strategic planning 2023-2024 follow up
Summary document of Strategic Planning day - This document now contains a list of actions for each session Business Plan for Year Two with action items - The actions have been documented and mapped to the strategic plan, along with responsibilities, deliverables/outcomes, and suggested time lines.
Reports
Executive Officer report [FOR NOTING]
ESEAP Hub Interim Steering Committee
The ESEAP Hub Declaration Statement is now on meta and collecting signatories. The Interim Hub is finalising the roles and responsibilities document, released as a draft for community consultation and comment at the ESEAP Community Meeting on Sunday 14 May. The Interim Committee is also working on Draft Plan, Budget and accompanying documents, as well as planning for the election process which may take place during Wikimania, but may need to be held shortly afterwards. Hub members are currently drafting a proposed extension for the Interim Hub to enable the final work pieces to be completed after Wikimania. Belinda is working with Vivien Chang (WMF), Joyce Chen (WM Taiwan) and Yop Rwang Pam (Senior Movement Strategy Specialist in Community Resources) to develop a budget and look at the grant process.
Additionally, there will be a ESEAP Hub Summit event at Wikimania which Joyce (WM Taiwan) is drafted to chair and Belinda will assist.
First Nation Wikipedian in Residence at SLQ
Bianca, our First Nation Wikimedian In Residence at SLQ is enjoying her residency and has found some unique and interesting items that she’s adding to Wikipedia. Still in the research phase and exploring SLQ collection. Bianca will be running a First Nation’s wiki workshop on 22 June at the SLQ, with James as co-lead. Bianca will also be attending Wikimania if Scholarship approved by Committee.
Project Partners
All Project Partners Agreements are signed and first round of payments processed. All have provided a work plan and estimated timeline.
Project Partners update:
- QUT have provided their Stage 1 report.
- Uni of Divinity progress report and updated summary of project work (Kerrie Burns currently overseas)
- Shire of Paroo have had a few delays impacting progress, but have now confirmed a team and set dates for events.
- ACMI have signed contract, finalised work plan with their Wikidata advisor, and submitted their Stage 1 report.
Events planning 2023
- APO Wikipedia workshop — Wednesday 21 June 2023
- First Nations SLQ editathon (First Nation participants only) - 22 June 2023
- Sydney Meetup June 2023 — Sunday 25 June 2023.
- APO Wikipedia workshop 2 — Wednesday 28 June 2023
- WOMEESA - 30 June - online session
- ESEAP Hub 34th Meeting - East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific — Sunday 9 July 2023
- Understanding Wikimedia As A Digital Media Platform: Research Seminar/workshop — Tuesday 11 July 2023.
- Open Community Meeting — Wednesday 12 July 2023
Social media report
May statistics Total followers as of 31 May, 2023
- Twitter: 2989 (up by 80)
- Facebook: 1830 (down by 1)
- Instagram: 315 (up by 20)
- Linkedin: 166 (up by 4)
- YouTube: 36 (up by 4)
- Announce monthly newsletter: 452 (up by 2)
In May, on Twitter we made 18 tweets and were mentioned in 9. We posted 10 times on Facebook, 6 times on Instagram, 5 on Linkedin, and added 0 videos on YouTube.
We joined Mastodon and currently have 50 followers. We made 14 posts in May.
On our WMAU website we published 4 news stories:
- Announcing our First Nations Wikipedian In Residence (this was also shared to Diff)
- Australian WikiProjects and Popular Pages
- How To Join a WikiProject on Wikipedia
- 1Lib1Ref 2023
Additionally, we wrote about the ACMI Goddess editathon for This Month In GLAM, May 2023.
President's Report
Invited to participate in WMF Advocacy session at Wikimania - one other Australian can attend. WMAU advocacy reports required for WMF mapping project.
WMF Funding approved for year 2 - 2023 - 2024. Also commendation from Jacqueline Chen on the good work of WMAU over the past year. Thanks go to Belinda and James for all their hard work in achieving a successful first year.
WMF Affiliates strategy consultations now happening https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Affiliates_Strategy
Treasurer's Report
We received advice from WMF regional grants that our Year funding is approved for AUD 349,226. This is a continuation of the 3-year grant term starting 1 July 2023 and ending 30 June 2026. The adjusted breakdown is as follows: Year 1: AUD 291,600 (granted); Year 2: AUD 349,226 (adjusted); Year 3: AUD 329,969 (original - up for adjustments later). The updated 3-year grant amount is AUD 970,786.
Positive feedback on our programs from Year 1 also at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Wikimedia_Australia_2022_-_2025#Year_2_Plan_Approved
Grant report of action against Strategic plan implementation 2022-2023 and Annual Report
https://wikimedia.org.au/w/images/e/e6/Strategic_Plan_2022_-_2025_-_Activity_Plan.pdf This is due on 15 July 2023, ie, before the next Committee meeting.
Australia Council grant report
The Australia Council for the Arts report and financial acquittal for the grant: The Record was submitted on 17 June 2023. Congratulations to James for managing this significant project over the 2 years.
Secretary's Report
One invalid application presented for admission (ie not an individual).
59 annual membership renewals were sent out on 1 May 2023, due 30 June 2023.
As at 17/6/2023 there are 26 renewals outstanding
Activities
Global activities
- ESEAP community meeting held Sunday 11 June discussed the work undergoing for the Wikimedia ESEAP Regional Hub. Etherpad: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/ESEAP33 - Next ESEAP meeting: Sunday 9 July 2023
- Wikimania dates: 16 - 19 August 2023 in Singapore
- ESEAP pre-Wikimania meeting proposed for 15 August 2023 in Singapore
- Post-Wikimania Library day at National Library of Singapore on Sunday 20 August - to be confirmed and requires team to organise
- Wikidata conference Taiwan in October 2023
National activities
- Wiki Research Roundtable satellite event at the ADM+S Media and Communications Symposium, Tuesday 11 July 2023, University of Sydney
Events / Local activities
- Sydney Meetup - Sunday 25 June 2023: Belinda and James will be visiting Sydney over the weekend and have initiated this meetup to enjoy friendly conversation, food, and drink with Sydney's Wikimedians.
Next meeting
- Next Community meeting: Wednesday 12 July 2023
- Next Committee meeting: Monday 17 July 2023