Wikimedia South Africa/2019-AGM

Wikimedia ZA meeting minutes.

The Wikimedia ZA 2019 AGM took place in Cape Town on 15 December.

Date

Sunday, 15 December 2019

Time

14:00 to 16:00

Location

Code Bridge, 1 Thicket St, Newlands, Cape Town, 7700

We used a new location for this meetup. OpenUp very kindly let us use their downstairs space at the Code Bridge in Newlands, near to Claremont train station and taxi rank.

See the location on the map to the right.

Agenda

Presentation of the Minutes of the last AGM and its acceptance by those members present on the day of the AGM;
Presentation of the Annual Report for 2019
Financial report
Election of the Board 2020
Vote on the WMZA five year plan for 2020-25
Presentation on the Afrikaans Wikipedia conflict of interests issue by Deon Styne and resolution on how WMZA can assit.
Date of next AGM (August?/September?)

Minutes

Presentation given at the AGM by the Wikimedia ZA president:

Attendance

Douglas Ian Scott
Rossouw van Rooyen
Ingrid Thomson
Adri Loubser (Baard)
Coenraad Loubser
Bobby Shabangu
Ian Gilfillan.
Deon Steyn
Reuben Honigwachs
Andy Rabagliati

Online Attendance

Raymond Ellis
Gwinyal Masukume
Paul Conlin

Apologies

Michael Graaff

Presentation of 2018 AGM minutes

Minutes from the 2018 AGM reviewed & approved - http://wikimedia.org.za/wiki/2018-AGM
We need to follow up on the Outreach Template
The Library Service did not happen, but it's still important to address in the future.
No questions or comments were raised.

Annual Report 2019

For more details see:
Impact assessment from the Wiki Campaigns Dashboard:
8 programs, with 349 editors (a lot of them new). 1.59M words added. 382M views. 14.5K articles edited. 772 articles created. 1.07K commons uploads
Activity Report" https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WM_ZA/Activity_Report_2019
Notes on activity report: In future only South African chapter members will be eligible for travel grants/bursaries. This is for logistical reasons.
(Operational) Wikimania Attendance - Thank yous to funders/supporters
Question about UNDP Wikimedian in residence
Technical part is to foster culture of Wiki editing and establish internal Wiki for UNDP
Wikimedia focus to foster open relationship of sharing and exchange of knowledge between UN and Wikimedia. Overlap is in cultural exposure & sensitivity.
Copyright Advocacy
- Freedom of panorama is respected by our law partly thanks to our attention
- (Operational) Thanks to Legal scholars, Creative Commons, Re:Create, Denise Nicholson
We need to discuss our scope of involvement with WMF Advocacy activities so as to only focus on SA Community Issues
Arts on our minds - Wits - part of diversity focus
Whose Knowledge - Goethe Institut collaboration - we are a technology partner in their drive to digital, and can use their materials - Encourage to follow the link on the activity report
- Interested in giving bursaries, need adequate notice, interested in including Wikimedia in their projects
Afrocuration - Moleskine Foundation, Bridge Foundation (Supporting teachers in SA) and Constitution Hill Trust (Database of Schools around Gauteng)
Education sector focused Editathon. See Activity Report.
Continued events in a similar line. Next one on December 28, collaboration with AfroPunk focused on African Visual Arts.
City of Johannesburg Public Library Editathon - We need more volunteers to drive relationship
A touch point with SA Library Community - there were other volunteer editathons eg. Pretoria Library, LIHASA and #1lib1ref

Financial Report 2018/19

For more details see:
The financial report was shared with all Chapter Members in November, and they had a chance to review before the AGM.
The chapter made a loss of R161k, but has no debt. Majority of funds from the Wikimedia Foundation
Current grant: July 2019 - June 2020
R80k Surplus, need to be disciplined about following process to allocate these funds to new projects. We can't overspend as all our funds are strictly linked to project.
Cost saving measures cause administrative problems, but this does allow flexibility if we stick to the grant processes to reallocate.
(Operational) Allocate current grant surplus
(Operational) Thank you to Douglas from board
If anyone wants to apply for a project to which the funds can be allocated, they can email the board or a board member. These items will be discussed internally.
People can also email the board for requests for 2020/2021 budget - The board should formalise this process however. (Operational) Formal process steps to our website

WMZA 5 year plan (2020-25)

For more details see:

See also: WMZA five year plan for 2019 on meta wiki

Chapter members got together on 14 December 2019 to discuss challenges that the chapter is facing and identify projects that can be tackled over the next 5 years in order to help resolve these challenges

Challenges identified:

Diversity: Language, Demographics, Geography
Capacity: Specifically the chapter's capacity to effect impact (volunteers, staff(?))
Access: Access to free knowledge for both Wiki editors and the public
Flexibility: Ability to react quickly to impact opportunities to the dynamic nature of the opportunities that comes unexpected.
Awareness: Increasing awareness to support chapter impact, making people more aware about Wikipedia.

Mandates:

Flexibility:

African Language Support, e.g. isiXhose example
Copyright reform e.g. Freedom of Panorama/Fair Use
Champion outreach
Diversity and inclusion
Awareness opportunity

Diversity

Champion outreach
School and Univerity roadshow
Thematic Editathons

Awareness

Banners ads for non-editors
Wikipedia Zero support
Wikipedia bookshelf
Oral citations support

Vote to park this for today and host a workshop by end of Jan that involves the whole chapter where we can expand on the projects and prioritise the ones for the next year.
Adri nominated the vote, Douglas and Reuben seconded. Andy and Bobby also voted positively and the motion was passed.

Election of 2020 board

Raymond steps down
Yonela is unavailable and steps down defacto
New board member: Wynand from Rhodes University. Nominated by Ingrid. Andy seconds. - ACCEPTED

Board members agreeing to stay on:

Adri
Bobby - Treasury committee - no objections
Coenraad - Treasury committee - no objections
Deon
Douglas - Nominated as president by Rossouw, seconded by Adri and Reuben - ACCEPTED
Ian
Michael
Rossouw

All nominated board members approved.

Afrikaans Wikipedia

Solidarity (South African Trade Union) Afrikaans Wiki page will be nominated for deletion if not remedied, as they are using their page for marketing purposes and it sets a bad example so as to the functioning and place of Wikipedia.
Decision to establish a formal Afrikaans Wikipedia Committee who can formally represent the community.
Growing at 15 articles a day and picking up speed
Too many matters for Wikimedia South Africa, Afrikaans Wikipedia needs to stand in its own
Nomination to support Deon as the Director of Afrikaans Wikipedia. Seconded by Andy. Pending a voting process within Afrikaans Wikipedia.

Date of 2020 AGM

End of August, Beginning of September - pending readiness of financials.