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Wikimedia South Africa/Board Meeting/15 April 2020

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Wikimedia ZA Board Meeting - 15 April 2020 18h30 - 19h30

Attended

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  • Ian
  • Michael
  • Rossouw
  • Adri
  • Coenraad
  • Douglas
  • Bobby
  • Wynand


Apologies

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  • Deon

Agenda

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  1. Online meetup
  2. Admin rights on local smaller language wikis
  3. Finances
  4. Previous minutes

Strategy minutes

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Online meetup

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  • May not have been the best time, lunch time, Easter Sunday
  • Positive feedback, 8 attendees
  • Will hold again, monthly at least

WMZA directors

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  • Non-profit legal requirement is 3 directors
  • Currently we have 3 listed, including Dumi
  • Dumi being removed, need to add at least one more
  • Coenraad happy to be 3rd listed director, approved
  • Keeping the number low is good for logistical reasons

Admin rights on local smaller language wikis

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Finances

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  • Regarding the R23 000 SARS penalties, no news since last update
  • Skeptical we can get it forgiven
  • Has been brought up with Grant administrators, they wanted to talk about it later
  • Copia, current bookkeepers, looking into it. To follow up with BGC (previous bookkeepers)
  • Affects grant application, as WMF not supporting any face-to-face meetings
  • Can look into software that can be used for remote meetings, good time to fund this (for example paid Hangouts with no limits on connections, monday.com)
  • Douglas to share link

Budget discussion

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  • Link from WMF on working remotely for chapter activities: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Working_and_convening_remotely
  • Link from WMF of possible online remote event tools for chapter activities: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiProject_remote_event_participation#Well-known_channels
  • Board to go through possible items that we can spent the left over budget on as well as apply for budget for next year, e.g. books and software
  • Suggestions for other items for budget, such as SPARQL skills for data mining, skill for Bobby in his particular environment
  • These weren't discussed in the strategy session, an oversight
  • We don't have portfolios in the current board, defined profiles could be helpful
  • Portfolios in earlier years didn't work out, as unpaid volunteers tend to do what they are passionate about
  • Part of Knowledge Audit is to identify skills in chapter (not just board)
  • Wynand has had 3 responses to Knowledge Audit so far, requests that others send in submissions ASAP.
  • Need for titles as means to gain acknowledgement from outsider organisation (WMZA volunteer, or even just board member, is not impressive)
  • Broad agreement, need something to state what their contribution is
  • Strategic intent, so agreement to run past board

Goethe institute

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  • They (GI) want to run a project with Sub-Saharan countries where they are based.
  • The project aims to improve African content about women, focused on small language Wikipedias where the emphasis will be on translating English articles.
  • The prizes will be a Laptop (1st), Tablet (2nd) and a voucher(3rd).
  • The pilot project will run in South Africa and the other countries will then run their project based on this.
  • Aiming to run the project from 15 May.
  • Collaborating with Arts on our Mind and Arts & Feminism
  • Douglas suggests having a meeting with GI, WMZA, and Amir Aharoni [1] to better understand what they want to do. Reuben as well & Sadilar
  • Wynand is also very keen to be part of this project - semantic web side
  • Some of the funds are geared towards the sponsorship of winners to attend WikiIndaba in Uganda.

Previous minutes

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  • http://wikimedia.org.za/wiki/Board_Meeting_31_March_2020
  • Representing African Knowledge and the African Diaspora for Wikipedia’s Global Audience - 2 April (presentation by Douglas, Wynand, and Ingrid also there)
    • Seemed to be successful, good feedback
  • Banner ads (Adri)- no movement
  • Afrocuration (Rossouw)
    • Slow progress
    • Anyone welcomes to join
  • Zero-rated Wikipedia (Coenraad) - no movement. Net-neutrality - we need to have a separate meeting about this

Communication and social media channels, infrastructure

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From 31 March to 15 April:

  • Twitter: 1558 followers -> 1561
  • Facebook (English): 975 follows (895 likes) -> 978 (896)
  • Facebook (Afrikaans): 639 members -> 640
  • Mailing list (Afrikaans): 314 members. Suspect most are fake, aol addresses, no valid activity for years -> 314
  • Mailing list (English): 269 members -> 268
  • Instagram 156 Followers -> 159
  • Meetup: 123 members -> 124
  • Youtube: 51 subscribers -> 51
  • Zulip: 14 users -> 25
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