Wikimedia user groups/Applications/Wikimedians of Latvia User Group

Approved

This Wikimedia user group application has been approved by the Affiliations Committee.

Proposed name of Wikimedia user group: (There are some templates at Step-by-step user group creation guide#Naming of user groups.)

Wikimedians of Latvia User Group

Proposed scope of Wikimedia user group: (What is the planned purpose, scope, vision, or mission of this Wikimedia user group?)

Group is created to better represent users form Latvian Wikipedia and related projects, to provide better means of communication and improve collaboration with local organizations. More precise goals are stated in "Objectives" section of usergroup page on meta.

Wiki page:

See Wikimedians of Latvia User Group

1. Who are the people behind this application?

1a. How many?
11 people have signed up in meta page so far, all from Latvian Wikipedia.
1b. Active in which Wikimedia projects, if any?
Mostly they are active in Latvian Wikipedia, while several are also active in Commons and Wikidata
1c. How are they geographically distributed?
Almost all of them live in Latvia, most of them live, work or study in its capital Riga.
1d. Do you have any highly active or prominent (on local or international level) Wikimedians / Wikipedians? If so, please name a few. (provide user names and wiki of origin)
User:Feens is one of first users in Latvian Wikipedia, still active contributor. User:Edgars2007 has created more than 7000 articles which is 12,27% of our content (as of November 2014). Several other users are experts in specific topics.
1e. How many people do you expect will eventually want to join?
We expect that around 20 people will join the group and its mailing list.

2. For the application and final agreement we will require two contact persons that can sign the Wikimedia User Group Agreement on behalf of the group. Who will those be? (please provide user names and wiki of origin) Please also include email addresses for these users either on this page or in your initial email to the Affiliations Committee (AffCom(_AT_)lists.wikimedia.org).

User:Papuass and User:Feens, email addresses provided in initial email to AffCom.

3. Please give a short summary of your time path from the founding up to now.

Our Wikipedia timeline is summarised here (in Latvian). Latvian Wikipedia was created in 2003 and right now has about 58 000 articles. For the last five years it has kinda stagnated ar 6000 new articles every year.

4. Which geographical area and context do you cover (or plan to cover) with your entity?

Territory of Latvia. Context: topics about Latvia, Latvian people, important general topics in Latvian language.

5. Have there been any activities/meetings etc. of this group of people? If yes, please briefly describe some examples. This is not a requirement, just helpful information.

There have been several irregular meetings of wikipedians in a pub in Riga, during the last few years. Usually to celebrate round number of articles. Record attendance was 8 people (huge gender gap).

6. Do you keep any monthly/half-yearly/yearly reports of you activities? If yes, please provide links. This is not a requirement, just helpful information.

There have been no regular reports so far.

7. What kind of activities are planned for the future in the user group?

We have some modest plans for outreach work, Wiki Loves Monuments, microgrants for small projects and applying for PEG grants. Some of preparation work is already in process.

8. Is you entity already legally registered? Do you intend on becoming a legally registered entity in the next thirteen months? Please note that we do not require or encourage user groups to legally incorporate or register.

No. We do not plan to register until we decide that a chapter is needed instead of this user group.

9. Do you have a bylaws for you entity? If yes, have the bylaws been reviewed by a lawyer/specialist? Please note that we do not require or encourage user groups to write bylaws.

No, we have no plans for formal structure in our user group, yet.

10. How can the Affiliations Committee and the Wikimedia Foundation help your group?

User:Papuass: Provide some guidance in our first attempts in doing offline activities.
User:Voll: Promotion of FoP within the European Union.

Submitted: Papuass (talk) 16:23, 5 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Acknowledged: Kirill Lokshin [talk] 00:56, 8 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]