Let's Connect Newsletter/Archive/2023/Issue 7

Let’s Connect Newsletter Issue 7

What is happening in Let’s Connect this month

Welcome to June’s issue of the Let’s Connect monthly newsletter.

This month we welcome two new members to the Let’s Connect Working Group, Cassandra Casares, Program Support Associate, Community Development Wikimedia Foundation and Bukola O. James, Founder/Lead Wikimedia Fan Club, Kwara State University and a member of Wikimedia User Group Nigeria.

Did you miss Learning Clinics - no worries!

Are you losing potential volunteers?

When? 13th of July, 3-6 pm UTC

What is this session for? Organisers put a lot of effort into outreach and training but often get frustrated when their volunteer base does not grow. In this Learning Clinic, Asaf Bartov will take us through some key practices to improve volunteer outreach, training, motivation and retention based on many years of experience working with different Wikimedia communities worldwide. In this interactive session, we will also hear from participants and what has worked or not worked for them in different contexts. Together we can build a tool kit of good practices that will be useful for the Movement.

Who is this session for? Any Wikimedian or affiliate of a chapter or user group.

Thriving as wikimedians in a good working atmosphere by Christel Steigenberger

When? 14th of July, 2023; 6-8 pm UTC

What is this session for? Maintaining community health in Asian language communities and smaller affiliates can be challenging due to various factors such as cultural nuances, language barriers, lack of resources, recognition of contribution and limited access to information and support. However, these challenges can be overcome by implementing effective policies and personal strategies to maintain a healthy working atmosphere. E.g., How to address challenging behaviour and interactions within community spaces .

Who is this session for? Any Wikimedian that is part of an organised group and not only an affiliate.

Communications crisis prevention and management

When? 21th of July, 2023; 3-5 pm UTC

What is this session for? Many Wikimedian affiliates face internal and/or external communication challenges. These can often escalate to a “crisis”, which puts pressure on affiliate staff, volunteers, and community members. This new Learning Clinic will discuss a crisis prevention and management case study to share some practices and tips. With Wikimedia Poland, Wikimedia Italy, and Wikimedia Foundation Communications Department, this Learning Clinic will guide you through the sample communication crisis and offer tips for dealing with them in your affiliate.

Who is this session for? Any Wikimedian or affiliate of a chapter or user group.

Other learning opportunities in the Movement

Happening this month!! 👀

The next skillshare meeting will take place on Wednesday 26th July, 15:00 BST: and I'll be talking about how to use the Outreach Dashboard (aka the Programmes & Events dashboard) to support events & volunteers. Sign up using the Meta link above.
The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) will host their next meetings on July 15/16, 2023! Link to join the meetings here.

News from Movement Strategy

The Core Organizing Team would like to invite you to register for Wikimania 2023. Register for the in-person event by July 16 and for the online event anytime. Wikimania will be held in person from 16—19 August at the Suntec Convention Centre and online on eventyay an open source virtual and hybrid event platform.

Story from Let’s Connect

On 27th-29th May 2023, two Let’s Connect working group members, Jessica Stephenson and Chinmayee Mishra, attended WikiConference India and shared the works of the Let's Connect Team with the conference participants. The active participation across the globe, the relevance of Let’s Connect’s motto with the conference's theme, and the impact of this peer learning program were shared there.

Let's Connect member Mrb Rafi held a mini workshop at Notre Dame College, Dhaka, Bangladesh and introduced the 11th graders of the institution to the open knowledge ecosystem and Wikimedia. There were 150-200 students present. They hope to see most of these youngsters in the Wikimediaverse (and in Let's Connect!) in the upcoming days.

This workshop is a part of NDEC WERT's yearly recruitment program and follows the legacy of the 2020 workshop and 2022 boot camp. Similar intensive hands-on training activities (like the previous years) will take place this year also but with more focus on the instructor's and participants' safety. Fun Fact: There are 19 Let's Connectors from Bangladesh. 17 of them are directly connected to NDEC WERT.

Resource to check out:

MinT: Supporting underserved languages with open machine translation. Read more on diff here.

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