Talk:Cascadia Wikimedians/Archive 3

Draft startup budget

Hi Cascadians and Alex,

After many hours of behind-the-scenes volunteer work over the past few weeks, I've assembled a "startup budget" for us. As we were told by Alex, GAC does not fund requests under $500, and our estimated need for the December 15th event is around $100-$150 (still to be determined), so I've included several costs in this startup budget that I think we would likely authorize in the near future anyway.

Draft first grant request:

• Food costs for December 15 event: estimate $120 $105 currently, will have exact number after the event. Seattle TA3M is paying the other half of the expenses, and has arranged a venue and non-alcoholic beverages.

• Initial registration with State of Washington as a not-for-profit corporation: $50 $30

• Services of a registered agent (per year): $120 estimate

• P.O. box or equivalent (per year): $150 estimate. We may get a less expensive box if it's available and nearby to a board member or officer who agrees to be responsible for retrieving items from it.

• Establishing savings/checking/credit card accounts: estimate $20 one-time cost, no monthly fees

• Cell phone and single line service; all officers will have access to the voicemail.

• Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 from Ebay, approximately $230 one-time cost including shipping and tax. This belongs to the organization, not to any one person and is for "official use only". We can expand to additional lines if needed. The reason for purchasing a midrange smartphone instead of a voice-only phone is that we may also make use of the camera feature, and we may use it for data service in the future.
• Phone service: voice and text service (no data), $20/month + taxes = approximately $25/month or $300/year

• Event signage, business cards for board/officers, office supplies, and printing costs: $50

• Reserve (10% + savings identified): $139

Total initial request: $1144 $614

Important notes about the startup budget

• This is deliberately a lower-cost startup budget than we could request. When Cascadia's Board has agreed on programs that we will run, then we are likely to submit a larger request that funds this programs in addition to startup expenses not included above. To put this $1144 $614 request in perspective, I think it is likely that we will request at least $3000 to fund programmatic expenses, and there are thematic organizations with budgets of over $100,000.
• This request excludes registrations with the State of Oregon and the Province of British Columbia. We can do these later if necessary. The Oregon registration is $50 and the cost can be taken from our reserve funds if needed in the short term.
  • This works for me. I think we should do this additional paperwork when timing allows, but definitely keep it on our to do list. -Another Believer (talk) 15:53, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
• This request excludes purchasing a QuickBooks Online subscription for our accounting. I think that we should get a "Simple start" subscription when we start to run programs.
• This request excludes tax preparation services. We will likely need to budget for this when we make our larger grant request that includes program funding.
• This request excludes 501(c)(3) application expenses. This application involves a lengthy process, and we can wait to start it.
• This request excludes attorney fees for assistance with drafting bylaws and/or reviewing our bylaws. It may be worthwhile to pay an attorney for a few hours of their time to review our bylaws after we have completed a solid draft. We can make a funding request to WMF to cover the legal fees after we have completed a bylaw draft, if our Board decides that the legal expense is worthwhile.
• This request excludes general liability insurance, Directors & Officers' liability insurance, and auto insurance. The first two are likely to be included in our follow-up budget request, and we will be able to make a better estimate of the insurance costs once we know what programs we plan to run.
• Finally, a note about time requirements: as I've noted before, my volunteer time is limited, so if I'm left to deal with tasks to execute (like registering with the State, setting up bank accounts, negotiating insurance, etc.) largely by myself during volunteer time, there may be a wait. However, now that I've done the background work of figuring out which expenses to prioritize and what their costs are, I hope that I can carry out the tasks that are funded by this budget within a few weeks of receiving the funding. Unfortunately, I can make no promises; I have plenty of work in real life at the moment. It is almost 100% certain that I will need assistance to execute the follow-up grant that funds programs. In the meantime, if any other board members would like to help, please let me know.

Thank you in advance for reviewing this budget and commenting on how you believe that we should proceed.

Regards,

--Pine^✉ 05:54, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Hello, I have some experience with the Wikimedia NYC board and have seen the operations of some other Wikimedia boards, as well as have participated in the management of comparable small nonprofit organizations. Here are my thoughts:

• The PO box expense is estimated correctly. There is a post office in the same block as en:Café Allegro, which has been the most popular meeting place for this group, and they ask for about this much money. I think that would be a great choice.
• Most Wikimedia chapters to start use any office spreadsheet to do accounting. Google Sheets is an obvious choice because it is collaborative, cloud based, in a familiar platform (Google's suite), free, familiar to others, stripped in functionality to make it accessible to people who have never done accounting. Quickbooks might be an option for the future but Google Sheets is a reasonable start.
• About the phone - if the organization set up a Google account, that could be more accessible than a phone. Google Voice can receive calls and texts, and these are archived in Google's email/chat/social media platform. If there were a phone, voice mails and texts probably would not be saved forever as they would in Google's cloud, and also anyone accessing the phone would need to communicate responses probably through email to others for recordkeeping. If the organization operated out of a Google account, follow up by email would be saved along with the original message. Note that many chapters without staff fail to respond to all queries in any case, even when they only have an email address. Wikimedia New York City gets a huge number of queries far beyond our capacity to respond. If your group will be seeking comment from outside, it might be an option for this group, Wikimedia NYC, and perhaps a broader region (most of North America?) to share the cost of funding someone to answer questions, because definitely the public demand exists and existing infrastructure does not attempt to meet it.
• About the phone camera - if the group is set up enough to keep a phone it is set up well enough to keep a camera and the better quality pictures are worth it. If there really is any ambition of pictures, consider asking for funding for a shared camera in the next funding round. This is a common request for any Wikimedia group that is minimally viable and the documentation that comes with this is funders' most common request.
• I would file the registration in WA state and document the process, if asked to do so. I have done this several times before. I will arrange the registered agent. More than anything else, I need the names of 5 officers and their addresses. I think they need not even be in the United States... previously I have managed foreign registrations, but perhaps domestic organizations require domestic officers. If that is an issue then I will research more.
• If the initial agenda for insurance is "the least expensive insurance that a nonprofit of this size should consider, if the staff really does not know anything about insurance" then I will check around and get a couple of quotes. If anyone has questions or specific expectations then I think I should not touch this issue.

Blue Rasberry (talk) 12:08, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Responding to Bluerasberry

• OK, we might also go for a mailbox on the east side because we've taken to also holding meetings at the Kirkland Library.
• We could use Google Sheets for now, I am thinking that Quickbooks will be more scalable, hopefully more robust for auditing purposes, and hopefully ease the process of preparing tax paperwork.
• I looked into Google Voice, and it does appear that Google Voice has improved from its earlier versions. We could start by using Google Voice and get a dedicated phone later if needed.
• I may re-budget the phone and phone service line items into a camera line item. However, this can wait for our program budget. At least one of our members already has a decent camera for personal use that they may be willing to lend to others, although we may want to pay for insurance for the camera if the member allows lending.
• Regarding setting up a Q&A service, isn't that what OTRS does? I would be willing to support establishing a joint service for answering questions in North America, but I thought that OTRS takes care of this via email.
• Registration is likely to be fairly straightforward, I think we can handle that here.
• I would appreciate your checking for information about insurance. Please let me know what you find out. The minimums are specified at [1]. Note that there may be special challenges in finding a willing insurer because we may work in both the US and Canada, and we may also attend international events in various countries, such as Wikimanias. I found that at least one insurer will insure organizations that work only in the US. Could you ask WikiEd, WMF, and other Wikimedia orgs which insurers they use, as a start?

--Pine^✉ 05:31, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Pine, I am glad you have identified a need for QuickBooks, tax services and other application expenses. We could possibly bundle these and other expenses within a bootstrapping grant of sorts. Using QuickBooks for scalability does seem like good idea, though I am no bookkeeper and obviously we would need someone who knows how to use the software and is willing to input financial data regularly. Has someone been identified to take on the treasurer-type responsibilities of the group? For whatever reason, the phone line is less of a priority for me. I so rarely dial a phone number for any reason related to the Wikimedia movement, but I am not opposed to having a dedicated channel if people think it would be helpful. $50 for "Event signage, business cards for board/officers, office supplies, and printing costs" sounds pretty low to me, but again, maybe we can ask for additional support here in the bootstrapping grant. -Another Believer (talk) 15:53, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

• Grants:PEG/WM US-DC/Bootstrapping grant (from Category:Start up grants to affiliates and proto-affiliates) -Another Believer (talk) 15:58, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Drafting programs and an Annual Plan for our first year

Hi Cascadians,

Below is an outline that we can flesh out to develop our first Annual Plan. Please comment below.

Ongoing programs:

• Joint holiday party with TA3M Seattle
• Monthly Seattle meetups
• Portland edit-a-thons

Tips to remember for edit-a-thons and editing workshops:

• Recruit via social media
• Follow up with participants including about pageviews
• See relevant learning patterns

Programs for next year:

• Co-sponsor edit-a-thon at UW?
• Co-sponsor outreach at WSU?
• One or more events in British Columbia?
• Portland edit-a-thons?
• Support Cameras for Commons photographers or other IdeaLab proposals that WMF might be willing to fund if it had a capable non-WMF partner?
• Train and provide support, including possible financial support, for establishing (initially) one or two Wikimedians-in-residence at one or more organizations such as the Gates Foundation, UW Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, local museums (we have many good ones in Seattle, including specialities like the Museum of History and Industry, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the Boeing Museum of Flight, and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture), state archives, Public Health Seattle/King County, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, etc). We can scale up the WIR program if it seems to go well.
• Train and support education program ambassadors at UW and elsewhere, perhaps in association with WikiEd?
• Language/cultural WIRs and/or outreach to Native American tribes, especially about language preservation, perhaps in association with WikiEd?
• DBPedia collaboration?
• Press passes for Ballard Locks tours?
• Photography contests?
• Co-sponsor Community Data Science workshops?

• Following up on the semi-annual community data science workshops at UW: would there be interest in having our user group support periodic one-day events for people to gather for workshops to teach data science skills, teach Wikimedia skills, and present data science and/or open source projects? I am thinking that this might be fun, and would nicely interface with existing groups and interests at UW and in the Seattle area. These might be one-day workshops that we hold quarterly. If there is interest, we could add this to our projects that we're considering supporting in our annual plan.

• Data privacy and security workshops or presentations in association with TA3M and/or UW?
• More Seattle-area edit-a-thons, including events in Kirkland

Suggestion for program and budget timeline:

• Submit a 1-year plan and budget to GAC/PEG with the understanding that there will be quarterly reviews by our Cascadia Wikimedians User Group board, including possibly significant plan alterations as our visibility into the future improves, our ability to forecast improves, and our understanding of our opportunities increases.

Infrastructure and administration budget: I'm still working on this. I will have a better ability to look at the insurance piece and the potential need for a coworking office space and/or borrowing space from a community partner, after we have developed a program plan.

Bylaws: We can look at WMNY and WMDC and adapt their bylaws to our own situation.

Plan integration: We need to integrate these components and have flexibility to adapt as we make progress and as our organizational relationships change:

• Programs
• Volunteer capacity
• Staff/contractor capacity
• External partnerships
• Budgeting

Please share your thoughts below. Thanks! --Pine^✉ 23:21, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

What about some sort of collaboration with Wiki Project Med, or events dedication to health, medicine and/or science? @Bluerasberry and Doc James: Any thoughts? --Another Believer (talk) 02:03, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Another Believer I agree about collaborating with WikiProject Medicine and the Wiki Med user group. In particular, it would be interesting to explore whether we can develop a collaboration between the medical Wikimedians, Wikimedia medical content contributors, Wikidata contributors / WMDE, and our local resources in artificial intelligence and public/global health like UW, the Allen Institutes, and the Gates Foundation. As you probably know, there are for-profit institutions and insurers that are developing tools to help people diagnose health conditions and suggest treatments. I am wondering if we could facilitate the creation of a nonprofit version of a similar tool that would have benefits for public health and global health in the US and globally, particularly for those who will not be examined by a professional health care provider due to geographic distance or financial cost. --Pine^✉ 06:57, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

Relationships with organizations start when someone puts together a slide deck and starts offering to give presentations. In my experience, any institution will give meeting time to a Wikipedian. A few years ago over several meetings people from all of those organizations attended my talks and would have done more. It is difficult to manage any relationships without someone committing time to it, though. Whatever comes up, if someone wants help from me or Wiki Project Med, then let me know and I can help plan something based on what has worked in the past.

In my opinion, the most likely way to attract these groups is to have stable general community meetings first, then have good relationships with a professor and class which edit Wikipedia. If that much community outreach base exists then it is easy to talk to organizations about participating in something. Blue Rasberry (talk) 12:11, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Will revisit to add more thoughts, but just wanted to share. We might consider constructing a timeline of sorts for the year? Update: One started below. Feel free to edit. --Another Believer (talk) 01:46, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

I would suggest that we strive for a minimum of biannual formal editathons in each of Vancouver, BC, Portland, & Seattle. Beyond that, I think we should also do an editathon at WSU in Pullman. I believe that the purpose of these would be two-fold. One is to be educational & welcoming to new editors, & the other would be thematic. I would prefer themes that would tend to attract more women editors to help address our gender gap. Peaceray (talk) 03:04, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

I would also suggest more informal edithons, in which experienced editors can work on a specific thematic area that needs improvement. Peaceray (talk) 03:04, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

One edit-a-thon for experienced editors that I would like to suggest is to improve Template documentation for Wikivoyage. Perhaps because Wikivoyage originally started independently then later came under the WMF umbrella, the documentation is not as easy to use as en.wikipedia. In particular, much of the documentation lacks text for easy copy & paste. Peaceray (talk) 18:15, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

Hello -- We spoke in the fall about my interest in working together with Cascadia to host a Feminism+Wikipedia a critical, feminist edit-a-thon at the University of Washington in early 2015. I am pleased to see this idea tops the list of this to-do list. I would like to continue with the focus I laid out at the meeting -- which is an event that combines of a critical, feminist introduction to Wikipedia through a brief panel, then an active editing period (bring books, bring resources, and fill in gaps!). The event will be geared toward both educating and recruiting new editors, and introducing UW students to Wikipedia as a project. The University of Washington Libraries "Commons" is on board to host this event and will provide resources such as personal support for the event. They will also open on a Saturday morning, either Feb. 14 or 21 works for their schedule. I have circulated a doodle for this to see which of these dates works best for the Cascadia editors. I would push for Feb. 14 as this will have the most symbolic purchase as an event around/about feminism. (I wanted to host this in March to coincide with Women's History Month -- it is worth doing in Feb I think due to the restrictions around using this really lovely space.)

Budget: A proposed budget for snacks (including coffee, apples, chocolate covered pretzels … ) for an event that has 25 people would be approximately $100. To keep the budget low, I would encourage attendees to bring their own sack lunch and we will provide yummy munchies. There is also the option of providing childcare for those who might need it. The budget for this would depend on the number of attendees who would use the service. There are a few different options for places to hire licensed childcare providers for an event. I propose that we circulate a sign-up sheet for attendees and depending on the responses that indicate they would like and use childcare, we can move forward with including this service as a part of the edit-a-thon.

I welcome your questions, comments, and concerns, particularly around the budget and how to incorporate this event's budgetary needs. Shameran81 (talk) 23:04, 15 December 2014 (UTC) Monika

ArtAndFeminism

I believe the next ArtAndFeminism campaign is being planned for March 2015. Portland will surely host an event (our fourth?) and it would be great to see Seattle and Vancouver on the map, too. -Another Believer (talk) 00:38, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Education Program

See also: Cascadia Wikimedians/Education Program

Partnerships with universities and educational institutions as part of the Education Program / Wiki Education Foundation? -Another Believer (talk) 02:24, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

GLAM

See also: Cascadia Wikimedians/GLAM

Possible collaborations with galleries, archives, libraries and museums?

Portland has held one editathon dedicated to the arts, a few Wiki Loves Libraries events, and three art/feminist events. Have other cities in the region hosted events dedicated to the arts, or is there interest in doing so? Some ideas:

• public art survey and/or photography campaign, perhaps Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Art
• editathon(s) dedicated to local artists, arts organizations and/or public art
• Wikipedian in Residence at an arts/cultural institution
• create equivalent of the Wikipedia:Oregon Arts Project for Washington and/or British Columbia (only if there were interest; I mostly use the Oregon project for my own note taking, but it has helped me make great progress on Portland's outdoor sculptures)
• image donation from a local artist or arts organization/museum

-Another Believer (talk) 01:44, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

I plan to add myself as the one of Users/organizations to contact on the Information by state section of the WP:GLAM/US/Connect page as soon as I get my user page up to snuff. I would like GLAM institutions to see something better to see than user badges and some barnstars when I offer myself as a state GLAM contact. My target date is the first week of 2015, maybe sooner. Peaceray (talk) 03:19, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Photography campaigns

For a while I was organizing photography campaign for Portland based on monthly themes (see examples here). Participation was mostly by me and one other contributor, a great photographer who has retired from Wikipedia), but if there were interest in coordinating photography campaigns across the Cascadia region, I would be willing to help. These pages are very simple to create, and they can be very general like "coffee culture" or "churches", etc. Just a way to get people to focus on a common topic and contribute images at their leisure over the course of a month. Similar to Commons' monthly competition, but with a Pacific Northwest twist, and they can also focus on expanding related Wikipedia articles. Of course, if there is not enough interest, we could just participate in Wiki Loves Monuments or even construct our own Cascadia equivalent. -Another Believer (talk) 00:43, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

On a related note, and perhaps totally inappropriately, I was considering spearheading a 4/20 content creation campaign, to be held on or around April 20, 2015. For those who may be unfamiliar with the number code, "420" refers to cannabis/marijuana, and there is no better part of the world to cover cannabis culture than the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. (For one, it is legal in Oregon and Washington, so it might be easy for us to gain permission to enter shops and photograph various strains, products, tools for consumption, etc. Hey, it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it for the sake of the encyclopedia, right?) Many marijuana-related articles at Wikipedia are terribly underdeveloped, despite its global reach and many cultural aspects, including legislation, music, science (cannabinoids, health and medicine), strains, cultivation, movies, organizations, events, television, religion, etc. Just a thought, and if it's completely ridiculous, just send me to the corner with the dunce cap. -Another Believer (talk) 00:59, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Another Believer No, that is awesome. I would really like to foster a relationship with any organization of cannabis farmers who could provide images and video about cannabis production. I think I will look into getting some promotional posters designed for this... Blue Rasberry (talk) 12:15, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Possible calendar

• January: Keilana (Emily) will come out to host an edit-a-thon training session on a Saturday
• February 14 (?): Feminism+Wikipedia edit-a-thon (GLAM event?)- at University of Washington, Seattle
• March: ArtAndFeminism, Portland
• June: Wiki Loves Pride?
• June 23–26: Meetup in conjunction with Open Source Bridge, Portland?
• July: Wiknic
• July 15–19: Cascadia Meetup at Wikimania 2015, Mexico City?
• August: Cascadia Meetup at WikiConference USA?
• September: Wiki Loves Monuments?
• October: Wiki Loves Libraries?

Feel free to add or remove. Just throwing it out there and seeing what sticks. --Another Believer (talk) 01:31, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Notes about possible tasks for Wikimedians-in-residence, community coordination, and outreach

• Hosting edit-a-thons
• Hosting workshops
• Summer of Monuments
• Outreach to GLAM, education, and research institutions
• Recruiting, training, and outplacement of WIRs

• GLAM institutions
• Universities
• Research institutions in fields like public health, health care, and public education

• Public Health Seattle/King County (possibly in cooperation with Wiki Med)
• Allen Institute for Brain Science (possibly in cooperation with Wiki Med)
• Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
• Gates Foundation (possibly in cooperation with Wiki Med)
• Harborview Medical Center (possibly in cooperation with Wiki Med)
• UW School of Medicine or Medical Center (possibly in cooperation with Wiki Med)
• Washington State Insurance Commissioner (possibly in cooperation with Wiki Med)
• Washington State Department of Health (possibly in cooperation with Wiki Med)
• Washington State Attorney General's Office
• Washington State Bar Association
• University of Washington School of Law

• Native American tribes, particularly those interested in language and culture preservation, perhaps in association with Wiki Ed Foundation
• Washington State Archives
• Create equivalent of the Wikipedia:Oregon Arts Project for Washington and/or British Columbia
• Solicit content donations from organizations such as museums
• Public records requests
• GLAM outreach conducted by WIRs
• Content donations

Congratulations and welcome!

Congratulations on your recent recognition as a user group! We wanted to let you know about this tool for Wikimedia organizations (including user groups) that was just recently developed, in case you are interested in participating in the first phase of the project. We are collecting a first round of responses until 21 December: Organizational_effectiveness/Tool. We wanted to let you know about the tool, since as a newer group, we may not have reached out to you yet.

If your group is interested in participating, but has questions, we'd be happy to help you get started. Just contact me on my user page or send me a note at orgeffectiveness at wikimedia dot org. Cheers and welcome, Winifred Olliff (FDC Support Team) talk 19:08, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

User:OR drohowa in town December 2014

Hi All! I'm a New York City Wikimedian but I grew up in Mount Vernon, Washington. I'm coming to Seattle/Mount Vernon for the holidays, and would love to meet up with Cascadia Wikimedians. Would people be interested in having an impromptu coffee at cafe allegro with me sometime perhaps on the 28th or January 2nd? I'd love to talk shop and hear how your projects are going. Yours, OR drohowa (talk) 22:49, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Nonprofit insurance

• The nonprofit organization carries public liability insurance covering the organization's liability for harm caused to others for which it is directly or vicariously liable of not less than the following amounts:
  • (i) For organizations with gross revenues of less than twenty-five thousand dollars, at least fifty thousand dollars due to the bodily injury or death of one person or at least one hundred thousand dollars due to the bodily injury or death of two or more persons;
  • (ii) For organizations with gross revenues of twenty-five thousand dollars or more but less than one hundred thousand dollars, at least one hundred thousand dollars due to the bodily injury or death of one person or at least two hundred thousand dollars due to the bodily injury or death of two or more persons;
  • (iii) For organizations with gross revenues of one hundred thousand dollars or more, at least five hundred thousand dollars due to bodily injury or death.

Washington state law

This organization will be registered in Washington and it seems that having insurance is a legal requirement. My interpretation of this is that the requirement is to have liability insurance for "harm to others". I am unsure who fits in others. I suppose this always includes people who are not members of the organization but who might somehow be harmed, but I am unsure if organization meeting participants are covered. There are insurance policies for nonprofit organizations and I would presume they all provide the required coverage.

I contacted w:Vern Fonk (YouTube) who referred me to Wagner Insurance Northwest. They tell me that they most basic insurance policy that they provide is $600 / year. To finalize the quote, they needed the following information:

1. A physical address for the location where most of the organization's physical property is kept. Note that this is separate from meeting location, and no information is needed about meeting location.
   1. Provide the year of construction of the building at this address
   2. The area in square feet of this space
   3. The number of stories of the space and the building itself
2. Banking information of the person or entity which is managing the insurance agreement
   1. automatic bank transfer can be set up
   2. the policy can be paid monthly or yearly

What I see in this is that someone will need to be identified as a manager of the insurance policy. As the organization itself is not registered and has no bank account, the organization cannot do this at this time.

We have one price quote. It would only be prudent to get another. I will collect it and report back. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:25, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

Making a decision

I hardly understand insurance but here is a proposal for making a policy decision:

1. Get 2-3 quotes
2. verify that policies offered by insurers meet minimal needs
3. Among policies offered which meet minimal needs, select the least expensive option
4. If in the future we need insurance beyond the minimal, then consider differences in value by reviewing the differences in cost and benefit of various policies

Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:32, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

I have requested quotes from Thomas and Associates and DeFranco Insurance. I chose these after searching for "Seattle nonprofit insurance". Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:03, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

Cascadia Wikimedians User Group inaugural board meeting

See the Seattle monthly meetup on 1/13/2015, 6pm to 10pm for details.

• Count me in! -Another Believer (talk) 18:47, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

LGBT Cascadia meetup 12 Jan in Vancouver

• Queer History in Vancouver Edit-a-thon: 2015-01-12

I am not sure who is organizing this. Blue Rasberry (talk) 21:29, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps the school itself? Hopefully they have someone familiar with Wikipedia on site to help out. I went ahead and created a meetup page at English Wikipedia and also posted about the event on the Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group talk page here at Meta. -Another Believer (talk) 23:23, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Events and activities in the Cascadia region

I expanded Cascadia Wikimedians/Events a bit (mostly by adding Seattle monthly meetups) and attempted to beautify the page with a few images. If you see something missing, please add! I will try to keep this page updated with events and activities to make reporting easier. --Another Believer (talk) 01:54, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

Board positions

Dear Wikimedians, We had our first two board meetings this month. Our initial board members are:

• Another Believer
• Brianhe
• Mako
• Peaceray
• Pine
• Ragesoss

The following appointments have been made:

• President: Peaceray
• Vice President: Mako
• Secretary: Another Believer
• Treasurer: Brianhe
• Executive Director: Pine

Regards,

Peaceray, President of Cascadia Wikimedians User Group + Another Believer, Secretary of Cascadia Wikimedians User Group

-Another Believer (talk) 17:38, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Project and Event Grant (PEG) application

• Grants:PEG/UG US-CWUG/2015 Annual Plan -Another Believer (talk) 17:46, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

Oregon State University collaboration

Check out this blog post by the Wiki Education Foundation: http://wikiedu.org/blog/2015/02/05/wiki-student-groups/. The Oregon State Pi Alpha Xi Horticulture Club will be participating in a pilot program. I added a bit of information at Cascadia Wikimedians/Education Program, which, by the way, I would ask you to update if you know of any other Education Program collaborations in the Cascadia region.

WEF is currently looking for other groups to participate in this pilot program. Spoiler alert, I will be working with two classes at Reed College later this month. Not sure if it will be part of this pilot program specifically, but the instructor plans to create a page at the WEF dashboard and this will be another institutional collaboration which I hope will lead to more opportunities in the future. -Another Believer (talk) 20:46, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Tracking participation in editing-focused events

Hi folks. Pine has set up "course pages" on Wikipedia that we can use to track participation in events like workshops and edit-a-thons:

• w:Education Program:Cascadia Wikimedians User Group

I've set up an instance of the Dashboard project that can connect to course pages, to give added detail about what people are up to: http://educationdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses?cohort=cascadia

If you want to add another course page to the "Cascadia" set on that Dashboard, just give me a ping or add the course id to this page: w:Wikipedia:Education_program/Dashboard/Cascadia

--Ragesoss (talk) 15:47, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

This is an awesome new tool. I have experience using the education extension and if anyone wants to connect to talk about its use in outreach and the utility of this new tool then I would talk with you.

In short, this tool allows for easy on-wiki signup for all participants in a meetup. This is a huge hassle otherwise especially for new users. Additionally, it gives easy to read and very inspiring metrics of the outcomes of meetups, including number of articles edited and the pageviews of readers who are reading those articles.

In my opinion this is a low or zero time commitment procedure change which will immediately have a big payback, assuming that it is minimally functional as it seems to be. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:33, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

Cascadia Wikimedians User Group Quick Start Grant application approved

• http://wikimediadc.org/wiki/Grant:Cascadia_Wikimedians_User_Group_Quick_Start_Grant

Thank you Wikimedia DC. -Another Believer (talk) 15:57, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

• Update: Following a majority vote in favor of the grant agreement, a signed document has been returned to Wikimedia DC. This form should be used to provide a report by April 30. -Another Believer (talk) 15:54, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Safe space policy

This link contains the Cascadia Wikimedians User Group's safe space policy. I will also post on the Main Page and please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you, -Another Believer (talk) 22:11, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

See also Friendly space policies and Code of conduct. Blue Rasberry (talk) 23:21, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Reporting our activities

With formal recognition and potential funding, we will be expected to report on our activities and events (rightly so). I think it would be very helpful if we made it a habit to document and results of our activities immediately (within reason) following events or campaigns so that we are not scrambling at the end of a funding cycle or upon request by WMF or another funder. Plus, reporting retroactively is never easy and it doesn't serve us well as we are trying to learn what works and what doesn't within our region.

I wonder if we can discuss the sorts of things we wish to report/document and what metrics we can use. I admit, most of my reporting for Portland events has been simple stats or even anecdotal, such as the number of attendees, a list of articles worked on, and what went well or what was challenging. But, I know there are great tools for reporting such as WikiMetrics (which I have never used) or even the new Wiki Education Foundation dashboard, which I have also never used.

Can we talk about what we want to record and how we can obtain metrics? It might be helpful to even draft a report template for future use. -Another Believer (talk) 19:35, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Education Program collaboration: ART354 at Reed College

Tomorrow I will be teaching students in two classes about Wikipedia. This Education page has been created, in case you wish to follow progress or serve as an online volunteer. I can share the WEF Dashboard link, too, once that is available. I've been looking for a way to collaborate with Reed for quite a while now (I live within walking distance, which makes it particularly convenient), so I am glad something finally came to fruition. Hopefully this marks the first of many future collaborations. -Another Believer (talk) 18:37, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

• Update: Wiki Education Foundation dashboard link. -Another Believer (talk) 18:42, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Women's Wikipedia group at University of Oregon

• en:Wikipedia:WikiProject_UO_Weaving_Women_Into_Wikipedia

I suppose that eventually there should be a place to list these things. Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:43, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up! Added to main page and to WikiProject Oregon category. -Another Believer (talk) 15:10, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

Spring 2015 UW Community Data Science Workshops - register by April 3rd!

Hi Cascadians! There will be another set of Community Data Science Workshops at UW starting on April 10th. Details here. Apply by April 3rd for best consideration. The series consists of one Friday evening and three saturday sessions. It is free and open to the public, and lunch is included! You don't need to know anything about programming or data science to participate. If you do already know a little Python, please consider registering as a mentor—these workshops require a lot of individual mentorship to work, and it's a lot of fun (and you might still learn something!). Ping me if you have any questions. Also: could someone post this annoucement to Cascadia.wiki? I don't have an account there yet. Cheers, Jtmorgan (talk) 21:45, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Nominations are being accepted for 2015 Wikimedia Foundation elections

This is a message from the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee. Translations are available.

Greetings,

I am pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections. This year the Board and the FDC Staff are looking for a diverse set of candidates from regions and projects that are traditionally under-represented on the board and in the movement as well as candidates with experience in technology, product or finance. To this end they have published letters describing what they think is needed and, recognizing that those who know the community the best are the community themselves, the election committee is accepting nominations for community members you think should run and will reach out to those nominated to provide them with information about the job and the election process.

This year, elections are being held for the following roles:

Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees is the decision-making body that is ultimately responsible for the long term sustainability of the Foundation, so we value wide input into its selection. There are three positions being filled. More information about this role can be found at the board elections page.

Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC)
The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) makes recommendations about how to allocate Wikimedia movement funds to eligible entities. There are five positions being filled. More information about this role can be found at the FDC elections page.

Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) Ombud
The FDC Ombud receives complaints and feedback about the FDC process, investigates complaints at the request of the Board of Trustees, and summarizes the investigations and feedback for the Board of Trustees on an annual basis. One position is being filled. More information about this role can be found at the FDC Ombudsperson elections page.

The candidacy submission phase lasts from 00:00 UTC April 20 to 23:59 UTC May 5 for the Board and from 00:00 UTCApril 20 to 23:59 UTC April 30 for the FDC and FDC Ombudsperson. This year, we are accepting both self-nominations and nominations of others. More information on this election and the nomination process can be found on the 2015 Wikimedia elections page on Meta-Wiki.

Please feel free to post a note about the election on your project's village pump. Any questions related to the election can be posted on the talk page on Meta, or sent to the election committee's mailing list, board-elections -at- wikimedia.org

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
-Gregory Varnum (User:Varnent)
Coordinator, 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Posted by the MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee, 04:56, 21 April 2015 (UTC) • Translate • Get help

Requests for comments on Wikimedia user groups approval process and agreements

This is an update from the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee. Translations are available.

The Wikimedia Affiliations Committee is requesting comments on the approval process and agreements for Wikimedia user groups.

Wikimedia user groups are groups of Wikimedia users who support and promote the Wikimedia projects in the offline world by organizing meetups and other projects. The Wikimedia Affiliations Committee's responsibilities include approval of new Wikimedia user groups.

The committee will seek community input until Friday, May 1, 2015. The committee will then review the community's input, and publish the new process and agreements on Meta-Wiki. The committee will again seek community input approximately six months after any changes are adopted to gauge effectiveness and if any additional changes are necessary.

Please see the RFC page on Meta-Wiki for more information and to provide feedback.

Thank you - Wikimedia Affiliations Committee

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Affiliations Committee, 04:26, 24 April 2015 (UTC) • Translate • Get help • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

Wikimedia Foundation Funds Dissemination Committee elections 2015

This is a message from the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee. Translations are available.

Voting has begun for eligible voters in the 2015 elections for the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) and FDC Ombudsperson. Questions and discussion with the candidates for the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) and FDC Ombudsperson will continue during the voting. Nominations for the Board of Trustees will be accepted until 23:59 UTC May 5.

The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) makes recommendations about how to allocate Wikimedia movement funds to eligible entities. There are five positions on the committee being filled.

The FDC Ombudsperson receives complaints and feedback about the FDC process, investigates complaints at the request of the Board of Trustees, and summarizes the investigations and feedback for the Board of Trustees on an annual basis. One position is being filled.

The voting phase lasts from 00:00 UTC May 3 to 23:59 UTC May 10. Click here to vote. Questions and discussion with the candidates will continue during that time. Click here to ask the FDC candidates a question. Click here to ask the FDC Ombudsperson candidates a question. More information on the candidates and the elections can be found on the 2015 FDC election page, the 2015 FDC Ombudsperson election page, and the 2015 Board election page on Meta-Wiki.

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
-Gregory Varnum (User:Varnent)
Volunteer Coordinator, 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Posted by the MediaWiki message delivery 03:40, 4 May 2015 (UTC) • Translate • Get help

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections 2015

This is a message from the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee. Translations are available.

Voting has begun for eligible voters in the 2015 elections for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Questions and discussion with the candidates for the Board will continue during the voting.

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is the ultimate governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in the United States. The Wikimedia Foundation manages many diverse projects such as Wikipedia and Commons.

The voting phase lasts from 00:00 UTC May 17 to 23:59 UTC May 31. Click here to vote. More information on the candidates and the elections can be found on the 2015 Board election page on Meta-Wiki.

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
-Gregory Varnum (User:Varnent)
Volunteer Coordinator, 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Posted by the MediaWiki message delivery 17:20, 17 May 2015 (UTC) • Translate • Get help

Participation in 2015 Stub Contest

I added Cascadia stub expansion to the Wikipedia reward board as an incentive for participants in the 2015 stub contest. A barnstar is offered from me personally. Brianhe (talk) 01:30, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Regional US/Canada Wikimedia conference - Washington DC - 9-11 October

Hello. I would like to invite you to WikiConference USA. This community gathering will be Friday-Sunday 9-11 October (with Columbus Day being Monday the 12th) in Washington DC at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Persons interested in participating may present a submission, request one of about 25 travel scholarships, or plan to attend. Thanks. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:17, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

• Hi Bluerasberry. I've been asking for awhile for an email announcement from the conference organizers that I can forward. Do you know if any email announcement will be coming soon? Thanks, --Pine^✉ 21:21, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Pine I just sent an email announcement to the Cascadia mailing list. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:53, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

Update: If you plans to attend the conference, consider attending the Cascadia Wikimedians Meetup. -Another Believer (talk) 15:29, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia's 15th birthday - get involved!

Apologies for cross-posting the below!

The 15th birthday of Wikipedia, and the Wikimedia movement, is coming soon! We’re eager to make plans to celebrate on January 15, 2016.

As a way to kickstart planning around the 15th, there is a page on Meta for Wikipedia 15. Eventually, we plan for the page to have resources including:

1. Resources to plan events and meetups locally to celebrate the 15th.
2. More information on sharing birthday photos, videos, stories, Wikipedia content, and other media.
3. Tips for pitching to local media to cover your event.

Many of the sections on the meta page are blank for now, but we’ll be working with you to add more information to the page over the next few months leading up to the birthday celebration in January. Please feel free to add, edit, and discuss what you’d like to see for Wikipedia’s 15th birthday!

We look forward to celebrating with you!

-for the Wikimedia Foundation Communications team, JSutherland (WMF) (talk) 01:30, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

This is an update from the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee. Translations are available.

The Wikimedia Affiliations Committee is pleased to introduce the launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a place for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user groups) to discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to other affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide events. The idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across our movement, plus collaborative discussions like community-wide activities, joint edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report posts, or other communications from affiliates.

Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the mailing list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations Committee to request additional spots if needed.

Please find a bit more information on Meta-Wiki and do not hesitate to contact the Affiliations Committee if you have further questions.

Thank you - Wikimedia Affiliations Committee

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Affiliations Committee, 07:51, 27 October 2015 (UTC) • Translate • Get help • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

Wikipedia 15 has a mark!

Read this message in other languages

Wikipedia 15 now has a mark! Be sure to check out the “Material” section of the Wikipedia 15 meta page to see the design, and learn about how to use it. This year's mark is meant to be fun, interactive, and infinitely customisable. We can’t wait to see how you and your Wikimedia community use it!

–For the WMF Communications team, Sam Lien and Joe Sutherland 02:58, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Your input requested on the proposed #FreeBassel banner campaign

This is a message regarding the proposed 2015 Free Bassel banner. Translations are available.

Hi everyone,

This is to inform all Wikimedia contributors that a straw poll seeking your involvement has just been started on Meta-Wiki.

As some of your might be aware, a small group of Wikimedia volunteers have proposed a banner campaign informing Wikipedia readers about the urgent situation of our fellow Wikipedian, open source software developer and Creative Commons activist, Bassel Khartabil. An exemplary banner and an explanatory page have now been prepared, and translated into about half a dozen languages by volunteer translators.

We are seeking your involvement to decide if the global Wikimedia community approves starting a banner campaign asking Wikipedia readers to call on the Syrian government to release Bassel from prison. We understand that a campaign like this would be unprecedented in Wikipedia's history, which is why we're seeking the widest possible consensus among the community.

Given Bassel's urgent situation and the resulting tight schedule, we ask everyone to get involved with the poll and the discussion to the widest possible extent, and to promote it among your communities as soon as possible.

(Apologies for writing in English; please kindly translate this message into your own language.)

Thank you for your participation!

Posted by the MediaWiki message delivery 21:46, 25 November 2015 (UTC) • Translate • Get help

2015 Affiliations Committee call for candidates

This is an update from the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee. Translations are available.

The Affiliations Committee – the committee responsible for guiding volunteers in establishing Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups – is looking for new members!

The main role of the Affiliations Committee is to guide groups of volunteers that are interested in forming Wikimedia affiliates. We review applications from new groups, answer questions and provide advice about the different Wikimedia affiliation models and processes, review affiliate bylaws for compliance with requirements and best practices, and advise the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees on issues connected to chapters, thematic organizations and Wikimedia user groups.

The committee consists of twelve members, six of whom are selected every twelve months for staggered two-year terms.

Key skills

Being a part of the Affiliations Committee requires communication with volunteers all over the world, negotiating skills, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to understand legal texts. We try to get a healthy mix of different skill sets in our members. The key skills and experience that we look for in candidates are:

• Excitement by the challenge of helping to empower groups of volunteers worldwide.
• Willingness to process applications through a set, perhaps bureaucratic process.
• Readiness to participate in political discussions on the role and future of affiliates, models of affiliations, and similar questions.
• Availability of up to 5 hours per week, and the time to participate in a monthly ~2 hour voice/video meeting.
• International orientation.
• Very good communication skills in English.
• Ability to work and communicate with other languages and cultures.
• Strong understanding of the structure and work of affiliates and the WMF.
• Knowledge of different legal systems and experience in community building and organising are a plus.
• Effective communication skills in other languages are a major plus.
• Experience with or in an active affiliate is a major plus.
• Willingness to use one's real name in committee activities (including contacts with current and potential affiliates) when appropriate.

We are looking for people who are not afraid of the workload and are motivated by helping other volunteers to get organized and form communities that further our mission around the world.

Selection process

As a reflection of our commitment to openness, transparency, and bilateral engagement with the Wikimedia community, the 2015 member selection process will include a public review and comment period. All applications received by the committee will be posted on Meta (at Affiliations Committee/Candidates/2015), and the community will be invited to provide comments and feedback about each candidate.

At the end of the public comment period, the applications will be voted on by the members of the committee who are not seeking re-election, taking into account comments put forward by the committee's members, advisors, WMF staff and board liaisons, and the community. A final decision will be made by mid-January 2016, with new members expected to join later that month.

How to apply

If you are interested in joining the committee, please send an application to affcom@lists.wikimedia.org by 31 December 2015. You will get a confirmation that your application was received.

Your application should include the following:

• Your full name
• Your contact information (including e-mail address and username)
• A statement describing your relevant experience, skills, and motivation for joining the committee.

Your statement will be published for community review and feedback, so please do not include any information that you are not comfortable sharing.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me and/or the committee as a whole. We are happy to chat or have a phone call with anyone about our work if this helps them decide to apply. Please distribute this call among your networks, and do apply if you are interested!

Best regards,
Carlos Colina
Chair, Affiliations Committee

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Affiliations Committee, 16:53, 9 December 2015 (UTC) • Please help translate to your language • Get help • Subscribe or unsubscribe.