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Wikimedia Armenia Active Contributor Involvement and Chapter Capacity

Wikimedia Armenia Scientific-Educational NGO was founded in 2013. The organization is aimed at developing Wikimedia projects in Armenia, uniting the Armenian wiki community, and publicizing the idea of free knowledge. Since 2013, Wikimedia Armenia has been successfully implementing various projects, programs and events: WikiCamps and WikiClubs (which were recognized as "The Coolest Projects"), GLAM initiatives, Wikipedia Training Courses for teachers and everyone else, collaborations with universities, schools and other organization like WWF Armenia, the Central Bank of Armenia, AGBU, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and so on.

Considering many years of outstanding experience and working plans, Wikimedia Armenia has the full capacity of organizing various types of programs and activities and launching new initiatives and collaborations. The human resources are more than enough for implementing all the above-mentioned because Wikimedia Armenia previously adopted the policy and method of engaging as many active contributors as possible in the organizing and managing process of various projects. Throughout the years, Wikimedia Armenia has recruited thousands of volunteers due to its programs and events. A lot of these people continued their journey with WMAM and became active contributors. This practice will continue in the future not only to support those who are already active members of the wiki community but also to engage as many newcomers as possible. Our years-long experience is tangible proof of Wikimedia Armenia's capacity.

The funding is one of the biggest problems as Wikimedia Armenia previously relied on the Wikimedia Foundation for financing bigger projects. However, WMAM has collaborated with a number of organizations - AGBU, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Yerevan Municipality, the Central Bank of Armenia etc. - which funded various projects. WMAM will continue this practice by trying to cooperate with as many organizations, international NGOs, and government bodies as possible to ensure Wikimedia Armenia's funding. At the same time, Wikimedia Armenia has several donors and one of the objectives will be to prepare a plan to engage more donors through publicizing the importance and necessity of funding the Wikimedia movement in Armenia.

Coming to the question of maintaining compliance with legal obligations, chapter and grant agreements, Wikimedia Armenia had a quite good record until recently.

  • To avoid future non-compliance issues, the new Board and the new President of Wikimedia Armenia will share the responsibility of closely following and acting in accordance with the legal obligations and chapter and grant agreements. Moreover, one of the objectives of the new Supervisory Committee will be overseeing the activities of WMAM governing bodies to ensure compliance.
  • To avoid reporting problems, Wikimedia Armenia will provide as detailed reports as possible and the reports will be reviewed by the Board before submitting them.
  • To avoid organizing activities that may result in compliance issues, a separate regulation including all "dos" and "don'ts" will be prepared in the near future and all leaders of projects and programs will be instructed to follow the regulation before planning their projects.

Current situation edit

In 2020, Wikimedia Armenia has compliance issues and it is closely working with AffCom to become compliant again. Despite the efforts Wikimedia Armenia failed to fully remediate the issues, thus, on May 2022 Wikimedia Foundation officially suspended Wikimedia Armenia's benefits until it resolves all issues and is in compliance with the Chapter Agreement and board resolution on organizational best practices.

The following are the current non-compliant issues of Wikimedia Armenia:

  • Bylaws updation and implementation without AffCom approval
  • Governance challenges- Removing members & closing Hubs without having substantial grounds, requests for action from members or processes.
  • Nature of activities- The issues of organizing objectionable activities like military-connected events in sensitive times.
  • Ineffective COVID-19 safety protocols
  • Reporting discrepancies- Lack of transparency in reporting activities and also similar lack of transparency in sharing information with the Armenian language community.
  • Negligence in publishing identity information of participants (minors) on social media.
  • Failure to follow the approved election process and system of voting.
  • Negligence to follow recommendations- The affiliate was asked for full Board change but the President’s position was not reviewed until April 2022.

Active Contributors' Support edit

Check your account eligibility

Individuals with at least 300 contributions to a Wikimedia project under a registered account that has existed for at least 6 months and is in good community standing can support Wikimedia Armenia.


  1.   Support-Ավետիսյան91 (talk) 12:46, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  2. --VSGrigorian (talk) 13:13, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  3.   Support - Armineaghayan /ArmAg 15:45, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  4.   Support , Wikimedia Armenia has done a lot for the wiki movement in Armenia, it has had hard times and has always found a way. I'm sure Wikipedians will rally around the organization and solve all problems. - Beko (talk) 15:46, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  5.   Support-WikiTatik (talk) 16:18, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  6.   Support--Արևիկ Ոսկանյան (talk) 17:27, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  7.   Strong support--∑ίγμα (talk) 18:56, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  8.   Support--M.D. Shahinyan (talk) 19:46, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  9.   Support--Գոռ Մերի (talk) 05:38, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  10.   Support--Anna1894 (talk) 10:00, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  11.   Support--Voskanyan (talk) 07:22, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  12.   Support--23artashes (talk) 08:35, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  13.   Support AKB7 (talk) 09:24, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  14.   Support Dav Sargsyan (talk) 09:25, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  15.   Strong support--MDSevak (talk) 15:07, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  16.   Support Vardanyan Anahit (talk)
  17.   Support --Ապատ63 (talk) 19:16, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  18.   Support --Նարինե Մուրադյան (talk) 06:58, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  19.   Support-ElenHar (talk) (UTC)
  20.   Support - Kareyac (talk) 08:59, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  21.   Support -Dahila26 (talk) 11:00, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  22.   Strong support--Garry Davtyan (talk) 15:58, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  23.   Strong support-- Wikimedia Armenia has gone through hardships lately. I hope that the problems will be solved soon and the Armenian wiki community will thrive again. --Մարի Ավետիսյան (talk) 08:11, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  24.   Support --Ջամալյան Զարուհի (talk) 09:37, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  25.   Support --VardanMn (talk) 09:16, 4 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  26.   Support - Dminasyan (talk) 14:36, 4 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  27.   Support - Davyd Manukian
  28.   Support - Vopyan (talk) 12:53, 4 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  29.   Support - Սահականուշ Սահակյան (talk)
  30.   Support - AmalyaSargsyan (talk) 17:37, 5 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  31.   Support-Anngab1 (talk) 11:31, 6 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  32.   Support--Shush.hovsepyan (talk) 08:51, 8 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

  Support --Մարինե Հակոբյան (talk) 11:28, 30 June 2022 (UTC) (don't have permission)[reply]

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