Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy/Implementation/User Group recognition process

The Wikimedia Foundation Affiliate Strategy resulted in two resolutions to improve Affiliations Committee (AffCom) workflows and strengthen the affiliate ecosystem:

Adopting the affiliate health criteria (resolution), which aims to provide additional guidance to affiliates regarding what it means to be an active and healthy Wikimedia organization; and
Approving the updated user group recognition process (resolution), which aims to strengthen AffCom’s ability to assess potential user groups’ ability to become healthy and active movement participants.

This page provides details about the updated user group recognition process. Information about the affiliate health criteria will be provided here.

Updated user group recognition timeline

This is the new estimated timeline for the user group recognition process including a live interview, public letter of intent, and a one-year trial period.

Step	Detail	Timeline
#1	Groups interested in being recognized as a User Group should submit an application by taking the following steps: Submit the application through the Meta-wiki form. This application is received by AffCom and processed by support staff. As part of the application form, you'll be asked to: Create a Meta page for the User Group (containing information about the group and outlining planned activities of the group for their first year). Create a public letter of intent on Meta using the suggested template, and share the letter with all affected/overlapping Wikimedia movement affiliates and applicable projects on their contact pages and global mailing lists as applicable. Support staff will add an appropriate category to the User Group's Meta page reflecting the status of the application. For applications that do not have enough required information and/or not submitted in good faith (i.e. for trolling, abusive requests, etc.), staff will inform AffCom before archiving it.	Staff to acknowledge the application within 5 days of submission
#2	Criteria review Staff will review the application and will share recommendations for required actions to the applicant, if necessary. Staff will prepare a criteria review report once all necessary actions are completed.	14 days
#3	Live interview with AffCom AffCom will send a list of questions privately to the applicants. Applicants have 14 days before the live interview to answer the questions in writing. AffCom will host a 60 minute live interview with the applicant to discuss their application.	30 days
#4	AffCom provisional approval AffCom votes whether to progress the application to the one-year trial period. If AffCom approves the resolution, the one-year trial period will commence. If AffCom rejects the resolution, applicant will be informed by the committee.	14 days
User Group trial period
#5	Mid-term check-in with applicant The Recognitions Subcommittee checks in with applicant to review progress/challenges.	6 months from the date of AffCom approval
#6	Annual activity report submission The User Group submit an annual activity report to AffCom. If the report is not submitted in time, the recognition process will not move forward.	Within 1 month of the end of trial period
#7	Final AffCom resolution AffCom votes to decide on the User Group recognition status. If AffCom approves the resolution, the User Group status will be confirmed. If AffCom rejects the resolution, the User Group will be informed by the committee.	Within 14 days of annual activity report submission

Updated application form

This section shows the changes planned for the application form on Meta-wiki. We will provide an update once the application form is ready to be used and submissions can resume.


Apply to start a user group
User group rules You are eligible to form a user group if: you have at least 3 members with 300 or more contributions to a Wikimedia project on a registered account that has existed for more than 6 months; you agree to comply with the user group agreement and code of conduct; you agree to follow the trademark policy; and you are independent from other Wikimedia organizations
Basic information
Your name	answers
Your email address	answers
Name Suggested name: Wikimedia Community User Group [your area or topic] See the name guidelines if you want to choose another name.	answers
Location Please provide the city and country where your group is planned to be based. If your group is planned to be an international group, you can put "International".	answers
Three active Wikimedians Please provide the name, email address, and Wikimedia username for 3 members with 300 or more contributions to a Wikimedia project on a registered account that has existed for more than 6 months.	answers
Wiki page Please provide a link to your group's page on Meta-Wiki. If you don't have a page yet, you can review this setup guide. Your Meta-Wiki page should contain: basic information about your group; and an outline of your group planned activities for the first year.	answers
Letter of intent As a group, you must be independent from other Wikimedia organizations. Please provide a link to your group's public letter of intent to all affected/overlapping Wikimedia projects and movement affiliates. If you don't have one yet, you can use this suggested template	answers
Logo Please link to the Commons file of your user group logo.	answers
After you submit this application, the Affiliations Committee will review it and share recommendations for required actions to you.