Wikimedia South Africa/Board Meeting/30 April 2019

Wikimedia ZA Board meeting - 30 April 2019

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Attendance

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  • Ian
  • Michael
  • Rossouw
  • Adri
  • Douglas
  • Bobby

Apologies

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  • Coenraad

Agenda

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Grant update

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  • Douglas has updated application, has asked for feedback from Winifred, hasn't heard back yet.
  • Douglas reluctant to make last-minute changes to avoid resetting the process.
  • Tonight is the deadline.
  • No one else from the board has followed Douglas closely, so no-one else closely familiar with the process.
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  • Battle heating up
  • Tide seems to be turning, social media now seems to be leaning in favour of the Bill
  • Thanks Douglas for writing the two articles
  • Re-create has added a commonly-asked questions section to deal with most common issues: https://www.re-createza.org/commonly-asked-questions

WMZA tax situation

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  • No update, no response to Douglas' request from accountant
  • Douglas to update public benefit status application (previously filed in 2014, rejected because Douglas was mistakenly classified as dead), accountants to file on our behalf
  • First step towards Section 18A, so people that donate to use can offset against tax

Wiki Loves Africa update

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  • Everything has been submitted to the main jury
  • Winners will be announced in June
  • Adri to create 2 social media posts with our entries, encourage people to update their descriptions
  • 6 out of the 10 winners are uncontactable
  • Agree with discussion on the African Wikimedians mailing list about the usability of the images, many of the images are not usable
  • Suggestions
    • Better communicate entry requirements
    • Get future entrants to categorise etc. their images properly so they can be identified, and used.
  • Adri to write a report

Wiki Loves Earth

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  • No involvement from WMZA this year

Rising Voices request

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Wiki Meetup

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  • Douglas to organise next meetup, Adri to assist
  • Suggestion for change of venue
  • Look at getting a roller banner for use at our meetups

Douglas Affiliate nomination

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  • WMZA in support of Douglas's application
  • If Douglas is expected to step down from the board (as well as president), we need to do a better job of continuing to use his knowledge
  • When Dumi stepped down, he became an advisor to the board, but we haven't used his skills particularly well
  • Agree that it's not ideal for the board to be seen to be overly dependent on one member, this will be beneficial in that regard
  • Douglas expresses confidence that the board will continue to function well
  • Issue about a conflict of interest between a candidate being on the Affiliates selection committee and applying herself as well.
  • People were unhappy with this situation, suggestion to remove this conflict of interest (and require chapter board members to step down)
  • Outcome of this will be announced in Wikimania Stockholm in August
  • Bobby has added WMZA endorsement, final edits can be given to him after this meeting

Next board meeting

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  • Adri to schedule next meeting. Aim for Tuesdays, which most of us can meet.

Mascot

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  • Douglas has adopted a new mascot, proposes that it be the WMZA mascot to be taken to meetings
  • Needs a name
  • Douglas will share the image and ask for suggestions for names