Wikipedia & Education User Group/2018 Annual Report

The User Group was approved for affiliation to WMF on 27 June 2018.
This report contains activities done by the group and its board from 27 June 2018 to 31 December 2018.

TLDR: A Short Summary

• The User Group was approved by the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee on June 27 2018.
• Since then, the organizing team has facilitated an election process for a board. The first board was announced on October 6 2018.
• Since being elected, the board has met between 2-3 times a month, and has worked to create infrastructure for its activity. This included:
  1. creating channels of communication
  2. revamping the User Group's Meta page
  3. creating a membership process and inviting interested parties to sign up as members
  4. logo challenge
  5. starting to work on our bylaws
  6. starting working on an annual plan for the group
  7. meeting with the WMF Education team
  8. hosting the first members open meeting (December 17, 2018)
  9. participating in the "Open Education Leadership Summit" in Paris
  10. connecting with the organizing team of the Basque User Group, which is hosting the coming EDUWiki Conference

And now in more details.. :)

• Affiliation: With 149 people supporting the mission of Wikipedia & Education Collaborative, the proposed User Group was formally approved by the Affiliations Committee on 27 June 2018, for a one-year, renewable period.
• Board elections: Post-affiliation, the organizers conducted the group's first meeting in August 2018 to discuss the board elections, mapping exercise and also tech infrastructure such as P&E Dashboard. Later in the month, elections were announced. The process continued until the end of September, and the results were announced on 6 October 2018. Shani Evenstein, Susanna Mkytchyan, Ananth Subray, Filip Maljkovic, and Krishna Chaitanya Velaga have been elected for the first board of the User Group, for a period of two years continuing through 2020. The election process was supported and supervised by joão alexandre peschanski, who has later joined the board as adviser.
• First steps: After the election, the board members have been meeting 2-3 times every month starting October 2018, to setup necessary procedure and build infrastructure for smooth functioning. During the period until December 2018, the following aspects have been addressed:
  1. Communication Channels: The group has set up the following communication channels, for community members to contact the group and its board or to discuss any issues related to EDUWiki.
     1. To ping the board members on-Wiki: {{@WEUGB}}
     2. To contact the board members by email: EDUWikiUGgmail.com
     3. A mailing list for EDUWiki related discussions: eduwiki archive - options - send
  2. Revamping and setting up Meta-Wiki pages: One of the first tasks taken up by the newly elected board was to revamp the Meta-Wiki pages of the User Group and populate required content into them. Several sub-pages have been setup, and necessary templates have been put into place for people to navigate between them with ease. The five main sub-pages are, About us, Get involved, Governance, Resources, Contact us.
  3. Membership process: A new membership process was created and a membership form was sent to all supporters. Filip Maljkovic was chosen to be the membership admin and is in charge of adding new members to the open membership list, as well as the mailing list.
  4. Logo challenge: Encouraging community members' participation in the User Group's processes, a logo challenge was commissioned on 23 November 2018 to invite nominations for an official logo. Eight proposals were received. Post-nomination period, voting was conducted. The board suggested some changes to the logo with the most number of votes and the creator submitted the final version on January 2019.
  5. Work on by-laws: For smooth functioning of the group in future, work on the by-laws has been started. An internal committee has been formed within the board, with a facility to seek to external expertise whenever needed. Upon completing the first draft, it'll be opened up for comments and suggestions, before ratification.
  6. Work on the annual plan: The annual plan is also being worked on, and it is expected to the public in February 2019.
  7. Meetings with WMF Education team: To bring together all the productive efforts in EDUWiki for the better, the board feels it is vital for the User Group to work closely with the WMF Education team, and be of mutual support whenever needed. In this regard, both entities had two meetings in October and November. The board represented the UG while Nichole and Ben represented WMF. Several topics of mutual interest were discussed. Some of these include state of the EDUWiki team at WMF, tech support to P&E Dashboard and other tools, upcoming conference, division of roles, capacity building in emerging communities, and the mapping exercise.
  8. Community open meeting: First meeting with the community was held on 17 December 2018, in which several community members and also WMF staff took part. Attendees were briefed about the state of the User Group, and work was done to the point, and also plans. The idea of having various working groups for focused approach on different issues related to EDUWiki was appreciated. Some members expressed their interest in participating in these groups, and these have been duly noted. When necessary setup is complete, they'll be contacted for.
  9. Outreach: OELS: The Chair, Shani Evenstein, was invited to the Open Education Leadership Summit in Paris, with about 200 education leaders around the world. The Summit focused on the global OER (Open Educational Resources) community, which was identified by the UG as a key partner for our endeavors. More efforts will be invested during 2019 in order to bring the Wikipedia & Education network closer to the global OER network.
  10. Collaborating with and support the Basque community for the upcoming Wikimedia+Education Conference 2019: The group has been in touch with the Basque community who are going host the Wikimedia+Education Conference in April 2019. Board members, Shani Evenstein and Filip Maljkovic, are supporting them by being a part of the Scholarships Committee and Programme Committee respectively.