Task force/Advocacy Agenda/Weekly Report 02

Task Force Weekly Report: week of 2009-<date>

Task Force Name:

Report of Activities

Notes summary from our 12/28 call:

WMF ADVOCACY OPPORTUNITIES

Historically, the organization has been reactive not proactive with regards to advocacy. Going forward, we can influence policy and opinion:

SOME HISTORY (from Jimmy overview)

Originally there was no way for Wikipedia to do PR or person-to-person advocacy
Universities and businesses became important audiences and partners; chapters arose in part to address that fact
Germany was the first chapter, and still by far the largest; they have taken on an advocacy role within the German-speaking world
They appear to have been very successful—sense that academia is aware of and has a positive view of Wikipedia, more so than in the English-speaking world
Chapters can do a lot with advocacy and outreach: press, academia, user-to-user support; chapters much better than Wikipedia HQ at issues like vandalism of a biography (say, in Romania); could also convince active editors to play a role here
Some chapters are quite small (e.g., 2 people in small countries); some like Germany are large - Germany has a board of approx ten, a group of maybe 20 (check) who are active
Some historical strife at times between chapters and editors. Historically chapter members tend to be editors, but once chapters get large, it becomes a full time job and they cease to edit.
Chapters and WMF: yearly meetings, very constructive; historically there didn't used to be a Foundation so no way to handle the needs of chapters. Chapters in the past have nominated board of directors to the Foundation; the method still being sorted out, an open "constitutional question"
Jimmy’s perspectives may not be representative, worth double-checking with others.
Jimmy has been used historically by chapters to shine a light on certain issues. He views his role going forward as focusing on the core values, long-term goals, mutual respect in the community

NEXT STEPS / OPEN QUESTIONS

(Germany) Would love to know from the Germany chapter how and why they’ve been successful. How big are they currently? What tension points have there been historically between chapters and editors?
(Eugene) Would love to understand better the Communications committee and mailing list. A group of press contacts in different parts of the world? Also, a clarification: what work is Frank doing around wiki-pods?
(Sue) Learn more about the Chapter Coordinator position; thoughts on reviving it. Currently no single point of contact at WMF for chapter needs (press, biz partnerships, academy issues all go to different people)
(Mark) Link to the Movement Roles and Alliance Partnerships discussion pages; to see what they’re sharing and vice versa
(Jimmy) What organizations does he see as being most closely aligned with our mission? Top non-profits who would make that list?

Planned activities for next week

Please be specific and aggressive. It is okay to roll activities from week to week if necessary.
- There has been talk of adding members to this group. Any announcements this week?
- Any upcoming deadlines we should be aware of?
- To discuss as a group-- to make good progress, should we assign specific mandate questions or strategic themes -- e.g., environmentalism, working with chapters -- to individual team members?
Resources needed

To complete our work, this task force needs the following resources or assistance:

Appreciation

This week, this task force wishes to recognize for their assistance the following users:

Other comments

References

Our notes or documentation can be found at:

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Report of Activities

Planned activities for next week

Resources needed

Appreciation

Other comments

References