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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Hi Liam and List,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I’m sorry if I implied in any way with my post that there
was any willful neglect of regional areas going on previously – I’m
not implying that at all, and members of the committee have been very helpful
when I’ve suggested various ideas for activities in Brisbane. And,
of course, having GLAM-WIKI in Canberra rather than in Sydney or Melbourne was
a good move and defused any possible Sydney/Melbourne/Regional rivalry; it
seems that we all see Canberra as “neutral ground” in that respect!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I have some further thoughts on this matter, but it’s
getting late here and I don’t want my meaning to be obscured by fatigue,
so I guess you’ll all have to wait ;-)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Cheers,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Craig<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
wikimediaau-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikimediaau-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Liam
Wyatt<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, 13 December 2009 11:43 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Wikimedia-au<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Membership, regional participation and
other things<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>In fact, I don't even think
that Sydney should be lumped in with Sydney when talking about chapter activity
in the last year :-) IIRC the only "official Chaper events" that
happened in real life last year were GLAM-WIKI (Canberra), a Backstage Pass (Sydney),
Linux-Australia conference booth (Hobart). Effectively Canberra was our hub of
activity :-) All of the activities that may make Sydney active and therefore
appear to be getting Chapter attention are actually normal meetups that
happened quite independently of the chapter - and thank you to the organisers
of those events! <br>
<br>
So, if there is a concern that the chapter is focusing too much on Sydney
(and/or Melbourne), I wouldn't want this to be the perception, off the back of
local Wikimedians being particularly interested in hosting meetups. The
solution is not to stop Sydney/Melbourne Wikimedians from having meetups but to
encourage people in different cities to host their own. The first priority of
my <a
href="http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/2009-2010_AGM/Vice_President/Liam_Wyatt">election
statement </a>this year was to encourage the formation of a regular series of
meetups in (at least) some major cities as a way of galvanising greater
local-community activity - beyond the ad-hoc system that currently prevails. It
would be fantastic if all Wikimedians in, say, Adelaide knew that the second
Saturday of the month at the xyz pub was definitely going to be a meetup. It is
the time and place consistency that makes the meetups in London (for example)
such a success. <br>
<br>
To do that however, requires a local organiser. It doesn't necessarily have to
be a chapter-led thing (although, as an elected chapter rep. that I would be
nice!), but it does need local administration. It might also require some form
of official organisation status (in order to book the function room of the city
library for example). <br>
<br>
To that end - would people in some of the cities feeling left out of the action
feel empowered to run a more frequent series of meetups (or other more involved
activities) if there was a designated "Chapter-approved organiser" in
the city? Would it assist in the creation of a feeling of activity and
solidarity if there was someone in your city who's chapter-agreed
responsibility it was to make local events happen? In the future they may even
be able to have a local "events budget", who knows. Moreover, would
anyone in these cities like to take on this task? (I would like to suggest that
the "local rep" *not* be a member of the committee, such as myself, in
an effort to empower more people in the Australian wiki community rather than
centralising power).<br>
<br>
Would this be a good way to empower more local activities around the country?<br>
<br>
Best, <br>
-Liam [[witty lama]]<br>
<br clear=all>
<a href="http://wittylama.com/blog">wittylama.com/blog</a><br>
Peace, love & metadata<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 1:20 PM, Sarah Ewart <<a
href="mailto:sarahewart@gmail.com">sarahewart@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Just to say that I also agree
with membership concerns and it's something that's worried me for a long time,
just from being aware of the membership from membership records and it's
something that's going to need to be addressed for the viability of the chapter
in the medium-long term. I don't think there's any quick and easy solutions to
the problem though. However, I don't think it's correct to say the chapter
activity has been concentrated in Melbourne. Melbourne always gets lumped in
with Sydney when talking about the chapter, but really, its probably been as
active here as in Queensland and pretty much anywhere else except Tassie (poor
Chuq). <br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Craig Franklin <<a
href="mailto:craig@halo-17.net" target="_blank">craig@halo-17.net</a>>
wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;
margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0cm'>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Hear hear!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>I’d like to add some of my own to
cents to this discussion. The turnover in Queensland isn’t quite as
bad, but based on the secretary’s report and my own observations of
who’s been showing up to the AGMs, we had a forty percent turnover of
membership in the last year. As Andrew says, that sort of statistic is
simply not sustainable in the long term, and it *<b>must</b>* be addressed by
the committee in 2010. As Andrew says, a lot of this is due to the fact
that a lot of the chapter activity to date has been concentrated in Sydney and
Melbourne, while things have been fairly quiet everywhere else. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>To a degree, in the case of Brisbane at
least, this has partially been our own fault; events and perks for members
simply are not going to materialise out of this air for us. At the same
time though, there has to be a realistic commitment from those in the
southern/eastern states to assist us in the northern/western in growing our
local communities and membership. I note with satisfaction that those
I’ve spoken to in the committee seem to “get it”, so
hopefully there can be some real progress on this front.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>In closing, I think Andrew’s idea
is an excellent one, and I’d encourage everyone (particularly those of us
in Queensland) to get aboard and start brainstorming.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Cheers,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Craig F.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm;
border-color:-moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt'> <a
href="mailto:wikimediaau-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org" target="_blank">wikimediaau-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org</a>
[mailto:<a href="mailto:wikimediaau-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org"
target="_blank">wikimediaau-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Andrew<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, 13 December 2009 7:41 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Wikimedia-au<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Wikimediaau-l] Membership, regional participation and other
things</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>Fellow
members and supporters,<br>
<br>
A key priority for 2009-10 has to be building the chapter and make it
successful. <br>
<br>
Before being elected to my present role, I heard lots of people saying they
felt this chapter was overly Sydney- and Melbourne-focussed not just in
activity but in priorities. There was also a fair few people saying (both among
those who stayed/newly joined, and some who lapsed) that the chapter was overly
focused on central or headline priorities and, in their view, gave insufficient
support to members.<br>
<br>
Using the figures from the secretary's report at the AGM, in regional terms our
numbers were stable, here in WA we went from 5 to 3 members (I am in fact the
only original WA member left) and, even more concerningly, nationally we lost
2/3 of our initial intake although we actually gained a fair number of people.
We need to do *far* more to retain members, and to give those outside the two
biggest cities reasons to join and ways to participate - otherwise this chapter
will fail. I ran on a platform to that effect and got support for it, so I'm
hoping that means the members trust me to find ways to act on those concerns.<br>
<br>
I am happy for people to approach me privately with project ideas they want
feedback on or support for. I think peer support is vital to keeping people's
enthusiasm up, and I understand not everyone wants to go public with projects
before they're ready. I would note in saying so that I can't give
"official chapter approval" to anything although I can certainly seek
it on your behalf from the committee if you wish me to.<br>
<br>
On the wiki I've been working on an early draft for a regional participation drive,
and I'd also appreciate comments on that. I'll be adding more to it after the
first committee meeting on the 20th as I'll know then what I have support for.<br>
<br>
kindest regards<br>
Andrew Owens<br>
(WM-AU committee general member)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
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</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>_______________________________________________<br>
Wikimediaau-l mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org" target="_blank">Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l"
target="_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l</a><o:p></o:p></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>
<br>
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Wikimediaau-l mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org">Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l"
target="_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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