Dear members of the Language Committee,

As you know, the Wikimedia Foundation staff, a designated strategy team and a Community Process Steering Committee have designed a process to gather input from all voices in the Wikimedia movement to define the strategic direction of our movement over the next 15 years. The process until Wikimania is divided into three discussion cycles, and cycle 1 will run from 10 March to 10 April.

I am currently reaching out to all organized groups (e.g. affiliates, committees) and encourage them to participate. As LangCom is one of these organized groups, I would like to ask you to participate in these conversations, too! 

There are different options for your group to participate: You can discuss in person, onwiki or on other online platforms, as well as virtually via telephone or video conferences. We have created a toolkit that will support you with designing and hosting these conversations.

We are asking for at least one person from each organized group to volunteer to be the Discussion Coordinator. This person will receive and invitation to a Discussion Coordinator training and is responsible for:
* Inviting people to the discussion
* Hosting the discussion
* Summarizing the discussion

Please use the following links:
* Sign-up to be a Discussion Coordinator: https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.de/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScyzOcB9FmgWWrenoe0RnCyXo6F9YZyustrmsrD0g0zTRr2Cg/viewform
* Use the discussion toolkit for organizing your group's conversations: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Toolkit
* Find out more about the movement strategy process: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017

This is the time many of us have been waiting for for years. I would love to see each and every one of you make your voice heard and take the chance to shape the future of our movement together. I am very much looking forward to making this happen with all of you! Stay tuned for updates on the process that we will publish next week, and please reach out to me with any question you might have in the meantime.

Sincerely,
Nicole

PS - Note that all summaries submitted by 20 March will be used in the strategy track during WMCON in Berlin 28 March - 2 April. If your group meets after WMCON but by 10 April, your summary will still be synthesized before Cycle 2 begins (late April).

PPS - I have joined the team as Track Lead on 1 March, which is made possible through an agreement between Wikimedia Deutschland and the Wikimedia Foundation. In the sense of a strategic partnership, our two organizations have agreed that I will invest most of my time until the end of the year towards this new role.


--
Nicole Ebber
Wikimedia Movement Strategy Lead
Track A: Organized Groups