Hi all,

A quick follow up on this thread to thank those of you who reached out to us with your participants' stories, and also share the blog post that has just gone live: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/12/09/wiki-loves-monuments-human-heritage/

We will be sending out emails with the plans for next week over the weekend.

Best,
Lily

On Nov 7, 2016 9:49 PM, "Lily" <lilyofthewest.wikimedia@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear WLM organizers and enthusiasts,

tl;dr 
We need your help with collecting one story (per country) about the people who participated in WLM in 2016 or in the previous years (a slight priority for stories from 2016). While the story of every individual participating in WLM is unique, there are stories that you know of and remember more easily, and you bring them as anecdotes to your fellow Wikimedians, friends, and families. We are eager to hear those stories. Please share them with me and Jeff (cc-ed). Please do this by Friday, Nov. 11.

Longer version

What?
The WMF Communications team has offered to write a blog post about WLM (2-3 weeks?) before the announcement of the WLM international results. For writing such a blog post, they will need stories from participants from different countries. Currently, they're looking for 6-8 stories to be shared as snippets in the blog post.

Why?
We are trying to create some momentum in the press to pick up the story of the WLM when the international results are announced. A blog post a few weeks before the final announcement may help us with that. Of course, we are interested for press picking up the story for some specific reasons, for example:
* We think that certain types of press coverage can benefit the winners in the future and beyond WLM. (They may be recognized internationally, for example.)
* Certain types of press coverage can bring much more visibility to the work that all the volunteers and organizers in many parts of the world do, to make WLM happen every year.
* And, press coverage can help us build a stronger presence/brand for WLM, which can help WLM organizers with building stronger partnership/sponsorship relationships the future years.

When?
From the international team's perspective, the blog post can go out any time between November 14 and 30. We will count on the Comms team's expertise to choose the optimal time given their other constraints and timelines.

What we need from you?
We need your help with collecting one story (per country) about the people who participated in WLM in 2016 or in the previous years (a slight priority for stories from 2016). While the story of every individual participating in WLM is unique, there are stories that you remember more easily, and you bring them as anecdotes to your fellow Wikimedians, friends, and families. We are eager to hear those stories. Please share them with me and Jeff (cc-ed).

If you have questions or comments, please let us know on or off-list. :)

Thank you!

Lily
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User: LilyOfTheWest