Hi everyone,
I think that the "Comparison of requirements for affiliation models" table in https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups/Requirements#eligibili... probably applies to the WMF's current perception of us.
To the point of "our priority should be expanding the number and the capacity of our volunteers," the rows at the head of the stable state that the Minimum active Wikimedia editors & Suggested minimum members are 3 & 10 respectively for a Wikimedia user groups and 10 & 20 respectively for both Chapters & Thematic organizations.
My takeaway from that page is that the easiest way to build credibility with WMF is to grow our recognized membership beyond the board & to implement "plans for activities or efforts to advance Wikimedia projects." We already have folks beyond the board who have worked to do this. I think our first step should be to enable & recruit them to join CWUG as members, & then to engage them.
Yours, Peaceray
On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 3:24 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Cascadians,
I had a conversation about our draft annual plan with Alex this afternoon.
Alex believes that at this point in our development, our priority should be expanding the number and the capacity of our volunteers, and that we are too early in our development for the temporary / part-time paid positions that we proposed in our budget. This means that our goals to develop institutional partnerships and to do outreach work must be significantly reduced in proportion to the capacity of our volunteer network. We know that we have many opportunities for partnerships and public engagement in the Cascadia region, and hopefully we will still be able to pursue those partnerships and engagement opportunities at a low intensity level that our volunteers can support in a sustainable way. Again, Alex believes that our first goal should be to expand our volunteer network.
We will need to reorient our plans and our budget to focus on development and support of our volunteer network. I will work on redrafting the goals, calendar, plan and budget over the course of the next week, and have a conversation with Alex about the possible revisions next week. I have also asked Alex to create a learning pattern that describes the development path of organizations such as ours; I think that such a learning pattern would have been very helpful to us when we were first discussing our goals for this year. After the conversations with Alex have finished, I plan to re-engage with our Board to discuss the goals and funding that Alex and WMF feel that they are willing to support.
I am cc'ing this email to Alex and hope that she will add any comments or clarifications that she has. It would probably be best to direct any questions or comments from Cascadians directly to Alex, preferably on this list so that others can benefit from the discussion.
Thanks,
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia