Dear movement colleagues
I thought you might like to hear about a new WMUK initiative, following on from our recently-completed staff restructure. We are hopeful our local community will react positively to much greater levels of volunteer engagement.
Our initiative might be of interest to other chapters who are trying - as we are - to get away from a perception of not being sufficiently open to community involvement.
Also, we are looking for movement-wide input. If you can provide thoughts, ideas or feedback, do please make contact.
For the full details on wiki see: https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_strategy_consultation_2015
Best regards
Michael
____________
Michael Maggs
Chair, Wikimedia UK
*From:* Michael Maggs *Date:* 5 June 2015 14:38 *To:* "wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org" wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org *Subject:* [Wikimediauk-l] Volunteering with Wikimedia UK: a call to action
Volunteering with Wikimedia UK: a call to action
Wikimedia UK needs your help. We want to transform the way we work so that we can bring volunteering right into the heart of the charity.
We plan to:
* Establish a new volunteer engagement panel https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_engagement_panel or steering group, focusing specifically on volunteering and volunteer engagement * Embed members into our day-to-day decision making via a new evaluation panel https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Evaluation_panel * Encourage the setting up of volunteer special-interest working groups https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Working_groups to replace the existing non-board committees https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Committees#Non-board_committees * Set up cultural/GLAM https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Cultural_and_GLAM_advisory_board and educational outreach https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Educational_outreach_advisory_board expert advisory boards to advise the WMUK main board on high-level strategy * Change our Articles of Association https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/2015_Annual_General_Meeting/Resolutions#.281.29_Enabling_non-trustees_to_become_full_members_of_Govcom.2C_ARC_and_any_other_board_committees_that_may_be_constituted to allow volunteers to be appointed full members of board committees * Provide more effective support for volunteers via the new project coordinator https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Project_Coordinator staff roles * Move toward project-based https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Project-based_working working practices to improve efficiency and to enable better self-evaluation of our work
These draft plans follow on from the excellent feedback we received from our last Volunteer Strategy Gathering https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_Strategy_Gathering/July_2015. They deliberately don't attempt to answer all possible questions about implementation, as we think it best that both further questions and the answers to those questions should come out of collaborative discussions. The plans are not set in stone, and with the community's help they can be improved, strengthened and fleshed out.
We would like your feedback, either online or in person at our next Volunteer Strategy Gathering https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_Strategy_Gathering/July_2015 on Saturday 25th July 2015, in London. For more information, see the links on the right.
Feedback, comments and discussion are more than welcome on the discussion page, or you can email chairatwikimedia.org.uk if you have feedback you would prefer not to make public.
To read the full details on wiki see here: https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_strategy_consultation_2015
Best regards
Michael
_______ Michael Maggs
Chair, Wikimedia UK