Dear Wikimedians,

We are delighted to inform you that the registration for the Wikimedia Conference 2016 [1], which will be held in Berlin from Friday, April 22, through Sunday, April 24, is now open!

Following Christian’s invitation and Nicole’s email regarding the Program Design Process [2], we would like to provide you with important information regarding the eligibility for participation, participant number regulation, registration procedure, specifics in regards to the travel and hotel booking as well as the visa application process.

== Eligibility criteria == The eligibility criteria for participating in the Wikimedia Conference 2016 are aligned to the Affiliates’ Agreements with the Wikimedia Foundation. Chapters, Thematic Organizations and User Groups must have been officially recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation by today (December 1, 2015), must have shown signs of recent activity and be up-to-date on their reporting, latest by January 1, 2016 to be eligible to participate.

Before registering, please check the eligibility and status of your affiliate[3]. Only affiliates with the status “ready to register” can proceed with the registration process. For all others, we recommend to catch up on your reports before January 1, 2016.

==Participant number regulation== Chapters and Thematic Organizations can send two delegates; or up to four, if they have paid staff; User Groups can send one delegate. The eligibility table on meta lists each affiliate and the respective number of delegates that can be sent to the Wikimedia Conference 2016 [3].

==Registration information== To make the conference a success, it will be essential for the invited affiliates to deliberately choose their delegates. We recommend to follow the “How to select the delegates” information, which is published on meta [4].

Persons who are selected by their organization to represent them at the conference need to register via the registration form [5]. The registration deadline is Friday, January 15, 2016. Please note that we won’t be able to accept and process registrations after this deadline.

We also hope that several members of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and staff, the Funds Dissemination Committee as well as the Affiliations Committee will participate in the conference. We see a huge advantage in having their representatives on site and encourage them to take part in a range of talks and discussions. Please also register via the registration link.

In addition to the core-conference, pre-conference workshops on program design, evaluation, and community learning on Wednesday and Thursday, April 20-21, are organized by the Learning and Evaluation team of the WMF [6]. Should you be interested in participating in these workshops, you can indicate your interest in the registration form as well.

For the purpose of helping affiliates to check that only their selected representatives have registered and enable participants to connect before the conference and stay in involved afterwards, we will publish all participants’ names on the meta page [7] shortly after registration.

Further information on the registration process can be retrieved from meta [8].

==Hotel and travel booking== WMDE has blocked a number of hotel rooms at Motel One Leipziger Platz, which is in walking-distance to the conference venue as well as the WMDE office.

Representatives of affiliates with an annual plan grant (group 1) will need to book and pay for their hotel rooms as well as travel individually. The hotel booking form and price information can be found on meta [9].

Affiliates which don’t receive funding via an annual plan grant (group 2) will be supported by WMDE for their hotel needs and WMF for their travel booking.

Members of the WMF Board, FDC, AffCom or WMF staff (group 3) receive travel and hotel booking support by the WMF Travel department.

We advise you to check meta [3] to which group you belong to.

==Visa information== In case you are in need of a visa, WMDE will assist you with the application process. All relevant information and necessary steps to undertake are described on meta [10].

Wikimedia Deutschland is looking forward to welcoming you in Berlin in April!

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us any time via wmcon@wikimedia.de should you have any questions or comments.

Best regards,

Wenke and Daniela -- Organizing Team WMCON Wikimedia Deutschland wmcon@wikimedia.de

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016 [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Program_Design_Pro... [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Eligibility_Criter... [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Program_Design_Pro... [5] http://wmde.org/WMCON16-registrationform [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/News/Pre-conference_for_Wi... [7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Participants%27_Li... [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Registration [9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Travel_and_Hotel#H...