Hey Chicago Wikimedians!

I hope everyone is having a safe and healthy start to the new year. It's been a while since we've spoken. I'd like to discuss the future of the Wikimedians of Chicago User Group.

I haven't had the capacity to organize activities on behalf of the group this year, and I don't foresee myself being available to spearhead things in the future either. Our annual report is due, but we don't have things to put on it for the year. No report means that our affiliate status is set to expire. If anyone's interested in organizing a few things for the group in 2021, please let me know in the next two weeks, and I can look into putting together a short report and reversing this expiry.

I started this group, along with Chris and Tony, to help build connections with like-minded individuals and Wikimedians in Chicago. We don't need to be an official affiliate to continue to do this. And though I don't have the capacity to organize local events or participate in affiliate discussions, I will continue to monitor this mailing list and Facebook group. Though I haven't been a part of organized events in 2020, I've appreciated the many one-on-one interactions I've continued to have with Wikimedians in our group throughout 2020, and I don't anticipate those to go away.

If the user group's status does expire, there is still Wikimedia-focused organizing in Chicago (though it's all online nowadays) with Wikimedia affiliates such as the Black Lunch Table. They continue to do incredible and important work. People can also organize events individually. I'll always be around to chat about anything and talk shop about putting events together if someone wants to take the reins for the group in the future.

Cheers,

Brian Choo

User:Airplaneman on Wikipedia