Hi everybody!
I’ve set up a user group page at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Colorado, which I think of as a first step to setting up an official "Wikimedia Community User Group Colorado”. I pretty much only need two more things to fill out the application form at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Contact/affcomusergroup —
(1) An official description of the group: I’m going to go with the description at the top of the user group page, so please edit and improve it!
(2) Three active Wikimedians as group leaders: please reply to the mailing list if you’re interested!
I’m happy to be a group leader during the setup phase, but it looks likely that I’m going to move out of Colorado this fall, so we’re going to need active leaders to keep the group going and to continue to organise events into the next year. You need to have at least 300 contributions on any Wikimedia project and have an account that’s older than six months old to be a group leader.
The main advantages of becoming an official user group are: (1) recognition by Wikimedia, so maybe increasing our profile with organization interested with working with Wikipedia in the area, (2) free Wikimedia merchandise for use in activities and outreach activities, and (3) one scholarship to attend the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups#why). I know Buaidh has been thinking about setting up an official organization for our area for a while now, and I think this might be the best way to go about it!
cheers,
Gaurav