Reports/2012/December
Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1 to 31 December 2012. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen, please subscribe to our blog, join a UK mailing list, and/or follow us on Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk page.
Community
The office hosted a shared lunch in December for staff and volunteers. Everyone who came brought some food and drink along and we spent some time enjoying each other's company and getting to know each other a little. A very pleasant and useful afternoon!
GLAM activities
Wikimedians in Residence program resulting from our November 2012 recruitment has been progressing with Wikimedia UK in negotiations with the institutions taken forward. We are working with Natural History Museum and Science Museum, National Library of Scotland, Black Cultural Archives in cooperation with Equiano Centre, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.
Technology
During December we spent time setting up the new infrastructure and began migrating Wikimedia UK properties. For example, the board, office and other private Wikis were moved to a new server - and preparations were made to move Civi CRM and email in the new year.
Other activities
Microgrants
Information about microgrants that are currently running, and how to submit a microgrant application of your own, are at Microgrants/Applications.
UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)
Upcoming activities in January and February
January
08 - Board meeting - call
12 - Manchester meetup
13 - London meetup
13 - Oxford meetup
14 - AHRC Wikipedia training workshop at the British Library
16 - IRC office hours
20 - Reading Meetup
February
08 - Introduction to Wikipedia workshop at the British Library
09–10 - Board meeting - in person
10 - London meetup
16 - Liverpool meetup
17 - Coventry meetup
20 - IRC office hours
23–24 - Training the Trainers/February 2013 event - Manchester
For events in March 2013 and onwards, please see Events.
Administrative activities
Board activities
There was a meeting of the Executive Working Group, and the minutes are in the process of being drafted. Work continued with Compass Partnership on our Governance Review.
News from the Chief Exec
For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.
Communications
Links to December's press coverage can be found higher up this page.
In general December was a fairly quiet month for Wikimedia UK communications. In part this is because the chapter didn't participate directly in the Wikimedia Foundation annual fundraising campaign. It was also a short month in terms of office activity as the winter break began on 22 December.
There were interesting blog posts on the first stage implementation of the new visual editing tool for Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons reaching the landmark of hosting 15 million files and a Manchester Girl Geeks editing event. Also covered by the blog were a training session for editors in Stanford and an update on the Communications Data Bill.
We experimented a little with video this month, using the festive season as an opportunity to record a message from staff to the community, accompanied by a written message from Jon. This was well received so we'll be looking to try out more video in the future. Also in keeping with the festive season we designed and distributed some festive e-cards, which we hope you enjoyed.
A loose framework has been created for this year's Annual Review. You can see the top level page here. Each section breaks down into its own page. Please do get involved in helping to shape this report and all content contributions are welcome.
In more general terms Stevie has been trying to build networks and relationships with organisations that share our broad objectives. During December he met with Creative Commons, attended a Google-hosted event called Interactivism and met with the Shoreditch Network. This work carries over into January.
Fundraising and Membership
Fundraising
This month, we received £13,128.78 in one-off donations, with 49 individual donations, of which 3 were defined as major gifts (over £1000). Removing those from consideration, the average donation amount was £39.69 - 75% of these donors have had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information, please get in touch with
katherine.bavage@wikimedia.org.uk and let her know your requirements.
There were 5,783 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of £23,817.37.
Membership
Up to 31st December 2012:
138 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members.
123 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership should be renewed)
This adds up to 261 members who are eligible to vote
124 Expired members
A reminder was sent to all members in the January 2013 members newsletter to renew their membership. Results of this will be included in the January 2013 monthly report.