Programme activities

Community

Discussions / training of the following: the Welsh Society at Monmouth, presentation at Cardiff University (discussed wiki with Ken Skates), the Coleg Cymraeg (met Ioan Matthews Chief Exec, Dr Dafydd Trystan and Dr Dylan Phillips), Swansea University (met Proff. Iwan Davies, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr Rhys Jones etc), HWB (met Catrin Hughes), Bridgend County Council (Mike Evans), SAW (met Katie Fisher). Welsh Book Council places 3,249 professionally written book reviews on CC-BY-SA.

Microgrant outcome

Andy Mabbett successfully applied for a microgrant for sound recording equipment to support his project to record the voices of notable people to include in the appropriate Wikipedia articles. More detail can be seen here. Updates on Andy's project will be made available at a later date.

GLAM activities

On the 8th August we ran our first evening GLAM editathon in London. It was our first event at Conway hall, and it established that we could get people to an evening event, even in August, though few of the participants were actually commuters.

Technology

Work continued in preparation for the September migration of this wiki to Wikimedia UK hosting.

Other activities

Wiki Loves Monuments

August was the busiest month for the WLM volunteers and helpers, getting everything ready for the start of the contest on 1st September. During the month significant staff assistance was made available to take up some of the strains without which the volunteers would not have coped. Tasks for the month (volunteers with staff assistance) included finalising the lists on the English Wikipedia, dealing with template issues, setting up and working on the WLM website, writing blog entries, answering user queries, liaising with the press, notifying the competition to 250+ local history, civic, and photographic societies around the country, setting up the UK jury, liaising with the international competition organisers, proving technical feedback and testing of the proposed jury tool, and providing Welsh language support.

Grants

Information about grants that are currently running, and how to submit a grant application of your own, are at Microgrants/Applications.

UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)

Storming Wikipedia - Project tackles the site's 'women problem' - Huffington Post

Blog posts this month

5 August - EduWiki Conference 2013 - call for proposals

7 August - Revitalising Wikipedia coverage of women scientists

9 August - Wikimedia Chapters to deliver Wikimedia Diversity Conference

12 August - Wiki Loves Monuments recruits distinguished judge

13 August - Congratulations and thank you to the Wikimania 2013 team!

16 August - A month as Wikimedian in Residence at the National Library of Scotland

21 August - Notes from the editathon at Conway Hall, London

Events in August

Take a look here for a full list of events which took place in August.

For upcoming events please see Events.

Administrative activities

Board activities

Three Board members (Chris, Saad and Alastair) attended Wikimania in Hong Kong. We had a number of very productive meetings and sessions with the Foundation, FDC and other Chapters. Chris was interviewed as part of Wikimedia Deutschland's Chapters Dialogue project.

News from the Chief Exec

For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.

For the 'holiday month' a lot happened. See our reports on Wikimania Hong Kong for instance. The office did more than chug along. A huge amount of preparation want on towards the autumn and winter programme, Wiki loves monuments in particular. In parallel the trustees were working towards the expansion of the board. The number of volunteers has been growing steadily as well and we hit the 100 mark eventually.

Communications

Please see the above links to relevant press coverage received in August and blog posts published during the same period. Key communications projects worked on during August included writing proposals to present at the Open Government Partnership and MozFest, reviewing our suite of printed publications, supporting Wiki Loves Monuments (including working on its website). A Wikimedia UK supporter was kind enough to host a workshop for staff, volunteers and a trustee helping us to structure and analyse our key messages.

If you're interested in getting more involved with our communications or have any questions or comments, please email Stevie Benton – stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk

Fundraising and Membership

Fundraising

This month, we received £115 in one-off donations, with 5 individual donations. The average donation amount was £23.00 - 20% 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.bavagewikimedia.org.uk and let her know your requirements.

There were 4,786 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of £18,834.77

Membership

Up to 31st August 2013:

185 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members - with 11 new join-ups in August.
35 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership should be renewed)

This adds up to 220 members who were eligible to vote

The new volunteer brochure text was translated into Welsh.

Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.