Hello everyone
As most of you know, I met last week with Heritage Western Cape (HWC) regarding our
partnership in Wiki Loves Monuments. The meeting went reasonably well, with the core
points discussed below.
1) I managed to get hold of the long sought endorsement letter and official HWC logo. The
letter is visible on our website and can be found
here:
http://wikilovesmonuments.co.za/wiki/Letters_of_support.
2) HWC decided to provide us with R5000 for use as the competition prize. They can either
wire this money to us, or they could buy the reward themselves and then pass it on to us,
the latter being the least troublesome for them.
3) They wanted more information regarding the competition launch, to which I gave them the
decided upon date of 1 September. Andrew (CEO of HWC) mentioned that they would be willing
to send someone to the launch to say a few words. I believe that we should invite a few
people from their department, because of their efforts in helping us.
4) They also started to work on a poster to promote WLM that they will be sending to 23
museums throughout the Western Cape. This is very good exposure, and we should make use of
it.
5) Each of these museums does have at least one computer with internet access and HWC are
willing to ask the museum staff to help with WLM on Heritage Day. They are having a staff
meeting soon, which means that we should decide as soon as possible on the exact
methodology of that day.
6) It was also advised that we decide on a few core participating museums (Cape Town,
Worcester, George, Mosselbay) that will promote WLM heavily on Heritage Day. Should we
decide on these museums, HWC would assist us in this process.
7) WHC also informed me that their contacts at the daily newspapers are looking
specifically for stories regarding Heritage Day, and that they will help us to work with
these contacts to get the needed exposure.
8) They also came up with the idea that we should contact local photography schools to
help us with the initial levels of screening the photographs. That way we will only get
the best images to the high-level judges.
On the same day, I also managed to meet with someone from the City of Cape Town. We
previously met with them, and they are still very much interested in WLM. The other good
news is that I managed to convince them to make available old maps they have in their
possession. These maps are very old, some dating back to 1895! The only agreement is that
these maps should be of such a resolution that it could not be used for commercial
printing. These discussions are still in the initial phases and I agreed to follow this up
with them. In addition to this, they also have small articles already written about a
large amount of heritage sites, and with correct discussions, they might also release
these under a free license to be used as article texts. Finally, they are potentially
interested in sponsoring us for the competition, which I must also still follow up.
I believe that these meetings went very well and that we have good governmental support. I
suggest that the following points are important and should be followed up immediately:
1) Decide on what we want to do with the R5000 made available by HWC. The sooner we decide
on this, the sooner they can start working on it.
2) We should decide on the detail of the competition launch, as it is only 40 days away.
We should create a guest list and invite the high-ranking people before their diaries are
full.
3) In addition to the above, we should decide on who could speak at this event and
approach them early to ensure their availability.
4) Decide on the methodology of Heritage Day.
5) The documentation on our website should be completed, as we can then present it to the
museum staff. They can then indicate to us how to improve it and we can beforehand help
them with potential questions.
6) We should now already talk to the contacts at the newspapers and invite them to the
competition launch. If we keep them informed, we can enjoy much more exposure during the
competition.
7) The local photography schools should be approach for help with filtering the images.
8) We should also approach the City of Cape Town again and convince them to release the
maps and the articles they already have. Potentially we can also get them to sponsor the
competition.
As you all can see, there is so much that we still need to do before the competition! So
if there is anywhere where you can help us, please contact us and do so. If we want to
make a success of this we will need the support of everyone we can get.
Kind regards
Lourie