Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
Hi David,
I agree we need to get the process in place regarding membership, here is an example of what India did, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India
Regards Mohau
On 5/20/12, David Richfield davidrichfield@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
-- David Richfield [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
There is a lot to be learned from their process, I agree. �
Should we be charging membership fees? Here is an argument in favour of a nominal membership fee: it requires the member to give buy-in on a psychological level, and will also promote a sense of ownership.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!
-----Original Message----- From: Mohau Monaledi monaledi@gmail.com Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 05:54:48 To: David Richfielddavidrichfield@gmail.com Cc: wikimediazawikimediaza@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia ZA] Membership of Wikimedia South Africa
Hi David,
I agree we need to get the process in place regarding membership, here is an example of what India did, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India
Regards Mohau
On 5/20/12, David Richfield davidrichfield@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
-- David Richfield [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
I am a member of the Australian chapter, and they charge a $20 membership fee per year (about R160). They have an automated form for requesting membership, which is at the following page:
http://civicrm.wikimedia.org.au/civicrm/standalone/index.php?q=civicrm/contr...
I humbly suggest that rather than inventing a process of our own, we look at what other chapters are doing and see if that can fit into the legal framework the chapter operates under.
Please also consider this an application of interest to join WMZA, assuming you are happy to have people with dual memberships.
On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 4:11 PM, davidrichfield@gmail.com wrote:
There is a lot to be learned from their process, I agree.
Should we be charging membership fees? Here is an argument in favour of a nominal membership fee: it requires the member to give buy-in on a psychological level, and will also promote a sense of ownership.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!
*From: * Mohau Monaledi monaledi@gmail.com *Date: *Mon, 21 May 2012 05:54:48 +0200 *To: *David Richfielddavidrichfield@gmail.com *Cc: *wikimediazawikimediaza@lists.wikimedia.org *Subject: *Re: [Wikimedia ZA] Membership of Wikimedia South Africa
Hi David,
I agree we need to get the process in place regarding membership, here is an example of what India did, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India
Regards Mohau
On 5/20/12, David Richfield davidrichfield@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
-- David Richfield [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
Hi Michelle,
I raised the issue of dual memberships on our internal board list and so far haven't gotten any complaints, so if you consider yourself South African in some sense and want to help or participate, I have no problem supporting your membership! At the moment, we need all the help we can get.
Kind regards,
David
On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Michelle Gallaway mgallaway@gmail.com wrote:
I am a member of the Australian chapter, and they charge a $20 membership fee per year (about R160). They have an automated form for requesting membership, which is at the following page:
http://civicrm.wikimedia.org.au/civicrm/standalone/index.php?q=civicrm/contr...
I humbly suggest that rather than inventing a process of our own, we look at what other chapters are doing and see if that can fit into the legal framework the chapter operates under.
Please also consider this an application of interest to join WMZA, assuming you are happy to have people with dual memberships.
On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 4:11 PM, davidrichfield@gmail.com wrote:
There is a lot to be learned from their process, I agree.
Should we be charging membership fees? Here is an argument in favour of a nominal membership fee: it requires the member to give buy-in on a psychological level, and will also promote a sense of ownership.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you! ________________________________ From: Mohau Monaledi monaledi@gmail.com Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 05:54:48 +0200 To: David Richfielddavidrichfield@gmail.com Cc: wikimediazawikimediaza@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia ZA] Membership of Wikimedia South Africa
Hi David,
I agree we need to get the process in place regarding membership, here is an example of what India did, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India
Regards Mohau
On 5/20/12, David Richfield davidrichfield@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
-- David Richfield [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
Sorry, forgot to comment on the WMAU civicrm form - it looks nice at first glance. Do you know who implemented it?
On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Michelle Gallaway mgallaway@gmail.com wrote:
I am a member of the Australian chapter, and they charge a $20 membership fee per year (about R160). They have an automated form for requesting membership, which is at the following page:
http://civicrm.wikimedia.org.au/civicrm/standalone/index.php?q=civicrm/contr...
I humbly suggest that rather than inventing a process of our own, we look at what other chapters are doing and see if that can fit into the legal framework the chapter operates under.
Dear David,
Please consider this my formal application for membership of Wikimedia South Africa.
Best regards
David Robert Lewis
On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 5:03 PM, David Richfield davidrichfield@gmail.comwrote:
Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
-- David Richfield [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
Forgot to add my user details for Wikipedia are [[:en:User:Ethnopunk]
On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 5:03 PM, David Richfield davidrichfield@gmail.comwrote:
Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
-- David Richfield [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985
WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
Hello all
Apologies for delayed action on this thread. But I would like to take this opportunity, while we're still on the subject, to introduce myself and formally apply for membership.
My name is Mthokozisi Moses Dlalisa and I am language practitioner specialising in isiZulu. At the moment I work onsite in Localization at an internet company in Johannesburg.
I have been on this mailing, silently following, since its inception. I feel I am at a point where I can make a meaningful contribution from now, hence the application for membership.
Please do let me know if my membership is accepted and/or if there's a process to be followed for membership application.
Warmest regards, M. M Dlalisa
On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 5:03 PM, David Richfield davidrichfield@gmail.comwrote:
Hi all,
Now that we're incorporated, we need to grow our membership so as to achieve critical mass.
According to the consititution, "Any person who makes a written application to become a member of the company and whose application is accepted by the directors shall be and become a member of the company."
Dumisani has expressed interest and been welcomed on the email lists, but I'd like to get confirmation that he has been formally accepted as a member. I support his membership.
Maarten has asked how he can become a member, which I take to be a written request, and I also support his membership.
I am sure that if we ask Douglas whether he wants to be a member, he'll join, and I'd like to ask pre-emptively whether anyone has an objection to his membership.
I'd also like us to agree on a membership process. One reasonable way to approach this would be to require a prospective member to contact a board member or post directly to the WMZA list. A director can then approve his or her membership tenatively with a posting to the board list - with no objections within two weeks, or with all directors' agreement, that director should then be allowed to approve the membership request formally. Please give me your feedback on this proposal.
In terms of getting new members, we urgently need to get more Wikimedia project people into the organisation. We can do this by advertising on the wikis.
Wikiproject South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa The Wikiproject South Africa is quite active, and I think we should all join it, and announce any meetups on the project page.
We should try to get banners on South African language Wikis ASAP:
The only really active one is Afrikaans: http://af.wikipedia.org . We have none of the more active af-wiki editors in our membership, which is a shame. I'm sure we can fix this soon by simply approaching them and letting them know who we are and what we're doing.
Registered but less active:
http://nso.wikipedia.org - Sepedi Wikipedia has 568 pages, but not very many active editors. I see Mohau has been editing a bit there. http://zu.wikipedia.org - isiZulu Wikipedia has 543 pages, and a relatively similar state to Sepedi. http://tn.wikipedia.org - Setswana Wikipedia has 491 pages, but not very much seems to be going on there since the Google challenge finished. http://ss.wikipedia.org - siSwati Wikipedia has 361 pages, slightly less active than Sepedi and isiZulu http://ts.wikipedia.org - Xitsonga Wikipedia only has 193 pages, but seems to have more activity recently, and has a nicer-looking front page than many similar-sized minor language Wikipedias. I see Dumisani (Thuvack) has been active there, maybe he can help connect with the community. http://ve.wikipedia.org - tshiVenda Wikipedia has 190 pages, but doesn't seem active at all at the moment. http://st.wikipedia.org - Sesotho Wikipedia has 145 pages, but doesn't seem very active. http://xh.wikipedia.org - isiXhosa Wikipedia has 136 pages, but is not active lately.
If we can manage to connect to active users in these Wikipedias, we might be able to get them to write a note on the front page asking users to connect with us, to build community connections.
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nr/Main_Page - Southern Ndebele has one article, about the National Language Service, so I doubt there's a community to work with.
I think we should also ask for a geolocated banner ad: this way anyone who uses Wikipedia in South Africa can be alerted to our existence, and hopefully we'll get some traction.
Kind regards,
David
-- David Richfield [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985
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