Hi folks,
Reminders and updates:
Our *fall editathon series at UW *is continuing. This coming Monday our theme will be Women in Technology, with guest speaker Crystal Rose Hudelson on *women in aviation*.
In the near future, English Wikipedia will reach the milestone of *5,000,000 edits*! Voting is underway to select a site logo to celebrate the occasion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/5_millionth_art.... Also, an announcement from the community to the public is in development: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_million_articles
This fall we'll need to have *board elections for next year*. As preparation for that, we need to get people registered as members for those who want to vote in elections and/or run for a board position. More information on that is likely to come in the next few weeks.
A subject that we in the Seattle area are discussing is *our focus for winter quarter*, which may shift from UW to GLAMs that already have groups of volunteers and staff who might be interested in becoming editors on a more regular basis. Those staff and volunteers might be able to sustain some periodic Wikipedia activities at their "home museums", and/or they may be interested in joining Cascadia Wikimedians. We were pleased with the editathon at the Wing Luke Museum, and the current thinking is that we might visit a variety of GLAMs in winter quarter for similar events. Philadelphia seems to have a series like this already running, which they are calling *GLAM Café*. Initial discussions among Seattle Wikipedians suggest positive community reception for this idea.
More info about the Philadelphia series: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Philadelphia/2015_GLAM_Cafe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Philadelphia/2015_GLAM_Cafe * http://www.meetup.com/GLAM-Cafe-Philadelphia/events/225317070/ http://www.meetup.com/GLAM-Cafe-Philadelphia/events/225317070/
We are also discussing our hopes for UW in future quarters. I spoke with a UW student who told me that she knows that people are interested in what we're doing, and maybe we would get better engagement if we can get a Wikimedian in Residence, ambassador, or other volunteer(s) who are able to interact with faculty and students in classrooms or other settings. Discussions about this are to be continued. The number of regular Wikimedians in the Seattle area who are coming "out of the woodwork" to join our activities is slowly and steadily increasing over time, so perhaps we'll get to the point where we're strong enough to simultaneously have one or more volunteers who active at UW, and also one or more volunteers who are active in GLAM activities around the region.
We will celebrate *Wikipedia's birthday on January 15*. Tentative plans are for a series of events in *Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver B.C.*!
Please feel free to share any questions and comments here! Alternatively, you can email me off-list.
Regards,
Pine