Movement Charter/Drafting Committee/Updates

Movement Charter

FAQ

Content

Community Consultation

Drafting Committee

Ratification vote

This page contains regular updates of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee's (MCDC) work, published once in the first week following each month. These updates are meant to keep the community and the movement informed of the Committee's internal work, and they are separate from the calls for feedback that will be shared on other pages.

April 2024

This update has also been published at Wikimedia Foundation's Diff blog.

MCDC members at the Wikimedia Summit 2024

Recording of the Movement Charter Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, April 26 2024

In April, the full draft of the Movement Charter was published on Meta in different languages. The Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) invited all stakeholders in the Wikimedia world to share their feedback in any language. The Committee communicated in various ways to reach as many people in the vast landscape of the Wikimedia movement as possible: Meta, community spaces (Village pumps, forums), Central Notice Banner and via the support of the Movement Charter Ambassadors.  

On April 4, the Committee held a community engagement meeting where they dived into the content of the draft Charter and heard feedback from attendees.

In the second part of the call, participants were invited to express what they support in the draft Charter, identify any concerns that would prevent them from supporting the Charter and suggest specific ways to improve clarity of the Charter text for the final release in June.

Some questions asked during the April 4th call included inquiries about the legal status of the proposed Global Council, distinctions between the Global Council Board and Global Council Assembly, and highlights of the Charter relevant to emerging communities. Responses shared during the April 4th call to these questions have been documented on Meta.   

April was packed for the MCDC. While involved in online community engagement and conversations, they also attended the Wikimedia Summit 2024 in Berlin. Below you will find details of MCDC’s work in this month:

• The MCDC met for their regular meeting on April 11 to hear updates on the candidate pool for the Charter Election Commission, discuss and prepare for Wikimedia Summit 2024.
• Between April 17 and 21 the MCDC attended the Wikimedia Summit: MCDC members served as a resource for Summit attendees. They provided answers to questions, clarified aspects of the charter, and collected feedback. Summit participants engaged in working groups focused on specific charter related topics. These groups discussed areas for improvement, brainstormed ideas, identified potential dealbreakers, and celebrated the areas they appreciated. The summit resulted in a set of outputs generated by participants.
• On April 25 during their regular meeting, the Committee discussed learnings from the WM Summit, community engagement period, and they were updated on the communication plans for post draft Charter engagement by the Communications SubCommittee.  
• “Ask Me Anything” about the Movement Charter session was held via Zoom on April 26. This session was organized as a response to the feedback heard from different communities on the need to onboard them on the Charter text in detail. The walkthrough of the charter is available to watch on Wikimedia Commons in Spanish and Portuguese (Brazilian).

End of the April 2024 feedback period. What’s next?

The MCDC is grateful for all the comments, suggestions and questions. The MCDC considers all the feedback, and works to update the final version of the Movement Charter accordingly between April 30 and mid-May. After which the text goes through several preparatory phases before it can be published, including copy-editing review, legal review, and translations.

The final Movement Charter text is expected to be shared in the third week of June. The Movement-wide ratification vote on the Movement Charter will take place between June 25 to July 9, 2024. The Charter will be voted on by among others: Individual contributors, affiliates, and the Board of Trustees of the WMF.

March 2024

This update has also been published at Wikimedia Foundation's Diff blog.

In March, the MCDC worked on preparing the full draft of the Movement Charter to be shared on Meta on April 2, 2024. This work included copy-editing and legibility review, legal check, incorporation of feedback by MCDC members, and translation of the document into different languages.

MCDC’s March convenings

• 7-8 March – WMF Strategy Meeting: The MCDC members were invited to attend the annual WMF Strategy Meeting in NYC.
• 9 March – NY working session: The MCDC members had an in-person meeting session following the WMF Strategy Meeting to debrief the meeting and review some preparatory materials from the Wikimedia Summit organizers.
• 14 March – MCDC’s regular meeting: Attendees worked on the content part, specifically on the relationship among the movement bodies, reviewed the Future of affiliates’ landscape text, and received communications-related updates from the support staff.
• 20 March – Summit sync with WM DE: MCDC and the WM DE discussed the program for the Summit and the rationale behind the program design for the Summit.
• 21 March – MCDC’s regular meeting: They discussed the legal feedback on the charter draft, and worked on the content for the supplementary documents.
• 26 March – Summit sync with WM DE: The Summit program design has been approved, they also discussed the roles of the MCDC at the Summit and the topics for the breakout sessions.
• 28 March – MCDC’s regular meeting: During this meeting, the MCDC worked through the supplementary documents and discussed discrepancies and further questions. The full Committee was updated on the Summit preparations. They discussed the April 4 community call.

Community Engagement on the full draft of the Movement Charter

The Wikimedia community and all other stakeholders are invited to review the full draft of the Movement Charter and share their feedback by the end of April 2024. For further information, please refer to the updated FAQs.

• MCDC members Ciell and Daria Cybulska explain what the Movement Charter is
• MCDC members Anass and Ciell talk about what the Global Council is
• MCDC member Georges talks about what the Hubs are

How to share your feedback?

• share your message or question on the Movement Charter Talk page in any language;
• attend the community drop-in session;
• or email movementcharter@wikimedia.org.

Participate in community calls

The dates of the upcoming community conversation calls organized by the Movement Charter Ambassadors are provided on the Meta page. We invite you to join and share your feedback.

• Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa communities call will take place on April 11 at 12.00 UTC. Please register to receive invitation.
• ESEAP Preparatory Council Meeting on the Movement Charter will take place on April 13 at 10.00 UTC.

February 2024

This update has also been published at Wikimedia Foundation's Diff blog.

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) continues drafting the Movement Charter for the Wikimedia Movement in alignment with recommendation #4 of the Movement Strategy, which advocates for ensuring equity in decision-making processes.

In early February, the Committee members assigned themselves to new roles: chapter stewards and chapter internal reviewers. The chapter stewards worked towards refining each chapter to a “good enough” version. These chapters then underwent a preliminary, two-week-long review phase by a diverse group of reviewers and advisors. The reviewers group included former members of the MCDC, members of communities and affiliates, WMF Board of Trustees (BoT) members, and members of the Affiliations Committee. The MCDC received invaluable proposals for improvement from their advisors and reviewers on the full Charter draft both in writing and during their closed call with the advisors on February 22. The Committee extends its gratitude to everyone who invested their volunteer time and provided constructive feedback. This collective effort shows the shared ownership and commitment of all involved parties.

MCDC’s February convenings

• 1 February – MCDC’s regular meeting: Committee members recapped the outcomes of their January in-person meeting and spent most of their time drafting in breakout rooms. During this meeting, it was decided that the roles of chapter stewards would include deciding which points need to be voted on by the full MCDC, drafting their respective chapters, preparing readers’ notes, integrating feedback from reviewers, and resolving comments from the MCDC, among others. The internal chapter reviewers provided actionable feedback on the chapters for which they volunteered. In addition, the Committee reached an agreement to produce three layers of text, namely: 1) the full Movement Charter draft, 2) Reader’s notes – to assist readers in understanding the context and intention, and 3) Supplementary documents – this level provides background information on the charter content. It focuses on how to advance the Charter after ratification and serves as a form of handover to the future Global Council.
• 2 February – Meeting with WMDE to discuss details of the Wikimedia Summit 2024.
• 5 February – A group within the MCDC met to discuss the Global Council text, other members worked a-sync to improve the chapter texts.
• 8 February – MCDC’s regular meeting: Chapter stewards provided updates on their work progress and discussed the next steps, the Committee then discussed the Global Council draft.
• 10 February – A group within the MCDC met to finalize the Global Council text for the preliminary review by advisors and reviewers.
• 15 February – MCDC’s regular meeting: The Committee discussed the chunks they will present for deliberations at the Wikimedia Summit 2024. In addition, the Committee spent some time preparing for their closed call with advisors and reviewers of the Charter draft.
• 22 February – MCDC’s closed call with Advisors to provide space to listen to the feedback from the advisors and reviewers on the draft Charter.
• 24-25 February – MCDC’s online working weekend: This weekend was dedicated to the incorporation and reconciliation of the feedback received from the advisors and reviewers.
• February 29 – MCDC’s regular meeting: The chapter stewards shared updates on each chapter. The Committee members brainstormed about the questions or topics they want to bring to the table at the Strategic Retreat with the WMF staff, WMF BoT, and WMF Endowment in New York on March 7 & 8.

In other news

The Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation shared their perspectives on the Global Council. In this letter, the BoT presented some areas of responsibility to reassign from the Foundation to the Global Council as well as the changes that are not under consideration for the time being. Please read the full message on Meta.

Upcoming community engagement period on the full draft Charter

The MCDC will share the full Charter with everyone on April 2 on Meta-wiki to kick off the community engagement period between April 2 - April 22. We encourage all members of the Wikimedia community, including movement volunteers, individual online contributors, Affiliates, project communities, stakeholders, regional groups, and WMF staff, to actively engage with the Charter draft during the community engagement period. This means carefully reviewing the draft and providing suggestions for improvement to the MCDC. Acknowledging that this period overlaps with the Wikimedia Summit between April 19-21, where many affiliates will convene, this engagement is inclusive of all stakeholders, including those who won’t be at the Summit or are part of an affiliate. Community engagement details will be shared on Meta closer to the start of the engagement.

The movement-wide voting period on the full Movement Charter will take place between June 12-25.

January 2024

MCDC members at their in-person Atlanta meeting

This update has also been published at Wikimedia Foundation's Diff blog.

During the last weekend of January, the Movement Charter Drafting Committee came together with the aim of finalizing the updates on the previously written drafts. The Committee’s sessions in Atlanta were designed collaboratively, covering discussions, drafting, and planning sessions.

In January the MCDC met five times, including meetings with key movement stakeholders before their in-person convening.

• January 4 – MCDC’s regular meeting: The Committee discussed proposals on the Affiliate structure as well as the Global Council with a focus on grantmaking. The support staff conducted a “Committee health check” to hear how the Committee members felt about appointing new members and overall the workload. Note: You can read more about membership below. It was also suggested to invite copy-editors for the full charter draft.
• January 8: Some MCDC members joined the meeting with WM DE on the Wikimedia Summit plans.
• January 11: MCDC’s regular meeting: The Committee walked through the plans for their in-person meeting, and continued their discussions regarding the Affiliate proposal as well as the Global Council (grantmaking).
• January 12: Several MCDC members joined an informative call on the Affiliate Strategy updates with the Board of Trustees liaisons to discuss the points of convergence and divergence between the MCDC proposals for Affiliates and the Board’s Affiliate Strategy.
• January 18: MCDC’s regular meeting: The Committee discussed key questions that needed to be addressed in their upcoming in-person meeting. Content-wise, the members discussed the functions of the Global Council, and reviewed the Roles & Responsibilities draft, among others.
• January 26-28: The Committee convened for an in-person meeting, engaging in collective work that included both discussions and drafting sessions. MCDC members were joined by the BoT liaisons Nataliia Tymkiv and Lorenzo Losa, and for the first time, the General Council of the WMF Stephen LaPorte to support the Committee on legal questions.

Among the important questions for the Committee to agree on were the functions and purpose of the Global Council, its structure, and membership, including a comparison of the Small Body model and the Assembly with a Board model. Hubs discussions included revenue generation and funds distribution; while Roles & Responsibilities discussions included a new idea about the function to mediate and arbitrate disputes between members and other bodies in the movement. The changes will be reflected in the draft of the full charter, which will be shared for community consultation in early April.

In other news

Update on membership: Érica Azzellini stepped down from membership for personal reasons (see full announcement). The MCDC resolved that starting from January 2023 there will be no further replacements of its members. In their post-Wikimania 2023 meeting in Singapore, the Committee revisited this conversation and concluded that onboarding new members at this point in the drafting process will take a lot of time and energy away from the drafting. At the same time, the Advisors have been following the MCDC’s process and sometimes have had the opportunity for the first review and feedback on the content. The list of 30+ Advisors from all over the world is expected to give the drafting committee the diverse perspectives and experiences required.

Community Feedback Summary: The summary of feedback received on the Movement Charter drafts collected throughout its events and conversations period on wiki and in community calls spanning September 3 – December 31, 2023, is available Meta.

Participate in the survey regarding the Global Council: Based on the suggestions from the MCDC’s monthly open community calls, the support staff has put together a straw poll to gauge the perspectives on some of the expectations related to the purpose, role, and function of the Global Council. This poll will propose some of the areas of accountability and decision-making derived from the historic resolutions of global nature from the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation to define where movement participants think these decisions should be made in the future.

The deadline has been extended, you can fill out the survey until February 24. You can respond to the survey publicly on Meta or use the anonymous Google Forms survey. All the responses will be accounted for in the MCDC’s discussions related to the Global Council.

What’s next

Draft of the full Movement Charter will be published in April for community engagement

• February – March: The MCDC is working on finalizing the draft of the full charter, including sharing a preliminary version with Advisors, former MCDC members, and the WMF Board of Trustees for review before the MCDC updates the draft again. Then, the updated draft will go through copy-editing, legal review, and translations before it is published for community engagement.
• February 22: A closed call with Advisors and the other reviewers is scheduled to give feedback to the MCDC about the preliminary draft.
• In March, the MCDC members will prepare for the Wikimedia Summit, attend the WMF Strategy Meeting in NYC on March 7-8, and prepare for the upcoming community consultations.
• March Open Community Call: TBD
• April 2-22: Draft of full charter is shared on Meta, and community engagement period commences! (Details forthcoming).
• May: Preparations for the voting period, including finalizing the Charter text based on community feedback.
• June 12-25: The ratification voting period on the full charter. The details on voting will be provided closer to the date.

Please note: If you want to host a conversation with your community and invite MCDC members to your conversation, please reach out to: movementcharterwikimediaorg or leave a message on the the talk page.

Any suggestions or questions ahead of the community engagement? Please let the MCDC communications sub committee know by reaching out on Telegram: Wikimedia Movement Strategy or via email: movementcharterwikimediaorg.

December 2023

December was a shorter month, the Movement Charter Drafting Committee met three times and had their scheduled break from December 18 to January 2.

• 7 December – Monthly drop-in session: The focus of this session was on the Global Council. The support team provided an overview of the Global Council’s purpose and function to ensure call participants were aligned. A practical exercise was carried out, in which the participants were presented with a number of previous Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees resolution areas. They then had the opportunity to vote on whether these resolutions should be handled in the future by the Global Council or the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. The practical exercise was followed by a discussion. Please read the detailed recap of the call on Meta or watch the recording on YouTube.
• 11 December – Wikimedia Summit organizers met with the MCDC members to align on expectations for MCDC’s involvement at the Summit.
• 14 December – MCDC’s regular meeting: The MCDC discussed the Global Council, shared their reflections on the open call on December 7 as well as the new proposal for the ratification process.

Participate

Based on the suggestions from the MCDC’s monthly open community calls, the support staff has put together a straw poll to gauge the perspectives on some of the expectations related to the purpose, role, and function of the Global Council. This poll will propose some of the areas of accountability and decision-making derived from the historic resolutions of global nature from the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation to define where movement participants think these decisions should be made in the future. You can respond to the survey publicly on Meta or use the anonymous Google Forms survey. All the responses will be accounted for in the MCDC’s discussions related to the Global Council.

What’s next?

• MCDC’s in-person meeting: Members and supporting staff continue working on the agenda for the in-person meeting in January. During their in-person session, the MCDC will work towards content consolidation.
• In January, the Committee will not be holding a community drop-in session due to the Committee members attending an in-person meeting in Atlanta. Details of the next session with the community will be shared in early February.
• By the end of January, the support staff will publish a summary of the Movement Charter conversations and feedback from September-December 2023 on Meta for your review.

Special highlight: hear from the Movement Charter Ambassadors

The Movement Charter Ambassador Program Round 2 has been finalized. Below you can read more about the activities held by the Ambassadors in their communities.

• MCDC Conversation Wikimedia UG Rwanda by RebeccaRwanda. Rebecca Jeannette Nyinawumuntu is a Co-founder of the Wikimedia Community User Group Rwanda, where she plays a crucial role in fostering community engagement and establishing partnerships. As an MCDC ambassador, she contributes to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee community conversations. She leads the organization of Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), Wiki for Human Rights, and Wiki Loves Women (WLW) initiatives in Rwanda. Her dedication extends to active participation in the Wikimedia Foundation Movement strategy Implementation plan in the Africa Great Lakes region. Rebecca is also the founder of OSM Rwanda and a passionate community activist in open data, focusing on underrepresented community growth, governance and advocacy in her volunteer work. Currently pursuing an MSc in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management, she exemplifies a commitment to both academic and volunteer pursuits.
• Movement Charter Online Conversations in Wikimedian Communities in Indonesia by Arcuscloud. Arcuscloud started contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2019, after attending a training on how to edit Wikipedia in Banjarmasin by Wikimedia Indonesia. Since then he has been involved in Wikimedia projects and Movement in various ways, including becoming a Movement Charter Ambassador.
• A Journey of a Thousand Steps by Buszmail. In his own words: “Juan Bautista H. Alegre heads Pilipinas Panorama Community, a thematic community based in Manila, Philippines; and has been editing Wikipedia for longer than 15 years. “Johnny Alegre” is a member of the ESEAP (hub) Preparatory Council. He was a president twice, of two distinct Philippine Affiliates (WMPH and PH-WC), and attended the Wikimedia Conference in 2015, the Wikimedia Summit in 2022, and Wikimania 2023 in-person — and is looking towards attending the Wikimedia Summit in 2024. He tenured as Movement Charter Ambassador in two consecutive years (2022-2023) and is listed as an MCDC Advisor. He translated the Movement Charter drafts in their entirety into the Tagalog language.”

November 2023

This update has also been published at Wikimedia Foundation's Diff blog.

In November, the Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) members engaged in a series of meetings and discussions, continuing on their commitment to shaping the future of the Wikimedia movement. It has been quite an interesting time for the MCDC to experiment with the open monthly drop-in sessions to engage with community members more regularly. You can read more about their work in the text below. Looking ahead, the MCDC is gearing up for the December 7th open session and is set to share high-level responses to community feedback in January 2024. With the effort and engagement of the past few months, the MCDC is in full work mode to pave the way for their in-person meeting in late January dedicated to consolidating the Charter content and preparing for the next phase of community consultations.

In November 2023, the MCDC met eight times:

• November 2 – Monthly drop-in session: This monthly session with the community continued discussions from last month on the structure of the Global Council. The supporting team has provided a recap of the conversation on the Movement Charter’s talk page. For those who missed this session, recording is available on Youtube. Among the participants of the two drop-in sessions, there was a lack of representation from Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and ESEAP regions. Next drop-in session is scheduled for December 7 at 15.00 UTC (check your local time). We invite you to sign-up on Meta.
• November 3 – Stakeholder meeting: The MCDC met with Selena Deckelmann, Chief Product and Technology Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, for the second time. The discussion centered around the work that needs to be done to truly pursue Movement Strategy pillars, with a specific focus on Knowledge Equity from a Product and Technology perspective. Some of the topics discussed included volunteer sustainability, particularly providing support to online editors; the importance of clearly defining the scope and expectations from the Tech Council; and exploring the implications for the Movement Charter by adding the lens of content generation.
• November 9 – MCDC weekly meeting: The Committee members were briefed on preparations for Wikimedia Summit 2024. The Committee has shifted its weekly meeting time to 15:00 UTC due to wintertime changes. Based on the diverse feedback received from July to September 2, 2023, along with insights from the monthly drop-in sessions, various aspects of the Global Council were discussed within the Committee, including financial implications. The Committee is exploring new proposals on the Global Council topic.
• November 16 – MCDC weekly meeting: Continuing the discussions on the new proposals for the Global Council draft.
• November 23 – MCDC weekly meeting: The review of the revised Hubs draft was skipped due to not having a quorum of committee members at the live meeting. MCDC members started preparing for their in-person meeting in January 2023, which aims to produce a preliminary draft of the full Charter, to be consulted on ahead of the Wikimedia Summit.
• November 28 – Stakeholder meeting: The MCDC met with the Senior Leadership of the WMF.
• November 29 – Stakeholder meeting: The MCDC met with an Affiliations Committee (AffCom) liaison to discuss feedback from the AffCom.
• November 30 – MCDC weekly meeting: The MCDC discussed proposals on the Global Council draft.

In other news

• After the MCDC’s in-person feedback sessions at Wikimania in Singapore, the Committee members have been busy in various capacities. Like many other active individuals in our movement, MCDC members wear different hats. In addition to participating in weekly meetings, and drafting work, some members actively presented at regional Wiki conferences from September to November.
  • Michał Buczyński presented at the CEE Meeting with support from Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska (Movement Communications team, WMF) in Tbilisi.
  • WikiConvention Francophone 2023 in Abidjan was attended by Georges Fodoup and Anass Sedrati.
  • Ciell presented at the German Wikipedia:WikiCon 2023 with the support of Nicole Ebber (WMDE).
  • WikiWomen Camp 2023 in Delhi was attended by Ciell.
  • MC Ambassador Kurmanbek, with the support of Daria, held MC conversations with Wikimedians of Turkic Languages at the Turkic Wikimedia conference in Istanbul.
  • Anass, Georges, Ciell led a panel session at WikiIndaba conference in Agadir with support of WMF staff Yop Rwang Pam and Winnie Kabintie.
  • Risker and Pharos organized an MC conversation at WikiConference North America.
• The Movement Charter Ambassadors are finalizing their conversations. You can find more information about some of their organizational efforts and feedback shared on Diff by project leads:
  • Implementing the 2nd Round of Movement Charter Conversation in the Igbo Wikimedians Community by Iwuala Lucy, an experienced Wikimedian and passionate advocate for free knowledge dissemination, preservation of indigenous languages, and digitization, serving as the Project Lead.
  • Movement Charter Conversations in the Kashmiri Community by 511KeV, contributor to English Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Kashmiri Wikipedia, dedicated to preserving the Kashmiri language in the digital realm. They also founded the Kashmiri Wikimedians User Group and engage in outreach activities.
  • MCDC Workshop at Turkic Wikimedia Conference 2023 by Kurmanbek, Turkish Wikimedian, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Student, and Founder of Istanbul Bilgi University Wikipedia Student Club.

Upcoming community conversation hour

The next open session with the communities is scheduled for December 7, 2023, at 15:00 UTC (local time). The topic will be shared on the Meta page. You can join the session via the Zoom link (sign your name here) or watch the livestream on YouTube.

What’s next?

• Closing the feedback loop: In December, the MCDC shared a high-level response to the community feedback collected from July-September 2023. Response to the feedback received from September 2 to December 31 will be published in January 2024. The Committee thanks those who have shared feedback, including the Executive Director's meeting statement published recently on Meta, and the Wikimedia Board of Trustees feedback the committee received via the MCDC liaisons.
• MCDC in-person meeting: The Committee will gather for three days of working sessions in January 2024. The main aim is to consolidate the content and prepare for the next community consultation of the full Charter ahead of the Wikimedia Summit.

October 2023

This update has also been published at Wikimedia Foundation's Diff blog.

In October 2023, the MCDC convened for a total of five meetings. Three of these meetings were dedicated to their drafting sessions, during which MCDC members discussed the Global Council draft and addressed open questions about the Hubs draft.

As part of their stakeholder engagement efforts, the MCDC members met with Selena Deckelmann, Chief Product and Technology Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation. The meeting served as a platform for mutual learning and the exchange of ideas between the MCDC and the Foundation's Product and Technology perspective. The MCDC also held a meeting with the Affiliations Committee members to learn more about their work and discuss the role of AffCom in the Global Council draft.

Following Wikimania, the MCDC decided to shift from working within separate Drafting Groups to collaborating as a unified committee and drafting collectively each week instead of bi-weekly. They also decided to open one of their regular weekly meetings to community members each month, so that there is better engagement with the movement. MCDC’s first drop-in session took place on October 5. You can watch the recording on YouTube.

MCDC October open session

The October 5 Movement Charter Community drop-in session’s topic was the Structure of the Global Council. The guiding question was “why is this model the best for the Global Council?” In small self-assigned groups, participants explored three possible models: one in which there is no permanent body (“No Global Council”), a large consultative council modeled after the General Assembly model (“General Assembly”), and a small-sized council (“Small Committee”). Three models are based on the feedback received on the Wikimedia projects and at events.

Below find the summary of the discussions:

• No Global Council model: In this discussion group, it surfaced that there does not seem to be full consensus regarding whether or not and how to set up the Global Council, and the Wikimedia movement seems to be far from an alignment. In addition, there is an expectation that the Global Council would not change much regarding the representation of the smaller communities and affiliates, and larger ones already have a voice, making structural change redundant. The latter was a point surfaced from the MCDC July-September 2023 community consultations. You can find the notes from the discussion in the Jamboard and also rewatch the report back on YouTube.
• General Assembly model: It was a large group discussion, where several areas of reasoning were highlighted. These included 1) greater diversity and representation, giving opportunity for equity and inclusiveness and representing diverse voices, 2) increasing legitimacy and transparency, as for important decisions representation seems to be the key for legitimacy, 3) enhanced human and community capital, essentially having more people power to fulfill its mission. In addition, it was noted that a General Assembly model would codify existing annual convening practices. Finally, the scope of the decision-making authority of the Global Council was also discussed. You can find the notes from the discussion in the Jamboard and also rewatch the report back on YouTube.
• Small Committee model: The core reasoning behind the model seems to be its feasibility and effectiveness. It was suggested that a small committee can make decisions faster and would be the only model that creates a platform for meaningful actual discussion. It was suggested that it would make sense to start with an incremental change and setting up a small committee feels the most feasible option. Points were made about the small committee model being less taxing on volunteer time and also having lower administrative overhead. You can find the notes from the discussion in the Jamboard.

When the participants reconvened after the breakout groups, they discussed a question regarding the foundations of the Charter itself. Recap of this conversation is provided on Meta-wiki.

Ongoing work

• The Movement Charter Ambassadors are currently holding local community conversations about the Charter to collect feedback and opinions from communities that are traditionally not participating in Wikimedia governance discussions.
• MCDC has shared their Advisors list on Meta. Those interested in becoming an Advisor to the MCDC should reach out to movementcharter@wikimedia.org.

Upcoming open community session

The next open session with the communities is scheduled at November 2, 2023, 17:00 UTC. The topic will be shared on the Meta page on November 1. You can join the session via Zoom link (sign your name here) or watch the livestream on Youtube.

MCDC’s upcoming participation at the regional events

• WikiIndaba will take place in Morocco from 3 to 5 November. MCDC members Ciell, Georges, Anass will be there to chat with the African Wikimedia communities.
• WikiConference North America in Toronto takes place from 9 to 12 November. MCDC members Anne and Pharos will hold a Movement Charter conversation on November 10.

If you are attending any of these events, make sure to connect with MCDC members to discuss the charter and share your thoughts.

August―September 2023

This update has also been published at Wikimedia Foundation's Diff blog.

It has been a busy few months for the Movement Charter Drafting Committee. First, we shared key drafts of the Movement Charter, including sections covering the Global Council and Hubs. Sharing new sections also meant engaging with community members and hearing from you far and wide – on wiki and calls. Second, Wikimania happened and we had to prepare for official and ad hoc in-person (and hybrid) conversations. We have received a great amount of feedback – thanks to so many of you who participated in conversations in person and online – that we are excited to directly weave into our next phase of drafting, more on that later. In this period, we also lost our great friend and colleague Richard, also known under his username Nosebagbear. Richard passed away unexpectedly in August, shortly after arriving home from his first Wikimania event in Singapore.

• Community Conversations July―September: We have received extensive feedback from communities and individuals who care about an equitable and participatory movement and want to make their voices reflected in the Charter. A diverse range of sentiments and opinions regarding the four chapters of the Movement Charter received throughout the July-September 2023 community consultation period will be shared here on October 2.
• Wikimania 2023: Wikimania 2023 in Singapore was a historic moment, marking the first in-person Wikimania in four years and setting a record as the largest ever, combined with in-person and virtual participation. Eleven members of the Drafting Committee who were present at Wikimania Singapore welcomed feedback at different in-person and live sessions, including an open drop-in session. If you missed the sessions and would like to revisit the discussions, you can access the recorded sessions on The Future Roles and Responsibilities in the Movement, along with the main content discussion session. We appreciate everyone who joined our discussion sessions, listened to the ongoing conversations, shared opinions, and expressed their congratulations, worries, and concerns.
• Nosebagbear’s legacy: We extend our deep condolences to Richard’s (Nosebagbear) family, friends, and colleagues. His passing is a significant loss not only for the work of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee but for the entire Wikimedia Movement. Richard has been a Wikimedian since 2018. He was elected by the community to be on the Movement Charter Drafting Committee. He strongly believed that the Movement Charter drafting process should prioritize the collective voice of the community and ensure that decisions were made at the most localized level possible. For him, one of the most binding details of the Charter was about transparency and accountability to the movement. Richard was an active member of the Committee, serving on various subcommittees such as the Global Council, Preamble, and Ratification where he made substantial contributions. Richard’s legacy will continue to inspire us as we work to uphold these values and advance the Wikimedia Movement Charter in the spirit of unwavering dedication.
• How we work moving forward: We are making some changes to the way we work. There are key conversations that we should have as a unified group and for this, we will draft as one committee rather than separate drafting groups. We also want to engage with our advisors and interested community members on a regular basis, not just after big updates. We will be hosting monthly drop-in sessions open to everyone to help us think through various topics and open questions. These sessions aim to allow better connection and engagement with the individuals and various communities willing to share input in the drafting of the Charter. The topics of each session and the necessary information to read will be shared ahead of time. Schedule of the upcoming drop-in sessions:
  • October 5, 16:00 UTC (your local time))
  • November 2 (time to be confirmed)
  • December 7 (time to be confirmed)
• The Committee has outlined an updated timeline until June 2024.

• 
  Movement Charter discussion at Wikimania
• 
  Movement Charter discussion at Wikimania
• 
  Movement Charter discussion at Wikimania
• 
  Nosebagbear
• 
  MCDC members and the support staff gathered for a discussion at Wikimania
• 
  MCDC members at Wikimania 2023 social event

July 2023

Meetings

• Regular Committee meetings: 9 and 23 July
• Global Council drafting group: 4 July
• Hubs drafting group: 5, 14, 20 July
• Decision-making drafting group: 7 and 21 July
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 13 and 20 July
• Communications subcommittee: 5, 19, 26 July
• Ratification subcommittee: 24 July

Completed work

• The new drafts chapters of the Movement Charter: The Global Council, Hubs and the Glossary have been shared on Meta. The community consultation is currently ongoing until September 2023. The MCDC will continue receiving feedback as the conversations will happen at the regional and thematic events. Everyone is invited to review the drafts and share feedback on the Talk pages. Learn more about the Global Council and Hubs on Diff.
• MCDC Live Launch Party: On July 30 the MCDC held a Launch Party to share the Global Council and Hubs draft chapters, listen to the community feedback and answer some of the questions. You can watch it on Youtube.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Prep for Wikimania 2023: The MCDC will be present and actively engaging at Wikimania 2023. There are several drop-in sessions for people to connect with the Committee and have conversations:
  • The key content specific discussion with the community will take place on August 17th, covering the Global Council, Hubs and Ratification topics. Register here and join us online or in-person.
  • There will be a Role Playing session on August 16th, which will propose several scenarios for future responsibilities in the Wikimedia movement in a gamified manner.
  • The Drafting Committee will hold open office hours on August 15th.
• The Roles and Responsibilities draft is now live on Meta, as of Aug 8, and is in the process of being translated. Share your thoughts and feedback on the Talk Page.
• Frequently Asked Questions: The MCDC members and the support team are working on updating the Frequently Asked Questions page about the Movement Charter to be more helpful for participants in the current community consultation.
• Preparations for Wikimedia Summit 2024: The committee was invited by Wikimedia Germany and the WMF to join early in the preparations for the Wikimedia Summit 2024, which will be held in April 2024 in Berlin, Germany.

June 2023

Meetings

• In-person meeting: 2, 3 and 4 June
• Regular Committee meetings: 11, 18 and 25 June
• Global Council drafting group: 6, 14 and 20 June
• Hubs drafting group: 8 and 29 June
• Decision-making drafting group: 14 June
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 15 and 29 June
• Communications subcommittee: 14 and 21 June

Completed work

• In-person meeting Utrecht: The Committee met in person for three days in Utrecht, Netherlands. The main goal was to complete the drafts for the next community consultation, many of which are now receiving final reviews before publishing for community feedback.
• Next set of drafts: The next set of drafts is complete in terms of content, and is currently undergoing legal and readability reviews before publishing. The new drafts of the Movement Charter and a preliminary glossary are planned to be published by the time of Wikimania 2023 in mid August, as each will have their own discussion session there.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Glossary: A group of the Committee members are collecting terms from the new drafts and defining them in a glossary, which is planned to be published in a partial format during the next community conversations.
• Preparation for community conversations: The Committee and the Wikimedia Foundation’s support team are working together to prepare for the upcoming community conversations. This includes finalizing content, arranging translations, scheduling calls, preparing set up to capture community feedback, etc.
• Fundraising & Funds Dissemination discussions: The Committee has been having extended conversations about the challenging topics of fundraising and funds dissemination. The discussions have been supported by research into historical content on the topics and expert advice. They may influence several draft chapters of the Charter in later versions.

May 2023

Meetings

• Regular Committee meetings: 14 and 28 May
• Global Council drafting group: 9 and 23 May
• Hubs drafting group: 11 and 25 May
• Decision-making drafting group: 12 and 26 May
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 4, 18 and 30 May
• Communications subcommittee: 10 May

Completed work

• Revised draft chapters: Having reviewed the extensive feedback received during the first community conversations on Preamble, Values & Principles, and Roles & Responsibilities, the MCDC has shared the revised version of the mentioned draft sections. Please note that the drafts are subject to change based on future reviews and will not be finalized until the full Charter is published.
• Ratification Methodology community feedback: If you want to know what the communities say about the proposed Movement Charter ratification methodology, please read the summary of the community feedback on Diff.
• Update on membership: Ravan J Al-Taie stepped down from her membership due to personal reasons (see full announcement). In accord with the Committee's decision in November, her seat will not be filled.

Ongoing work & discussion

• New drafts: The Drafting Groups are working hard to finalize a first version of the drafts for the next 4 chapters of the Charter: the Global Council, Decision Making, Hubs, Roles and Responsibilities, and Glossary. The drafts will be shared in July with the wider community.
• Upcoming conversations: With the goal of listening to the wider community about the upcoming new draft chapters, the Committee with the support team are planning community conversations. This community conversation period will run from July to September. Details will be available early July.
• Reaching out to advisors: The Hubs Drafting Groups and the Communications sub-committee plan to reach out to the individuals who expressed interest in supporting the Committee in the role of advisors. Other drafting groups are still deciding on the level of engagement for the advisors that indicated interest on their respective topics.
• Ratification conversations: Ratification sub-committee members had a call with Foundation staff from the Legal Department on the technical requirements for Charter vote.
• External legal review: The Wikimedia Foundation has retained the law firm Latham & Watkins to provide pro bono external legal review for the key questions presented by the MCDC. The MCDC participated in an introductory call with legal counsel on May 17. MCDC will be in touch with the Latham & Watkins for this iteration of drafts.
• Meeting with stakeholders: The MCDC continues to meet with various experts and stakeholders across the movement to gather information.
• Utrecht meeting: The meeting took place June 2-4 in Utrecht, Netherlands. We look forward to sharing an update from the meeting with you on Diff soon.

April 2023

Meetings

• Regular Committee meetings: 2 and 16 April
• Special working sessions (on Hubs and Global Council): 15 and 29 April
• Global Council drafting group: 11 and 25 April
• Hubs drafting group: 13 and 27 April
• Decision-making drafting group: 14 and 28 April
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 6 and 20 April

Completed work

• Ratification methodology proposal community consultation: The Committee published a proposal for the Movement Charter’s ratification methodology, and held a community consultation. The report of the consultation will be published in May.
• Communications evaluation: Thanks to participation from a number of community members, the supporting staff of the Communications sub-committee conducted an evaluation of communications. Several recommendations are going to be implemented in the upcoming period.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Drafting new chapters: The Committee has been drafting additional chapters about the following topics: The Global Council, Hubs, Decision-making and Roles & Responsibilities. The Committee held two extended online sessions (3 hours each) in order to discuss major and difficult questions regarding those topics, with a particular focus on the Global Council and Hubs.
• Revising old chapters: The Committee has completed revising the draft chapters of the Preamble, Values & Principles, and Roles & Responsibilities intentions statement, based on the community feedback received in November and December 2022. These updated drafts will be shared in May 2023.
• Meeting with stakeholders: The Committee continues to meet with experts and stakeholders across the movement to gather information.
• Planning in-person meeting: The Committee is going to meet from 2 – 4 June 2023 in Utrecht, Netherlands to advance the drafting of the Movement Charter. Scheduling and planning for this working session is already ongoing.

March 2023

Committee's meeting in New York, in early March.

Working session to draft Movement Charter content at the Jefferson Market Library.

Meetings

• Regular Committee meetings: 5 and 19 March
• Communications subcommittee: 1, 15 and 29 March
• Global Council drafting group: 14 and 28 March
• Hubs drafting group: 2, 16 and 30 March
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 23 and 30 March

Completed work

• Ratification methodology proposal: The Committee published a pre-announcement of upcoming consultation with the community regarding a proposal for the Movement Charter’s ratification methodology.
• Coordinating with Wikimedia Germany: The Committee held a meeting with the team of Movement Strategy & Global Relations from Wikimedia Germany, to coordinate communications and engagement regarding the movement governance.
• Update on membership: Reda Kerbouche resigned from the MCDC (see the full announcement). In accord with the Committee's decision in November, his seat will not be filled.
• Submissions to Wikimania: The Committee prepared and submitted applications for five sessions as part of the governance track of Wikimania 2023.
• Participation at the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees’ Strategic Retreat: Several Committee members traveled to New York in early March to listen and participate in during the Wikimedia Foundation’s annual planning retreat. This was an opportunity to learn about the current governance systems in sensitive topics, like fundraising and technology decisions. It was also an opportunity for the Committee to meet in-person and make progress on drafting (see below).

Ongoing work & discussion

• Ratification conversations: The Committee and the support team are planning conversations on 18 and 24 April. Those will be opportunities for the community to give feedback on the ratification methodology proposal. Details are in the pre-announcement.
• Drafting new chapters: The Committee has been drafting additional chapters about the following topics: The Global Council, Hubs, Decision-making and Roles & Responsibilities. There is an initial draft text being prepared for each of those topics. The Committee is also planning extended online sessions to discuss some of the more difficult points in each chapter.
• Revising old chapters: The Committee is revising the draft chapters of The Preamble, Values & Principles, and Roles & Responsibilities intentions statement, based on the community feedback received in November and December 2022. The revised drafts will be published soon.
• Collecting input from advisors and experts: The Committee is preparing to welcome a number of advisors from outside the Committee. All interested Wikimedians were invited to apply earlier (you can still apply here!). Additionally, the Committee is planning and scheduling meetings with individuals with specific sets of expertise in various topics, including stewards, movement committees, Wikimedia Foundation and affiliate staff, and others.

February 2023

Meetings:

• Virtual working weekend: 3, 4 and 5 February
• Regular Committee meetings: 19 February
• Communications subcommittee: 15 February
• Research subcommittee: 24 February
• Preamble drafting group: 9 February
• Global Council drafting group: 4, 14 and 28 February
• Hubs drafting group: 2, 4, 16 and 23 February
• Decision-making drafting group: 4, 10 and 17
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 4, 9 and 23 February

Completed work

• Launching new drafting groups: Three new drafting groups of Movement Charter are now actively-drafting content. The three topics they are working on are: Decision-making, Hubs and the Global Council. In addition, the Roles & Responsibilities drafting group is still active from 2022.
• Online working session: The MCDC met for an extensive virtual working weekend on 3 - 5 February, as an alternative to a canceled in-person meeting. The session was used to brainstorm outlines of an upcoming set of Movement Charter chapters, and to discuss some key content topics.
• Engagement at events: Two members of the Committee presented during Iberoconf 2023, and reported back to the full Committee about feedback from the region’s communities on the Movement Charter content and engagement.
• The MCDC has announced the Call for Advisors! Individuals interested to support the Drafting Groups or the Sub-committees of the MCDC in the role of an advisor can fill out the advisory application form by May, 2023. The MCDC will be contacting interested individuals on a rolling basis. Do you want to know more about it? Please read here for more information. The information is also available in Arabic, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Chinese languages respectively.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Interviewing experts, conducting research and creating outlines: The new drafting groups (see above) are exploring their content topics. This includes research into existing documents and past discussions about their topic, interviewing experts from across the Wikimedia movement, and creating rough outlines for each chapter. Interviews also included conversations with the Foundation’s General Counsel Stephen LaPorte.
• Reviewing & responding to the community feedback: The MCDC is preparing to publish responses to the community feedback on the first set of drafts (collected during a consultation in November - December 2022). The response is expected to be published in late March.
• Ratification methodology: A proposal for a ratification methodology of the Movement Charter is being finalized. There is a community consultation on the methodology planned, but the timeline has shifted (originally intended in February), and an announcement of the new timeline will follow.

January 2023

Meetings

The Committee was on break until Jan 5th:

• Open weekly meetings: every Thursday
• Regular Committee meetings: 8 and 22 January
• Communications subcommittee: 18 January
• Preamble drafting group: 14, 21 and 28 January
• Values & Principles drafting group: 20 January
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 12 and 26 January
• Global Council drafting group: 31 January

Completed work

• Movement Charter community consultation: A summary of the feedback collected in November and December is now available on Meta. The summary highlights the most recurring points in the feedback, and is a quick read. Additionally, there is a detailed feedback document, which includes all the comments collected during the consultation. The Drafting Committee is carefully looking through the detailed feedback, and their responses will be shared by March 2023.
• Planning an online working session: The Committee was planning to meet in-person in Mexico City on 3 – 5 February 2023 to start drafting the next set of chapters on: Roles & Responsibilities, Decision-Making, Global Council and Hubs. Due to uncertainty about the financial situation, the request for the meeting was denied. Consequently, an alternative online working session was planned and designed, with the help of facilitators and the support team, for the same dates. In-person meetings for later in 2023 are also being planned.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Reviewing & responding to the community feedback: The Drafting Committee is in the process of reviewing the community feedback from the last community consultation, and is integrating changes and/or responding to the comments, accordingly.
• Stakeholder conversations: The MCDC had a first direct conversation with Maryana, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, in the bi-weekly meeting on January 22nd, on the topic of the current financial situation of the WMF. Also, the R&R drafting group is scheduling conversations with stakeholders to understand their work, and had their first conversation with representatives of the Stewards UG on January 20th.
• Ratification methodology: A proposal for a ratification methodology of the Movement Charter is being finalized. There is a community consultation on the methodology planned to start in early to mid March 2023 (postponed from February).
• Launching new drafting groups: Three new drafting groups of Movement Charter content started convening or early discussions in January. The three topics they are working on are: Decision-making, Hubs and the Global Council. In addition, the Roles & Responsibilities drafting group is still active.
• Creating a glossary: Some Committee members are coordinating an effort to collect terms that may need further definitions based on the community consultation feedback. The definitions will be compiled in a glossary when the next set of drafts is published in mid 2023, or earlier if feasible.
• Independent legal review: The Committee and the supporting Wikimedia Foundation staff are further looking into the logistics of arranging a legal review independent from the Foundation.

December 2022

Meetings

• The Committee was on a break from meetings between December 19th and January 4th
• Open weekly meetings: every Thursday
• Regular Committee meetings: 11 December
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 12 December

Completed work

• Movement Charter community consultation: The MCDC completed its first community consultation on three Movement Charter drafts of: The Preamble, Values & Principles, and Roles & Responsibilities. The community was invited to provide feedback through eight online global meetings (to accommodate different languages and time zones). Additional feedback collection included: several meetings with Movement Charter ambassadors and their respective communities, Meta talk pages, Movement Strategy Forum, a survey and more. The feedback collected is being compiled into a summary that will be shared in January 2023.
• Facilitator hired: The MCDC hired two facilitators who work in a duo, İstem and Merve, to support its work. The previous facilitator stepped down back in June 2022 (the Committee has been self-facilitating ever since).

Ongoing work & discussion

• Reviewing feedback from the community consultation: The MCDC is reviewing the extensive feedback from the community consultation and considering changes to the drafts based on it. A summary of the feedback will be published later in January.
• Starting new drafting groups: The MCDC is forming three new drafting groups to start working in early 2023: Decision-making, Hubs, and the Global Council. In addition, the Roles & Responsibilities drafting group will remain active.
• In-person meeting: Aware of the long visa-application procedures for some countries, the MCDC had already in September 2022 scheduled an in-person meeting for the Committee to take place in early February 2023. This meeting was going to be dedicated to working on the next set of drafts. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the request for the meeting was denied. The Committee is now exploring the possibility of getting together again in the second quarter of 2023 (April to June).
• Ratification methodology: The MCDC prepared a proposal for the ratification methodology for the Movement Charter to be shared in February, 2023. Community members will be invited to provide feedback on the Meta page, MS forum and will also have the opportunity to join live feedback meetings.
• Independent legal review: The MCDC is discussing the best timing for a legal review providing an independent perspective on the Charter content . The procurement and set up process is being currently discussed with the Movement Strategy & Governance Team.
• Inviting external advisors: The MCDC is working on a procedure for finding and inviting the advisors from the movement to actively support the drafting groups in drafting the upcoming next chapters of the Charter.

November 2022

Meetings

• Open weekly meetings: every Thursday
• Regular Committee meetings: 13 and 27 November
• Preamble drafting group: 5 November
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 14 and 28 November
• Communications subcommittee: 2, 9 and 24 November

Completed work

• Movement Charter draft: Three draft Movement Charter chapters are published.
• Diff blog posting about the Charter onboarding and Community Consultations was published: Get prepared for the Movement Charter feedback sessions.
• Charter onboarding sessions: The MCDC had 3 sessions of “Ask Me Anything” about the Movement Charter’ sessions open to the community. The sessions introduced participants to the Movement Charter basics before starting the community consultations later in November.
• Frequently Asked Questions page: The Committee published a Frequently Asked Questions page for the Movement Charter. The questions are based on the recently-hosted “Ask Me Anything” sessions.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Community Consultations: The Committee is hosting 8 online regional conversations with the communities for different time zones. There is interpretation support for various languages. The Committee is using the conversations to collect feedback about the recently-published Movement Charter drafts.
• External facilitator hiring: The Committee is now in the last stage of interviews. The new facilitator will start in January.
• Ratification process outline: Aiming to publish a first draft for community review in January.
• Next in-person meeting: The Committee is planning for an upcoming in-person meeting, to make progress in drafting. The meeting will take place in early February.
• New drafting groups: New drafting groups are being formed to work on next chapters of the Movement Charter. Topics of the new chapters will be: Hubs, the Global Council, and Decision-making (see the Movement Charter outline for details). Work on the Roles and Responsibilities chapter is also continued.

October 2022

Meetings

• Open weekly meetings: every Thursday
• Regular Committee meetings: 2 and 16 October
• Preamble drafting group: 22 October
• Values & Principles drafting group: 10 October
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 3 and 17 October
• Communications subcommittee: 12 October

Completed work

• Movement Charter draft chapters: The Committee completed three draft chapters: The Preamble, Values & Principles and Roles & Responsibilities (purpose statement). The drafts will be published on Meta, along with a call for feedback, on November 14th. These drafts will be translated in the 15 priority languages.
• Community Consultation & Communication Plan: The Committee and Movement Strategy and Governance team finalized an outreach and consultation plan for the Movement Charter drafts review. The consultation periods will follow the Movement Charter timeline.

• Participation at events: Committee members took part in several community events and presented sessions or panels about the Movement Charter. Events included: Wikidata Conference Istanbul, WikiArabia, and WikiIndaba. Upcoming events include WikiConNL and others.
• Decision on membership: The Committee decided not to add new members or replace those who step down after 1 January 2023, unless for exceptional reasons. For more details, please see this page.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Readability and legal reviews: The Committee is integrating feedback to the Movement Charter drafts based on a readability and translation review (by the Movement Strategy and Governance Team) and a legal review (by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Legal staff) before the drafts will be shared on Meta for a broader community review.
• Ratification methodology: The Committee is drafting an early, rough draft of a methodology for ratifying the Movement Charter.

• New drafting groups: New drafting groups are being formed to work on next chapters of the Movement Charter (besides the ones included in the upcoming community consultation). Topics of the new chapters will be: the Global Council, Decision-making and Amendments & Implementation (see the Movement Charter outline for details), while the work on the Roles and Responsibilities chapter is also continued.
• Facilitator hiring: The call for proposals for an MCDC facilitator is closed. Three representatives of the committee will be working with the MSG team to complete the new hiring process by the end of November.

September 2022

Meetings

• In-person meetings (Berlin): 7-12 September, including the Wikimedia Summit 2022
• Open weekly meetings: 4, 15, 22 and 29 September
• Regular Committee meetings: 18 September
• Preamble drafting group: 3 and 24 September
• Values & Principles drafting group: 1, 21 and 29 September
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 1, 26 and 29 September
• Communications subcommittee: 14 and 28 September

Completed work

• Presenting Movement Charter content at the Wikimedia Summit: The Committee presented their first drafts at the Wikimedia Summit 2022 (on 9-11 September). The drafts covered three sections: The Preamble, Values & Principles and Roles & Responsibilities. The Committee is currently integrating the feedback on those drafts.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Drafting Movement Charter sections: Drafting Groups of MCDC members have been developing multiple versions of draft sections. Drafts were presented and discussed at the Summit, and the Committee is currently revising them based on feedback. The drafts cover three sections: Preamble, Values & Principles and Roles & Responsibilities.
• Event attendance planning: The Committee is planning how to present and have outreach sessions at most major regional events, like WikiArabia, WikiConvention francophone, ESEAP conference and so on.
• Community Consultation & Communication Plan: The Committee is working on a plan for community outreach and consultation on the Movement Charter content. The Movement Strategy and Governance Team is helping produce the plan. The consultation periods will follow the Movement Charter timeline.
• Facilitator hiring: The Committee prepared a “statement of work” to hire a new facilitator to support its meetings and work. The search for a facilitator is ongoing.

August 2022 

Meetings

• Regular Committee meetings: 7th and 21st August
• Communications subcommittee: 3rd, 17th and 31st August
• Values & Principles drafting group: August 31st
• Roles & responsibilities drafting group: 29th August

Completed work

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee explains: what is the purpose of a 'movement charter'?

• Drafting Groups set up: Having finalized the Movement Charter outline, the Committee formed drafting groups to start drafting content. Each MCDC member was asked to up for at least one (full membership is shown in the Drafting Committee page). The Drafting Groups are the following:
  • Preamble
  • Values & Principles
  • Roles & Responsibilities
• Summit deliverables planning: The Committee agreed that each of the three drafting groups will be submitting at least one draft introductory paragraph to be published and discussed at the upcoming Wikimedia Summit.
• Movement Charter video: The Committee and the MSG team created a short video (~8 minutes). The video briefly explains what the Movement Charter is, and introduces the Drafting Committee members. This video was streamed during Wikimania.
• Wikimania sessions: The Committee hosted two sessions at Wikimania to introduce the Movement Charter and answer questions. The sessions are summarized on Meta.
• In-person meeting summary (June 2022): The Committee published a short summary of its in-person meeting in June to openly share the results and outcomes.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Committee facilitation: The search for a facilitator continues. Meanwhile, Committee members are self-facilitating the meetings.
• Timeline: The Committee is in the process of updating its timeline to reflect recent changes.
• Summit survey: The Drafting Committee designed and is currently reviewing a survey to share with affiliates during the Wikimedia Summit, to collect feedback for the Movement Charter content and relevant processes.
• Future in-person meetings: The Committee is planning future in-person meetings further ahead with considerations of venues where visa processing is easier in an attempt to accommodate the numerous difficulties faced by some members.

July 2022 

Meetings

• Regular Committee meetings: 10th and 24th July
• Communications subcommittee: 6th and 20th July

Completed work

• Wikimedia Summit participation planning: Most of the Committee members will participate in the Wikimedia Summit, which will include dedicated sessions for the Movement Charter. The Committee also agreed to meet for two days before the Summit (7-11 September overall). This also includes attending two meetings of the Board of Trustees, to which two MCDC members are invited.
• Finalizing the drafting methodology: The Committee finished developing a rough methodology to use in drafting the Movement Charter, based on which drafting groups can start their work.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Facilitator replacement: Irene, the Committee’s previous facilitator, decided to step down from her role at the end of June 2022. The search for a replacement is ongoing. Committee members are taking turns in facilitating meetings, and also participating in the replacement process.
• Wikimania participation: The Committee is creating an introductory video about the Movement Charter to present at Wikimania.
• The Movement Charter outline: The Committee reached agreement on a rough outline for the content of the Movement Charter.
• Establishing drafting groups: The Committee agreed to start forming drafting groups for three chapters in the Movement Charter. Those chapters will be the following:
  • 1. The Preamble
  • 2. Values & Principles
  • 3. Roles & Responsibilities

Please subscribe to the newsletter to get the monthly summary delivered to your personal talk page!

June 2022

Meetings

• In-person meeting in Berlin: 17-19 June
• Regular Committee meetings: 5th and 26th June
• Values & Preamble subcommittee: 9th June
• Communications subcommittee: 8th June

Completed work

• In-person meeting: The Movement Charter Drafting Committee met for the first time in Berlin in-person, on 17-19 June. A Diff blog post will be published soon with more details about this. The meeting had the following goals and outcomes:
  • Charter outline: There is progress made working on the outline of the Charter. The Committee is still discussing several options for how the outline (which is like a “table of contents”) may be organized.
  • Drafting methodology: There is progress made in agreeing on the methodology to draft the content of the Movement Charter. The methodology will be shared when ready.
  • Drafting subcommittees: The Committee is setting up the subcommittees to focus on drafting different parts of the outline.
• Replacing an MCDC member: Jamie Li-Yun Lin decided to leave the MCDC in May. Starting from June 26th, she has been officially replaced with Daria Cybulska. The replacement was made by the same group of selectors that selected Jamie, in accordance with the MCDC member replacement guidelines.
• Position towards the Hubs Minimum Piloting Criteria: During the in-person meeting, the MCDC discussed the Hubs Minimum Piloting Criteria. The Committee agreed that it does not see itself as a committee responsible for approving Hubs, and will not take this role. Hubs, though, will be defined in the Movement Charter (like other governance structures in the movement).
• Official email address: You can now be in contact with the Movement Charter Drafting Committee using the official email address: movementcharterwikimediaorg

Ongoing work & discussion

• Relationship with the Board: The MCDC decided to permanently invite two Board of Trustees liaisons to all the Committee’s meetings. One exception of this is when specific internal topics are being discussed, like Code of Conduct cases. From their side, the Board of Trustees invited two MCDC members to join their meeting on 23 June.
• Drafting methodology: Following the in-person meeting, the Committee continues to discuss the methodology for drafting the Movement Charter. The document will be publicly shared when completed.
• Finalizing the Movement Charter outline: Following the in-person meeting, the Committee continues to discuss the outline of the Movement Charter (almost like a “table of contents”).
• Establishing drafting subcommittees: Following the in-person meeting, the Committee continues to discuss setting up drafting subcommittees to start working on the content.

Please subscribe to the newsletter to get the monthly summary delivered to your personal talk page!

May 2022

Meetings

• Regular Committee meetings: 8th and 22nd May
• Communications subcommittee: 4th, 11th and 25th May
• Values & Principles: 12th and 30th May.

Completed work

• In-person meeting planning: The Committee members prepared, in collaboration with their facilitator (Irene Laochaisri), a full program for their in-person meeting. The meeting will take place in Berlin, Germany between 17-19 June. The main objective is creating a draft outline of the Movement Charter, and agreeing on a methodology to draft the content of this outline.
• The Committee's newsletter subscription is open. Subscribers will receive monthly updates and announcements about upcoming consultations or public sessions regarding the Movement charter. It can be delivered to your talk page on your project of choice.
• Replacing a resigned member: The group of affiliate selectors decided on replacement for a member who left the Committee. An official announcement will be made soon about the new member.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Wikimedia Summit: The Committee is in touch with Wikimedia Deutschland and is expected to be involved in planning the Wikimedia Summit. The Committee will further discuss this with Wikimedia Deutschland during the Berlin meeting, between 17-19 June.
• Relationship with the Board of Trustees: Until the end of April, as a pilot, two liaisons from the Board were attending 30 minutes during Committee’s meetings once a month. This proved unsatisfactory for both sides. As an alternative, the Committee offered the Board of Trustees one seat on the committee. The Committee perceived that this seat would add diversity in perspectives, and give the Board its desired voice. The Board, however, wishes to keep working through liaisons and not voting members. Discussions on the engagement with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees therefore still continue.
• Staff support: The Committee presented its projected needs for support from staff in the near future. Those needs include support in: Documenting meetings, facilitation, logistical and project management support, communications planning, outreach, translations, and conducting research. The Wikimedia Foundation is reviewing the needs and evaluating if the current support staff can meet them.

April 2022

Meetings

Regular MCDC meetings (more frequent this month due to an experiment with weekly meetings):

• 3 April: 120 minutes.
• 10 April : 90 minutes
• 18 April: 60 minutes. Joined for the first 30 minutes by two Board of Trustees liaisons.
• 24 April: 90 minutes.

Other meetings:

• Communications subcommittee: 13, 22 and 27 April
• Research subcommittee: 15 and 28 April
• Values/preamble subcommittee: 14 April

Completed work

• Code of Conduct: The Committee’s internal code of conduct was finalized and is available on Meta.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Drafting the Movement Charter: The drafting work will partly be prepared and carried out by subcommittees, each focusing on one particular topic. Each subcommittee will draft several outlines or “seed options” and present them to the community for review in the future. The initial topics that the Committee has identified are: Values & Principles (as an introduction), in addition to 1. Governance, 2. Resources and 3. Community.
  • Values & Principles: There is now a subcommittee working on the first topic (Values & Principles). The subcommittee’s work may need to be first informed by the research.
  • Ratification: Committee discussed the need to wait and learn from the results of the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines ratification vote, a model which could be similar to the future ratification vote for the Movement Charter.
• June in-person meeting: The Drafting Committee will meet in Berlin from 17-19 June. The meeting’s agenda will focus on the committee in general, and better defining the Movement Charter’s outline.
• Research & documentation: The Committee is discussing research to help inform or prepare for its work. The scope is being discussed, the following are possible options for it: 1. Survey data collection and analysis (in the Wikimedia movement), 2. Summarizing previous documents about Wikimedia governance, 3. Finding and comparing “Charters” of other non-profit organizations, and/or 4. Consulting and engaging with experts.
• Communications & stakeholder engagement: The communications subcommittee has finalized a strategic communications plan. As a part of this, the subcommittee is now working on a “stakeholder engagement plan”, which defines the desired level of engagement on Movement Charter according to three levels: 1. Informed, 2. Consulted and 3. Extensively engaged.

Here’s an example in Dutch of a recent outreach.

• Email management: The Committee agreed on a process to manage and respond to emails. A public email address will be announced soon.
• Training: Some Committee members are joining a training in “nonviolent communication”. The training is provided by the Brazilian organization Sinergia Comunicativa in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation. Other communications training is being discussed.
• Staff support: The Committee is discussing the possible needs of additional support from staff for subcommittees, especially for the communications and research subcommittees.
• Project management: The Movement Strategy and Governance Team will be providing support to MCDC members in managing and following up on tasks.

March 2022

Meetings

Regular MCDC meetings:

• 6 March: 120 minutes.
• 20 March: 120 minutes (joined for the first 30 minutes by two Board of Trustees liaisons).

Other meetings:

• 17 March: onboarding Irene, the Committee’s new facilitator.
• 20, 21, 29 March: weekly check-in with Irene.
• 9, 16, 23 and 30 March: Communications subcommittee meeting.
• 31 March: Charter categorization subcommittee meeting
• 31 March: Values subcommittee meeting

Completed work

• Onboarding the facilitator: The Committee welcomed Irene from InsightPact, who will be serving as its facilitator. Some members took part in onboarding her and agreeing on how they will work together.
• Communications strategy and plan: The communications subcommittee created, with the Movement Strategy & Governance Team, a communications strategy and plan. The communications strategy will be published on Meta later.
• In-person meeting decision: Berlin was decided to be the preferred location for the Committee’s in-person meetings. New York City is a possible secondary location (only if needed). Wikimedia Germany will be hosting the event, probably from 17-19 June. The event’s agenda is currently being discussed.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Drafting the Movement Charter: The drafting subcommittee agreed on four main themes and topics (“buckets”) of the Movement Charter: “Values & Principles”, “Governance”, “Community” and “Resources”. This takes into consideration previous feedback from the movement, like the June 2021 Global Conversations. The board liaisons also provided feedback about the themes, stating that the “Values & Principles” are an essential foundation for all other “buckets”.
• Email address: The Committee is planning to announce an official email address, through which anyone can send questions and feedback. The communications subcommittee is working on the final details considering flow, response time, and responsibilities of those involved, and plans to bring these back to the full MCDC in the April meeting for a final decision.
• Working with the WMF Board of Trustees: The planned 12 weeks of experimental collaboration with the Board of Trustees are nearly coming to an end. The Committee and the Board will be discussing if the current set up is productive, in which they meet together for 30 minutes once every four weeks.
• MCDC Code of Conduct: The Committee is currently considering a draft version for an internal Code of Conduct. There was an extended discussion regarding articles about the suspension of inactive members and other sanctions. A newer or final draft may be shared in April.
• Progress Review + Committee Check-in: The committee members assessed themselves and their collective progress. There was agreement that a lot of time is being spent on doing preparatory work, so the committee is not working at a fast pace as committee members would want. Cumulatively, though, the committee believes that the thorough review and discussions at this stage are important, and will be helpful in countering challenges in the drafting stage.

February 2022

Meetings

Regular MCDC meetings:

• 6 February: 120 minutes.
• 20 February: 120 minutes (joined for the last 30 minutes by two Board of Trustees liaisons).

Communications subcommittee meetings:

• 1 February: 60 minutes
• 9 February: 60 minutes
• 16 February: 60 minutes
• 18 February: 30 minutes
• 23 February: 60 minutes

Completed work

• Contracting a professional facilitator: Several MCDC members joined interviews to select a professional to support the group meetings. The group decided to choose InsightPact, based on reasons including:
  • 1. Their capacity to flex and iterate in their facilitation method,
  • 2. Demonstrating willingness to take in feedback from all Committee members,
  • 3. The prior experience of their designated facilitator, Irene, with the Wikimedia Global Conversations.
• Publishing the internal decision-making: After finalizing it earlier, the Committee published a detailed decision-making document.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Drafting the Movement Charter: A group of MCDC members started brainstorming the main themes and topics that they expect to see in the Movement Charter. The results are expected, later on, to identify 3-5 first topics for content.
• Working with the Board of Trustees: After several phases of deliberation, the MCDC and the liaisons of the Board of Trustees agreed that the liaisons will attend some of the regular MCDC meetings. The two Board liaisons will both attend the last 30 minutes in one of each two regular meetings. This format will be tested for a period of three months. Shani and Natalia first joined the Committee’s meeting on 20 February, where they introduced themselves and offered support.
• Communications: The Movement Strategy and Governance Team created and presented a first draft of a communications plan for the Movement Charter process to the communications subcommittee. There seems to have been a mismatch, however, in expectations from both sides, both in terms of the content of the plan and in the available support from the Wikimedia Foundation. This led to a frustrating situation. The subcommittee is now working with the Foundation to seek alternative options for support in communications, and work on a new plan was started.
• In-person meeting: The Committee believes that an in-person meeting may help them achieve progress. Several locations for the meeting were compared according to their COVID-19 restrictions, travel distance/time and the availability of staff support. As a result, the meeting is likely to take place in Berlin in June 2022.

January 2022

Group meetings

• 9 January: 120 minutes.
• 23 January: 120 minutes.

Completed work

• Timeline: The Committee has updated the Movement Charter drafting timeline on Meta.
• Principles: The Committee finalized and published a Principles document to define and guide its work.
• New MCDC page: The MCDC Meta page is now fully-updated with more information about members, ongoing work and recent documents.
• Internal decision-making: The Committee created a document that defines how its internal decisions are made. The document is available on Meta.

Ongoing work & discussion

• Member replacement: Alice Wiegand (user:Lyzzy) stepped down from her role in the Movement Charter Drafting Committee. Because she was an elected member, she was replaced with the next ranking, eligible candidate: Reda Kerbouche (user:Reda Kerbouche). For more details, see the replacement announcement.
• Communications plan: Members of the MCDC “communications subcommittee” are collaborating with the Movement Strategy & Governance team to prepare a plan for communications.
• Communication channels: The Committee is setting up an official mailing address to use in communications.
• Hiring a facilitator: Members of the MCDC are collaborating with the Movement Strategy & Governance team to select a proper facilitator for the group’s meetings. Meanwhile, Committee members continue to self-facilitate.
• Engaging with the Board of Trustees: The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees requested, in December 2021, to have two liaisons attending the MCDC meetings. This request came as a surprise to the MCDC members. The Board’s request has led to proposals for attendance from both sides, but has yet to be concluded.
• Conference participation: There was an invitation to an MCDC member to submit a proposal for the RightsCon Summit. The Committee is taking this as an opportunity to bring the Charter discussion to non-Wikimedia stakeholders with similar interest.
• Charter content: Some members are starting to brainstorm their ideas of the main “outline” and sections that the Movement Charter may include.

December 2021

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) is preparing and planning its upcoming work. The Committee met on 5 and 19 December (each meeting is two hours). The first results of the meetings are expected to be shared soon, please see the summary below.

Ongoing work

The Drafting Committee is working on the following:

• Principles: The Committee is still working on guiding principles to define its work (for example, the Committee’s mandate, the duration of its work, and so on). Those principles are expected to be finalized and published on Meta by the end of January.
• Internal decision-making: In a related topic, the Committee is also defining how to make its internal decisions (for example: when is consensus needed on a decision?).
• Communications: The Committee is putting together a communications plan, to ensure that its work will include proper outreach and dissemination of information. The Committee is collaborating to create this plan with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Movement Strategy & Governance Team, who will provide support in executing it.
• Timeline: The preliminary timeline for the Movement Charter process is being discussed. It will be published as an update to the Movement Charter Meta page in January. This timeline is not expected to be final, since it will need to be flexible with the consultation and ratification periods.

Summary of meetings

Major topics discussed during the Committee meetings:

• Meetings: The MCDC members agreed to meet once every two weeks on Sundays, except for during the holidays break. The next meeting will be on 9 January.
• Facilitation: The MCDC members will be facilitating the meetings themselves until a professional facilitator is hired (a process also overseen by the MCDC, and supported by the Movement Strategy & Governance Team). Professional facilitation is expected to start in February 2022.
• Diversity & expertise: According to the set up process, the Committee has the option to add “up to three additional candidates by consensus”. While there does not seem to be an immediate gap in diversity, the Committee may request expert advice or add “observer” members in the future.
• Board meeting: Members from the Committee met with two members from the Board of Trustees (BoT) for the first time on 22 December 2021. Besides introductions from both sides, the main talking points were about the form of the collaboration between the MCDC and the BoT, and what type of communication/meetings will be happening to shape this collaboration.
• Task management: The Committee is testing Asana, an online software, to assign and manage its tasks. This service will be provided by the Wikimedia Foundation.

November 2021

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) was appointed on 1 November 2021. Since then, the group met twice (on 10 November and 18 November), and started working on several tasks between these two meetings and afterwards. Currently, the Committee is in the process of starting to set up a system to work together, and will continue to meet once every two weeks and to provide updates to the community at least once a month. Below is a summary of the discussions that the group has had so far, and the work items that they are handling.

Ongoing work

The Committee is currently working on the following things:

• The Drafting Committee is in the process of setting up its internal operations and systems, including: Facilitation, communication, workflows, responsibilities and mandate, principles (see below), timeline and others. Due to the holiday’s break between December and January, these various tasks are expected to take until early 2022.
• The Committee is creating the principles that will guide its future work, including how decisions are made, to whom the Committee reports, what is its mandate, and so on. These principles are projected to be finalized and shared after the Committee’s fourth meeting on 19 December.
• The group is creating a list of roles to clarify the expected responsibilities of the Drafting Committee members and the support that they need from the Wikimedia Foundation, or an external facilitator. Overall, the Foundation is expected to provide operational support so that the MCDC members can focus on collecting and drafting content.

Discussion

Topics of discussion from meetings:

• Transparency was a popular request from the community. The Committee members agreed to address it by adopting the Chatham House Rule: “anyone who comes to a meeting is free to use information from the discussion, but is not allowed to reveal who made any particular comment”.
• There needs to be a balance between this transparency and the amount of information shared from the MCDC meetings. The main updates will be shared once per month until the Committee is ready to start collecting community feedback and input, hopefully in early 2022.
• The “power” and/or mandate of the MCDC should be clarified: both to the Committee and to the movement. A suggestion was made to use a DARCI matrix to define the committee’s exact role. Regarding who the MCDC “reports to”, there was some support for reporting “to the movement”.
• Ratification of the Movement Charter draft(s) is an open question. Some of the suggestions were:
  • 1. Presenting a complete draft to the community with the possibility of approval or rejection,
  • 2. Iterative process where the community reviews separate parts of the Movement Charter draft at predefined “milestones”.
• Before drafting, it is expected that the group needs to agree on the main topics or outline of the Movement Charter. Since brainstorming topics with 15 people takes a lot of time, it was suggested that members can brainstorm in smaller “sub-groups” and reconvene later to agree (much like the Global Conversations).
• The timeline of the MCDC work is initially expected to take anywhere from 12 to 18 months. Creating a more detailed timeline for this period is one of the Committee’s next steps and responsibilities.