Affiliations Committee/News/Issue 6

Welcome to the sixth issue of the AffCom News! The newsletter distributes relevant news and events about the work of Wikimedia's Affiliations Committee. This issue covers April–June 2025 (Q4 FY24-25).

The AffCom News is delivered quarterly to all Wikimedia Affiliates and individual subscribers. You may leave comments or ideas for future newsletter on the talk page. You can also help us by translating the newsletter into your language(s). Subscribe to the newsletter by adding your talk page to this list.

If you have an interesting story about what your Affiliate has been doing, feel free to reach out to us at affcom@wikimedia.org.

Affiliate Recognition and Derecognition

AffCom is responsible for overseeing the recognition and derecognition process for Wikimedia movement affiliates (Chapters, Thematic Organizations, and User Groups).

This section lists the new Wikimedia Affiliates that were recognized in the past quarter:

Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand: (recognized & announced April–June 2025)
Assamese Wikimedia Community User Group: (approved by June 30, 2025)

The following section lists the Wikimedia Affiliates that were derecognized in the past quarter:

Recognition Status Report

The following applications are in the review process. Their status can be tracked on Meta-wiki review process:

Affiliate Activities and Compliance Report

As of July 11, 2025, 188 Wikimedia affiliates are recognised and active:

39 are Wikimedia Chapters
2 are Thematic Organizations
147 are User Groups.

Affiliates in good standing: 97%.

The current compliance level of all Wikimedia User Groups: 97%.

The current compliance level of all Wikimedia Chapters: 100%.

The current compliance level of all Wikimedia Thematic Organizations: 100%.

Compared to January-March (Q3 FY24-25), in Q3, the level of compliance for ThOrgs (100%) remains unchanged, while there is an increase in overall compliance for the User Groups (from 88%) and Chapters (from 97%).

See the detailed quarterly compliance archive for April-June 2025 (Q4 2024-25) on Meta-wiki.

Here are the activity reports from Wikimedia Affiliates published within the past quarter:

Chapters

User Groups

AffCom Conflict Intervention

AffCom is currently addressing four ongoing affiliate conflict cases, with no new reports received in the last quarter. These cases involve a mix of affiliate-to-affiliate tensions, internal governance challenges, and disputes related to member engagement. In several situations, differing expectations around collaboration and governance practices have contributed to the issues. The committee is reviewing the submitted documentation to determine appropriate next steps and assess what forms of support may be needed.

AffCom Administrative Updates

Officers Elections

In this quarter, AffCom held its regular officers elections. The officer positions up for election were chair, vice-chair, and secretary. The incumbent AffCom advisors served as members of the internal elections committee.

The following AffCom members were elected to fill the officers' positions for a one-year term:

Chair: Jeffrey Keefer (FULBERT)
Vice-Chair: Suyash Dwivedi (Suyash.dwivedi)
Secretary: Mari Avetisyan (Մարի Ավետիսյան)

AffCom Movement Contribution

This year’s edition of ESEAP Strategy Summit, the biannual meeting of ESEAP Hub for regional governance and strategic matters, was held in Manila, the Philippines between 23-25 May 2025. The summit was hosted in collaboration between four Philippines-based Wikimedia groups, including the Pilipinas Panorama Community and led by the Wiki Advocates Philippines User Group, in coordination with the ESEAP Preparatory Council.

AffCom’s Suyash Dwivedi, Agus Damanik, and Johnny Alegre presented a session about the Affiliate Health Criteria, supported by Ramzy Muliawan of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Upcoming AffCom Events

In July-September (Q1 2025-26), AffCom will be participating in the following events:

Wikimania 2025, the 20th edition of Wikimania will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 6 to 9 August 2025. This year, the Affiliations Committee (AffCom) will have full participation in the conference, holding a session “The future role of affiliates within the Wikimedia movement: How Can AffCom help?” on August 9, at 15:45. AffCom will be happy to hold conversations with Affiliates and answer any questions regarding the affiliate system and share its experience and expertise.