ESEAP Strategy Summit 2025/Report/CopperAlchemy

Profile

I am Dianne Skelton, the Executive Advisor for Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand (WANZ). I was the only representative from New Zealand as our two other scholarship recipients were unfortunately unable to attend.

Things learned at the strategy summit

I learned many things at this strategy summit. It is important to reconnect with familiar faces to keep building relationships and to make new connections across our ESEAP region. Fantastic work is being done with innovative solutions by many affiliates in our region. I am inspired by the actions and ideas of affiliates who are growing the amount of young people in the movement and I will be reaching out to learn more.

Advocating at local and central government level is becoming increasingly important when there are legislative changes that could impact on our work. We need contacts and relationships with likeminded people and organisations and we need the relevant skills in advocacy on our committee or within our membership to be able to influence change.

Participation

This was a really useful summit for me to attend in terms of building connections and relationships and learning about the struggles and successes of other affiliates in our region. I was also able to connect with foundation representatives, board of trustee members and key people in the ESEAP region. I was also able to connect with Jacqueline Chen, our Programme Manager, which was great.

There would ideally be more than one New Zealand representative next time, as it was impossible for me to be across all sessions. I attended all the sessions I could but I was spread thin at times and unable to be involved in all sessions.

I loved the cultural excursions to the museums, and going out to dinner locally and exploring Intramurros in Manila, followed by a dinner at a fantastic venue.

Plans after the strategy summit

There is much to do!

What are our talking points to engage with organisations and people as potential partners and collaborators? What does our government care about, for example increasing the tourist dollar with well written Wikipedia pages and associated photos.

How do we get more people interested in joining our committee? What are the selling points of being on our committee? How do we make it a thoroughly enjoyable experience for our volunteers? What changes do we need to make?

WANZ will need to have a conversation about removing barriers to membership - this is seen as important to growth across the region. If people are interested in the wikiverse the view is to let them join, and assign someone to mentor them and train them in their wikis of interest.

Training new editors and organisers is an area of development for us. We currently make use of Australia’s training sessions and materials which is fantastic. This is something that we can begin to develop ourselves in a way that connects with our people in New Zealand.

We will need to apply a more strategic approach to who we should be supporting to attend Wikimedia events, and thid should be handled by the committee in a timely way.

Comments and Suggestions

I really appreciate the support of ESEAP and the scholarship I received. I also appreciate the support of my Committee/Board and I feel my attendance will be beneficial to our organisation. I appreciate the Australian team for including me in their communications and making me feel welcome in their group.