NARWHAL/May 2026

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NARWHAL across Wiki North America!

A NARWHAL meeting is planned for May 11, 2026 at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific.

• Zoom link, hosted by WMNY
• NARWHAL = North American Regional Wiki Hub and Lab - It's an informal coalition of North America Wikimedians, mostly organizers, including Mexico, Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean. It's analogous to WALRUS for the U.S.
• Temporary etherpad notes for this meeting, to be copied to the Talk page here as we prepare for Wikimedia's etherpads to be wiped clean for maintenance.

Agenda

1. Introductions & updates
2. WikiConference North America (WCNA) 2026 news (Chelsea & others)
   1. The call for proposals is open until 2026-05-15; the conference starts on 09-24 in Edmonton
      1. This year's program theme is "Building the Future of the Commons".
      2. The Call for Proposals has five tracks: AI & Tech, GLAMU (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Universities), New users and skills development, Underrepresented communities, and Users with extended rights.
3. Other events? SWAN meetings? Wiknics? Editathons? Parties? Meetups? Salons? Please add here to announce or describe them.
   1. May 2026 meetup in Portland, Oregon 2026-05-02, in person & online
   2. Bay Area Hackathon May 2026 (under development) 2026-05-03
   3. Three WikiPortraits photographers will be at the 2026 Seattle International Film Festival (most recent category is at commons:Category:WikiPortraits at 2025 Seattle International Film Festival), 2026-05-07–2026-05-17.
   4. Bay Area Meetup May 2026 (in person) 2026-05-12
   5. WikiClub Canada (virtual) 2026-05-13
   6. Edmonton meetup (in-person) May 31, 2026
   7. Potrero meetup (in-person) June 13, 2026
   8. Mission Valley, San Diego meetup (in-person) July 18, 2026
   9. San Diego wiknic (in-person) August 1, 2026
   10. Chula Vista meetup (in-person) August 2, 2026
   11. Temecula meetup (in-person) September 19, 2026
   12. Calgary meetup (in-person) - June 20, 2026
   13. Queering Wiki 2026, 23-25 October, Montreal
4. Conference submissions
   1. Submissions open
      1. OpenStreetMap Conference (June 11-13, 2026) in Madison, Wisconsin - registration open
   2. Submissions closed
      1. Queering Wiki 2026 call for scholarships closed on April 20, 2026
5. Grants:Programs/Hub Fund/CANCUS (Canada, Caribbean, US) Hub Proposal approved
   1. Job applications
      1. CANCUS Hub Admininistrative Manager (Canada-based)
      2. CANCUS Hub Programs Manager (US-based)
   2. North American Wikimedians/Hub consultation
      1. A better Hub name than "CANCUS"? Nominations and process
      2. Hub Steering Committee process, initial community selection by June 2026
      3. Talk:North American Wikimedians/Hub#May 2026 consultation
6. On-wiki ideas:

Background

• North American Wikimedians/Wikifests
• Previous meeting pages: NARWHAL/Meetups
• These links below go to etherpads, but those will be wiped at the end of May 2026. Chelsea Chiovelli (WMCA) and econterms are moving their contents to the Talk pages of the meetup pages here on meta.

RSVP

• Chelsea Chiovelli (WMCA) (talk) 20:52, 29 April 2026 (UTC)
• econterms (talk) 22:11, 1 May 2026 (UTC)