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North American Wikimedians/Governance pilot 2025-26

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North American Wikimedians have had many discussions about governance and sought to include all regional wiki community organizations in the discussion, as well as any unaffiliated individuals who asked to participate. Briefly, the plan is to pilot an initial, temporary governance system for one year. Because we are unsure how effective it will be, we plan to evaluate it before the next year, with potential to completely rewrite and change it based on its fit for our needs. The initial steering committee includes 10 seats, one each for Wikimedia DC, Wikimedia NYC, Wikimedians of Los Angeles User Group, North Carolina Wikipedians User Group, Wikimedians of Colorado User Group, Wikimedians of Chicago User Group, Wikimedia Canada, AfroCROWD, Cascadia Wikimedians, and MediaWiki Stakeholders' Group.

Initial planning

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For the first year of operations of the North American Hub, the steering committee will consist of one representative from every WMF-recognized affiliate having joined the hub; presently listed in our founding documents https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:North_American_Wikimedians/Hub_founding. Other affiliates can join if the steering committee accepts them; the principle is to accept Wikimedia affiliates or closely related groups that offer useful services to North American Wikimedia organizers.

The initial steering committee (for the first year) will thus have 10 seats, mostly from geographically-defined WMF affiliates. At this moment those 10 are Wikimedia DC, Wikimedia NYC, Wikimedians of Los Angeles User Group, North Carolina Wikipedians User Group, Wikimedians of Colorado User Group, Wikimedians of Chicago User Group, Wikimedia Canada, AfroCROWD, Cascadia Wikimedians, and MediaWiki Stakeholders' Group. Groups participating in the hub will choose their representative for any meeting or vote; if they do not visibly select a representative for a meeting, the steering committee will welcome a self-selected one assuming good faith.

The steering committee will decide on its schedules of meeting and which ones if any are public. A quorum will consist of 7 members in good standing. Decisions will be made on a consensus or majority vote (two thirds of committee members present). The agenda for the meeting is decided in the previous meeting, with all steering committee members able to add discussion items during the month if necessary. All votes are announced at least 2 weeks in advance.

We anticipate that the steering committee will designate officers, such as Chair and Secretary, and perhaps also an administrative executive (Wiki administrative executive). The steering committee shall convey to the fiscal sponsor who can authorize payments. The steering committee shall determine who shall speak for and represent the Hub if an individual is needed for a particular purpose. Other officer roles (such as safety, technical coordinator, etc) may be defined by the steering committee.

All steering committee and grant committee members must disclose conflict of interests to their committees at the beginning of their term and as such conflicts arise. Conflict of interests include: Participation in projects or groups requesting funding: in case of conflicts, the committee member will not participate in discussions about the grant, and recuse from voting on it.;

Steering committee members may use their Wiki handle as identification. Their legal names will be verified by the Wikimedia Foundation where necessary (e.g., grants funding).

Meetings are not recorded. Meeting notes will be taken by the secretary. AI notetakers may be used if all participants to the meeting agree. Meeting notes may include different levels of confidentiality, as decided by the steering committee. For instance, notes regarding ongoing safety issues are not public.

Interpretation in different languages will be available on demand.

The steering committee will define the governance structure of the hub going forward. We have discussed the following issues to be resolved:

  • Enabling the participation of Wikimedians who are not affiliated with a geographic affiliate or group;
  • Coordinating with the broader open knowledge and open software community;
  • Representing thematic groups;
  • Representing contributors in minority languages.

We envision that the steering committee going forward will partly be elected at the Wiki North America Conference.

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