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North American Wikimedians/Hub founding/Background materials

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MainTalkAgreement draft textBackground materialsWhat we expect afterward

Background facts and sources to be aware of as we think about the shape of cooperation among North American Wikimedia organizations:

  • The WikiConference North America has been a success for 10 years
  • WMF has encouraged regional or thematic "hubs" to form, combining combine the efforts of small user groups.
  • WikiDC wrote a movement strategy report (May 2024) recommending starting a North American hub (NAhub) made up of its WMF affiliates.
    • This recommendation was based on interviews with North American Wikimedians, discussions at WikiConference North America 2023, Wikimania 2023, and the Movement Summit in 2024 and with Wikimedia organizers of chapters and hubs in other regions.
    • It was found that North American Wikimedians are well aligned on the purpose and mission and there is trust among them partly because of the conference.
    • In the research we spoke with organizers of other geographic Wikimedia organizations:
    • CEE hub – the leading Hub effort, with staff of 2 and many chapters and user groups in the Central and Eastern European area – 30+ languages
    • ESEAP – East Asian & Pacific Hub, planned – 40 languages
    • EARTH - East Africa Regional & Thematic Hub, planned – 6-11 countries
    • WMUK – a large, organized chapter with staff of 16
    • WMEU - the Wikimedia partner / lobbyist for European Union
  • A normal pattern is that hubs form from the groups that have conferences together. We can do that too.
  • Generally these are more formal/structured than what the report propose to do for North America (NA). E.g. they have a board and/or elections or the hub itself gets grants.
  • The NAhub doesn't need to be a formal nonprofit, or hold a bank account, or (we think) have structured elections/bylaws/governance, for now.
  • We proposed to invite all US, Mexico, Canada, and Caribbean Wikimedia affiliates, and thematic orgs offering events or services to NA also. (Thematic, e.g.: WikiEdu, LGBT+, Enterprise MediaWiki, WikiMed, Wikisource) If we get, say, 8, from multiple countries, we can get started. Nobody pays money either way.
  • The affiliates who join may then hold events "sponsored by" or "on behalf of" the hub, and apply for grants promising that.
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