Talk:Wikimedia LGBT+/Archive 9

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LGBT+ User Group ASBS Election Discussion & Voting - May 29, 2019

The LGBT+ User Group ASBS Election Discussion & Voting meeting will be at 1:30pm EDT on Wednesday, May 29. This meeting will be an opportunity for our User Group to discuss the candidates for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees and determine our vote for them. Our votes will be cast by @RachelWex. The Zoom link for this is here. All User Group members are invited to attend to discuss and cast your vote. --- FULBERT (talk) 11:49, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

As a reminder to all members of the LGBT+ User Group, today at 1:30pm EDT @RachelWex will be online to discuss who we as a group should vote for in the ASBS Board Elections. All are welcome. The Zoom link for this is here --- FULBERT (talk) 13:03, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Our input to the Wikimedia Strategy

Hey everyone,

as a User Group, we can give feedback to the ongoing Strategy process, which will determine the direction that our movement will take until 2030. There are several working groups working a lot of different aspects of such a strategy. We can review what they have done so far, which they have summarized in their scoping documents, and give additional input from a LGBT+ perspective.

Some working groups and questions that could be especially interesting for us could be:

  • Diversity
    • Can we establish that every community must have a code of conduct which provides for inclusion of diversity? How does a commitment to diversity also manifest itself in the governance structures of our movement’s organizations, in our public relations, and social media representation?
    • How do we transform our culture and collaborating spaces, including (but not limited to) articles, general discussions, talk pages, and Commons to support diverse representation of contributors and writers, as well as our definitions of reliable sources and neutrality, to build a safe environment where everyone (minorities/unrepresented/underrepresented/mainstream groups and cultures) is included and can see their knowledge represented and talk openly about themselves?
  • Community Health
    • What are the social and technical challenges within the current administrative and decision-making systems that hinder the creation and maintenance of community health?
    • How can structures create, support and reinforce universally acceptable behavior across our communities?
  • Capacity Building
    • How do we make capacity building inclusive and equitable?

Please feel free to write to me or to comment here what you think about these or any other questions in the scoping documents, so I can forward our collective feedback to the appropriate working groups.

It is important for us to make our voices heard, so that we can develop into a movement that values LGBT+ content, contributors and target communities. Let me know if you have any questions. --Shikeishu (talk) 15:37, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

  • I support Wikimedia LGBT+ being involved with the Diversity and Community Health Groups. We have a Zoom meeting in June and I would like to put this discussion item on our agenda for what is currently being done in these groups and how we can be involved. RachelWex (talk) 17:13, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

Wiki Loves Pride 2019

I just saw that Wiki Loves Pride 2019 information and tracking appear to be available. I just requested that the dates be extended to a longer period, such as all of 2019. Please list events and tag and upload as possible! --- FULBERT (talk) 23:12, 14 April 2019 (UTC)

Wiki Loves Pride 2019 runs during the month of June. Be sure to add any new or improved LGBT-related articles to the results page.

Happy editing! -Another Believer (talk) 21:29, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

Thanks

Greetings Wikimedia LGBT+,

My name is Gerald Shields, also known as user:Geraldshields11. I am asking for your top rank vote for me in the election for one of two open trustee positions on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.

I am asking for your vote to help support emerging communities and promote an inclusive education environment on all wiki projects. Also, I plan to promote various other issues as I mention in my statement and answers to various questions. I ask that you show your support for the issues that need to be address by voting for me as one of your preferences.

My candidacy information page is Affiliate-selected Board seats/2019/Nominations/Gerald Shields on Meta or can be found at Gerald Shields candidate. I have responded to the “Questions for all candidates - Questions for this individual candidate that do not apply to other candidates”. My answers give more details on why your affiliate should vote for me.

Thank you for your time, discussion, and consideration of my candidacy. I appreciate it.

My best regards,

Gerald Shields

Geraldshields11 (talk) 02:49, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for your organization's vote during the 2019 trustee election. With your organization's, Igbo's, and AfroCrowd's votes, I was able to score better than expected. Geraldshields11 (talk) 20:55, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

LGBT+ User Group Meeting - July 8, 2019

Let's keep the momentum going with our user group meetings and select a day and time of the July online call via this Doodle poll. This poll will close on Friday, June 21, at 12:00pm EDT.

Information from our June 2019 meeting may be found here. All are welcome. --- FULBERT (talk) 14:28, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

The July 2019 LGBT+ User Group meeting will be on Monday, July 8, at 10:00am EDT / 4:00pm CEST. Please add agenda items and sign up here - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT_User_Group_July_2019. All are welcome. --- FULBERT (talk) 15:08, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Pinging a few who may be interested Bluerasberry Pharos Freddy2001 Shikeishu Josiefraser LornaMCampbell Metrophil Ladsgroup Dungodung Bojan Cvetanović Kawayashu RachelWex Lastchapter Kaizenify Funcrunch Kristina_Millona --- FULBERT (talk) 15:21, 23 June 2019 (UTC)
Not sure I will be able to attend the meeting, but I hope the nasty responses to the Wiki Loves Pride campaign are addressed. I'd rather not discuss this on wiki but could do so on the mailing list if there's interest. Funcrunch (talk) 16:30, 23 June 2019 (UTC)
I'm used to this. Every year, on social media, on project talk pages, sometimes my email inbox... -Another Believer (talk) 20:16, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Facebook links?

Are the Facebook links in the template at the top of the page supposed to be crossed out? -Another Believer (talk) 21:04, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

I crossed them out intentionally since (according to User:Josiefraser) nobody seems to have access to those accounts and the latest posting dates back to 2015 or similar. –Simon04 (talk) 21:16, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
Well, I have access (but I don't post regularly), and there are posts as recent as October 2018. -Another Believer (talk) 02:03, 19 June 2019 (UTC)
I fixed the Twitter username so it matches the actual account and renamed and removed the cross-out of the FB User Group. I am not sure who is the admin of the FB page (perhaps User:RachelWex?) as I could not locate it, so left that one crossed out. --- FULBERT (talk) 23:19, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
I'm able to post to the Facebook page, but I'm not sure who else has the same rights, or who is the lead "admin" if that's a thing. I was given access years ago, but don't post often. -Another Believer (talk) 20:18, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Introducing Wikimedia Space: A platform for movement news and organizations

Hi Wikimedia LGBT+/Archive 9,
I’m writing to let you know that the Community Engagement department [1]at the Wikimedia Foundation is launching a new platform, Wikimedia Space. Here, you will find stories for and by contributors to the Wikimedia movement, and a space for discussions of different topics.

We know that finding information about Wikimedia activities and processes is very complicated, which makes the learning curve to enter our movement and be successful afterwards, really steep. By centralizing community stories and conversations in one shared space, we believe we are facilitating access and discoverability of topics across the movement, improving, in turn, connections among Wikimedians.

As an affiliated organization to the Wikimedia Foundation, we hope that you can share this platform with your local community, and we count on you to encourage them to add their voices. If you’d like to contribute stories, and overall, participate in the discussion section, please read our blogging guidelines and our code of conduct and join the conversation. Find more information about the project on its page on Meta.

Looking forward to seeing you at Wikimedia Space,
María Cruz, Communications and Outreach Manager, Wikimedia Foundation.
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:53, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

References

Wikimedia community needs you!

Did you know that Wikimedia projects don't protect against LGBT discrimination or hate speech? It could however! I just worked with a few others to create a proposal for this, which could become enwiki policy and hopefully, later on, a rule community-wide.

The first step is mostly done – creating the proposal. What's needed is some positive, friendly, approachable messages – for the RfC, for spreading on WikiProjects and other venues, and a user-friendly FAQ for it. Then we just have to get the momentum moving toward implementation.

As well, any feedback you all could give would be immensely helpful at this stage!

This issue is important - as a starting base, this New York Times article shows why. Incidents like the Signpost Humor article controversy show the necessity for the policy, while Fram's WMF ban shows the necessity for transparent, community-developed processes rather than relying on WMF judgement.

If you have any questions or are happy to help, please email me!

Thank you! (talk) 15:03, 8 July 2019 (UTC) -- Hello (talk)! How would you like us to give feedback on the proposed policy? Do you want it on the Talk page, directly sent to you, or how? Let me know--thanks! RachelWex (talk) 15:47, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Hi RachelWex - whichever method you'd prefer/feel is most appropriate. My thinking - if you have private/sensitive concerns obviously email or Skype is best, but any other ideas/comments are best on the proposal talk page. Thanks! (talk) 16:06, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Page deletions

@Simon04: Can you please share why you've nominated several of this project's pages for deletion? -Another Believer (talk) 01:11, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

@Another Believer: Hi! Sure: At the Wikipedia for Peace/Europride Vienna 2019, User:Josiefraser and me went through the pages on the Wikimedia LGBT+/Portal and identified several outdated/legacy/obsolete content. This makes the navigation to and the findability of the up-to-date and relevant content hard. I've given the rationale for the deletion of the individual pages on Special:Diff/19154284. Thanks! –Simon04 (talk) 08:27, 15 June 2019 (UTC)
I wonder if rather than delete these outdated pages, a better course of action will be to help make them current? --- FULBERT (talk) 17:29, 15 June 2019 (UTC)
I would for the moment prefer them being deleted as well, as long as no one one updates them. There was so much content from 2012 there, which was confusing and distracting new users from relevant content. We added the monthly meetup and newer projects now on several places in the remaining pages. --Shikeishu (talk) 07:27, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

The deletion log is at Meta:Requests_for_deletion#Wikimedia_LGBT+. I also am generally in favor of deletion for this content which is out of date. Like Fulbert, I wish we could update it but starting from basics and developing from there might be more reasonable. Some things need to be moved around. It is challenging to negotiate multi-page moves and deletions on Wikimedia projects but somehow we have to coordinate this. Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:16, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

LGBT+ User Group Meeting - August 5, 2019

Want to attend the August LGBT+ live meeting? If so, please complete the Doodle poll so we can select days and times when you can make it - https://doodle.com/poll/k2xkwbvd9ynrdvqe
The poll closes on Friday, July 19, but the earlier you add your days and times, the better! --- FULBERT (talk) 12:57, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

The August LGBT+ User Group meeting will be on Monday, August 5, at 1:00pm EDT / 6:00pm BST. All members of our user group are welcome to attend and add agenda items. More information for this may be found on the Wikimedia LGBT User Group August 2019 page. As this will be the last live meeting before Wikimania (for those who may be able to attend that), please join us for ongoing planning and reporting out. --- FULBERT (talk) 22:30, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Low-tech access

A few notes that might be a useful tip to point to for later conferences...

As we discovered in the Zoom meeting, though it may be possible to get working on old laptops, the system performance may degrade when processing a multi-party conference. Running from an 8 year old laptop with Ubuntu, using a fairly respectable i7 processor with plenty of memory, audio was not comprehensible for other parties on the call, and it gradually slowed down to be unusable. A couple of learning points:

  • Zoom allows you can have more than one "name" using the same account in the same conference. So if you get a mobile phone working using the free zoom App (Google Play), you can still have your old laptop logged in with audio and video switched off, just to view the text, or to write text comments.
  • If video is the big obstacle, or just not necessary, folks can dial in and audio conference using local numbers as listed at https://minnstate.zoom.us/zoomconference. This could be especially handy for someone with limited WiFi, or without a fairly modern smartphone.
  • An old laptop may still be workable, especially for one to one meetings, but it may be necessary to close down all background processes.
  • Zoom may be better optimized for Windows or Apple MacOS, it may be worth swapping operating systems if you have that option.

-- (talk) 16:42, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

LGBT+ User Group Meeting - September 9

Want to attend the September LGBT+ live online meeting? If so, please complete the Doodle poll so we can select days and times when you can make it - https://doodle.com/poll/abaf4m2yd4ubaamk
This poll will close on Wednesday, August 21, at 12:00pm noon EDT.
--- FULBERT (talk) 02:24, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

The next online user group meeting will be on Monday, September 9, at 12:00pm EDT. Please add your name if you believe you can attend and add any agenda items - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT_User_Group_September_2019. Ping me directly if you would prefer for a calendar appointment and I will send you one directly. We have lots to report out on and discuss! --- FULBERT (talk) 01:32, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Wikimedia LGBT+ Conference

Hi everyone, Since last April, during the Education+conference, we started unformal discussions with some of the WMF stuff about the idea of organizing a dedicated conference focusing on LGBT+ topics and communities within the Wikimedia Movement. The conference's grant team is very supportive of the idea and is encouraging us to apply for a grant, as such event is alligned with the foundation's strategy for 2030.

Last month, and during Wikipedia For Peace editaton in Vienna, some of the User group members met and raised the idea again. Many of us are excited about it and willing to join the organizing team. Also, 2 affiliates have shown official support to host it: Wikimedia Austria and Wikimedia Serbia.

After some discussions with the 2 chapters, we ended up with Wikimedia Austria as the most suitable affiliate to co-host the first edition, as Wikimedia Serbia has a full agenda for 2020.

So at this stage of the brainstorming and research, we want to hear from all of you regarding these points:

  • What do you think of the conference's idea?
  • Do you see a need for it? And if yes, what is it?
  • How do you see the conference's structure?
  • What kind of content would you want to be showcased in it?
  • Will you consider joining whether in the OC or as a participant?
  • What will be the best time of the year to have it?

Also, this is a call to see if there are any other affiliates apart of Wikimedia Austria and Serbia who are interested in co-hosting it with us?

We basically have to alternatives for now: Either hosting in the first half of 2020, which means we have to apply for the grant by the 9th of September, or in the second half of the year, time when most of WikiLovePride local events will happen, but we'll have more time to work on the grant application.

Final point: This will be also discussed during the meet-up in Wikimania, if anyone is interested in joining.

Thank you so much everyone.

Love from Tunis.Kawayashu (talk) 21:00, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

This idea of a Wikimedia LGBT+ Conference has happened during the monthly User Group calls (such as the one in August), the LGBT Mailing List, and the LGBT Telegram Group. It was discussed at the August user group meeting that there was general agreement to this idea and we should bring it here to Meta for formal User Group feedback and discussion.
I personally think this a great idea, am willing to assist (i.e., what is the Problem that exists of our not having one and what Opportunities exist for us to gather together intentionally for this that would not happen otherwise?). If we can somehow arrange for some funding, I would attend. --- FULBERT (talk) 03:10, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for writing up the details.
Thinking a little strategically:
  • It makes life easier that due to grant deadlines we have one firm offer of a host on the table. This means we do not have to spend weeks or months having a form of "beauty contest" as the first stage of our process. Hurrah!
  • Given there is only a few weeks before grant application, it would make sense to immediately start drafting the application. There's nothing to beat "filling in the forms" to work out what we do not have, or if the deadlines and resourcing are realistic. If the event to be funded were pitched as a fairly limited and focused event with the expectation of holding workshops on immediate issues for the LGBT+ Wikimedia community and the WM-LGBT+ user group itself, that would help everyone understand why an event in a few months time is possible to arrange and could have some firm outcomes.
  • In terms of limiting the event, it would also make sense if the concept of this first conference were to aim for modest numbers of attendees (40 people?). We might suggest that Chapters and the WMF consider sending or supporting staff and volunteers who are currently active in LGBT+ related policies, events and content and can directly contribute to the limited specified outcomes, rather than in order to either have representation or to educate by attending. At the same time we can make it clear that one of the outcomes from this first event is to assemble the team to work on a wider and larger second conference, which can be designed to address the needs of a far larger group of stakeholders.
  • Based on the Zoom get together yesterday, outcomes that may be a priority are:
  1. Adding case history and substance to a central Wikimedia diversity policy, and proposing strategies for managing local consensus and necessary variation to local project needs, such as native language and local community identified diversity issues and issues raised by free speech.
  2. Developing our LGBT+ community communication and support strategies. We have several dedicated 'channels', but a limited community that manages and contributes to both on-project and off-project methods of community support.
  3. Developing the WM-LGBT+ user group. We remain an adhocracy, which has good and bad aspects. As a user group we are very unusual in deliberately being established in a way that does not list its members and aims to avoid a hierarchy with its associated natural politics, i.e. no board members, no money, no employees. Being an adhocracy does not mean that we cannot support, promote and find volunteers for specific managed and timely projects, and partner with organizations that have money and employees, but it is a challenging concept!
  4. Fostering partner relationships and projects with communities with common goals. We may wish to identify how well partner groups like Wikiproject Medicine and the Women in Red project already work with LGBT+ stakeholders, and how the LGBT+ community would like these relationships to deliver on joint expectations.
  5. Celebrating and logging our achievements. A conference is a key way of recognizing past LGBT+ projects, and for those behind those projects to help the rest of the community understand the challenges and learning points that come from them.
I'm happy to contribute with proposal reviews, and pending getting funding would be delighted to help out with the conference itself from logistics on the day to joining workshops or presentations. Looking at the proposed hosting in Linz, booking well in advance could keep costs for travel around 200 euros for me coming from London (unfortunately by flying, train looks exhausting). To estimate the overall costs for everyone will need our Linz hosts to think through some figures, and they might also be able to give a fair guesstimate of what travel expenses might look like depending on numbers of prospective attendees and their likely geographic spread, something that might be helped shape up if WM-LGBT+ asks everyone to put in brief personal expressions of interest on a sign up page. Later we can consider how much of that funding comes from a 'central' WMF grant, and how much will be covered by other affiliates, either way it should be roughly estimated. -- (talk) 13:16, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
  • Seems like a good idea. There are some administrative barriers which would be easier to overcome with an in-person meeting. I recommend also having scheduled online meetings to include people who cannot travel to the site but who want to be part of this early discussion. Even a single one-hour online meetup during the event could bring in more insight. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:07, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
I think a zoom is going to be scheduled for those (like me) who won't attend Wikimania and want to join the UG'x meet-up. The conference's idea will be discussed during this meeting actually.--Kawayashu (talk) 19:32, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Hi all - we (WMAT) were asked by some group members to give an official statement here, why we think Linz is an appropriate venue for the event and adress some practical issues, such as visa and travel. We are happy to do that, but please let me state first, that our "bid" was first and foremost an offer to help and support (similar to our support for the first ever Wikisource conference in 2015) - we have no problems at all with other groups or affiliates hosting the event, in case the group thinks it would be more suitable for what ever reason :-)
  • Accessability: Linz is easily accessible via train as it is in the heart of Europe and Austria has an exceptionally good train system. Linz also has its own airport. However, on medium and long-haul flights you reach Linz via plane to Vienna Airport and direct train connection: Trains are deporting every half hour from Vienna Airport. After about 1h and 40min you get off the train at the main station in Linz and are already in the city center, this is not much longer than the commute from the airport to the city in some big cities like NY or London. We suggest a venue directly next to the train stration, so traveling should be comfortable. Even if we decide to take a venue a bit further, the distances will be short.
  • Visa With enough time ahead, most visa shouldn't be a problem, if we don't plan enough time in advance tough it will be tricky. In 2015 we supported the first Wikisource Conference in Vienna and had a visa success rate of 100%. For the Hackathon in 2017, we had some issues with African countries which do not have an Austrian embassy, which makes it harder to intervene or have influence on the process. However, we believe that a "hacking" event raises more red flags for embassy staffers who don't really know what it means, than an inclusive event like a LGBT+ conference - so hopefully we will have it easier this time. In a nutshell: We can't guarantee visa for all - unfortunately, the situation in Europe has not improved in the last years - but we have enough experience from previous events to work through many challenges if necessary.
  • Safety and LGBT-friendliness: Austria is on 4th place in the worldwide lgbt-friendly ranking in 2019 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay-friendly
Hope that helps! --CDG (WMAT staff) (talk) 20:53, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Dear Claudia and WMAT. Thank you for this offer. In my humble opinion, Linz is a good option. In addition to the good transport you can also think in terms of geographic diversity. Not everything should happen in the capital city.--Jetam2 (talk) 21:22, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for this offer CDG (WMAT staff). This seems like an exciting opportunity, and I hope there will be more discussion about it both here and at Wikimania later this week. --- FULBERT (talk) 02:26, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

Updates

So after a meet up during Wikimania, present members approved the choice of Linz in Austria as a venue for the conference. We are working now on the grant proposal to apply by the 9th of September. We are aiming to get a grant that can bring around 40-50 participants for 3 days.

For now, we need to agree on an approximative date for the conference (at least the month). So any suggestions?--Kawayashu (talk) 12:11, 17 August 2019 (UTC)

Kawayashu, how about the second or third weekend of May, 2020? --- FULBERT (talk) 01:33, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
According to Fae, that might coincide with the bank holidays. That's why we think the 21st to 24th of May will be a more suitable date.--Kawayashu (talk) 22:03, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
Happy to assist with Program work on this, and let me know if you need any assistance with the proposal. --- FULBERT (talk) 01:34, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
Thank you so much for the help FULBERT. We will share the first proposal draft by this sunday so that you can give us your feedback/suggestions. And definitely for the program. Let's just wait for few more days to see if there is anyone else interested in participating in the program setting as well.--Kawayashu (talk) 22:03, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Photo campaign from magazine and medical society

See

One of the models has a tattoo which reads "gay bar", which I take to be a positive show of LGBT+ cultural inclusion. I would like to find a standard way to document good projects like this which while they are not LGBT+ focused, they still advance the mission of this group. Blue Rasberry (talk) 11:12, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

Queering Wikipedia

Please contribute to Grants:Conference/Kawayashu/Queering Wikipedia and the corresponding talk page. Thanks! -Another Believer (talk) 22:41, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

LGBT-free zone and LGBT rights in Poland constant revisions

Hi LGBT+ Wikipedia community,

I've created my Wikipedia account only recently, but I've been working on some Wikia projects in the past. I've been reading Wikipedia for years. I'm an Gay person from Poland, and I've decided to participate in editing LGBT rights in Polan and LGBT-free zone topics. I've noticed that there are some users in both of them, that are seemingly affiliated with groups that are activly participating in that hate, or for instance are from the US and are having ties with antiLGBT groups which they mention on their own user pages. These users are activly editing those topics, removing crucial information, undermining notibility of sources, etc. I can't be sure about their agenda, and we're supposdly should believe in their good intentions, however I can hardly believe that they try to "keep wikipedia clean and reliable" but rather blur the image of what is really happening in Poland. You may view Talk pages for those topics, especially the LGBT rights one and see for yourself. If you could participate in the in the discussions there, I guess that could help a lot. Jackgrimm1504 (talk) 21:07, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Editathon in the UK on 21 September

Hi folks, just a quick note to say that Wikimedia UK are working with Bolton Library and Museum Services to run an editathon in Bolton on 21 September. There are more details about the event here. Everyone is welcome, and there will be a training element for new editors. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 15:53, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed.

At Wikimedia LGBT User Group October 2019 we decided to move forward with this given the support. We will revisit the logo in the queering conference. Amir (talk) 18:34, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

suggested logo

Hello, I replicated work of one my colleagues to build the new Wikimedia LGBT+ logo, the logo of user affiliates should be logo of the movement and not the logo of metawiki. What do you think of this logo? Amir (talk) 23:55, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

I like this mock-up and how it is more consistent with the look and feel of Wikimedia_movement_affiliatesother affiliates, though with a much more vibrant coloration. --- FULBERT (talk) 00:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
Support Support John Samuel 08:58, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
I think the colors need to go in the other direction? (Red to purple?) Also, we need to squeeze the trans colors, brown, and black stripes in there as well...RachelWex (talk) 16:29, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
I think while the bright colours are lovely it's unfortunately too distracting for some neurodiverse people. It 'flashes'. The old logo is more sedate but lets everyone look at other things on the same page. --Josiefraser (talk) 19:27, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
Thank you Amir for the logo. I personally prefer the current logo. I am not a big fan of the "flashing" colours.--Kawayashu (talk) 21:08, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
I will work on the colors. Amir (talk) 23:41, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Hm. I do like that it fits better with the other logos and has a clearer wiki message but also agree with some of the concerns people raised: too colourful but at the same time also in need to include the other colours. THank you for taking time to do this though.--Jetam2 (talk) 21:16, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

@FULBERT, Jsamwrites, RachelWex, Josiefraser, and Kawayashu:: Do the new colors look good to you? I got it from the WMDE design. Amir (talk) 23:53, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Support Support I like it! FULBERT (talk) 00:05, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Support Support I prefer this one. And it looks more professional also. --Kawayashu (talk) 00:43, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Oppose Oppose I don't like the gradient. It is hard to print (especially in B/W) and seperated rainbow colors could be identified without full color range. -- Freddy2001 talk 08:56, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Neutral Neutral It is really nice logo but it will be hard to print (if you don't have a professional printer) and we need to think about back and white logo. WikiLester (talk) 09:08, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
For print and specially black and white, you can just use the plain Wikimedia logo + LGBT+ text but for online, I don't see any reason not to use gradient. 10:40, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
Support Support Until someone comes up with something better. Kaldari (talk) 09:11, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
Support Support Nattes à chat (talk) 18:10, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

A vote might be more useful if a few alternatives were being voted on as the most liked. Per Freddy2001, I would prefer blended colours to be avoided and more recognizably a Pride style rainbow, and though it is a design challenge, it would be great to ensure that the popular trans pride colours and black pride colours are integrated. Don't ask me how exactly, but it's a good design goal! -- (talk) 13:35, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

LGBT+ User Group Meeting - October

The poll for the LGBT+ User Group Meeting in October, 2019, is now open. Please vote for our next day and time for us to meet: https://doodle.com/poll/g3rnwm7y7ids8kpi
This poll will close on Sunday, September 22, at 12:00pm noon EDT. --- FULBERT (talk) 22:53, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

The LGBT+ User Group Meeting (October, 2019) will be on Monday, October 7, at 1:00pm EDT / 17:00 UTC. More information, including the Zoom link, is available here. Please add your agenda items and follow that page for any changes and updates. --- FULBERT (talk) 18:03, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Hi all, here you can find updates about the queering Wikipedia conference. --Kawayashu (talk) 21:09, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

LGBTIQ events on the francophone wikipedia (past)

Hi having attended the monthly LGBT+ user group I was asked to post examples of reports of LGBTIQ events on the francophone side:

  1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Les_sans_pagEs/ConcoursContinuum2018 online contest with the Equal Opportunity office of the University of Geneva from end of 2018 to january 2019
  2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Les_sans_pagEs/Ateliers_Lestime monthly Geneva in 2018
  3. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet%3AReset - Paris 2018
  4. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Mémoires_Minoritairestwo series of events in 2017 and 2018: in Lyon
  5. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipédia:Hierstorysa erie of editathons held from may to october 2015 in Paris

There was also a wide variety of topics covered during the francophone wiki convention 2019 in Bruxelles. I have added some of them on Telegram, and hope we can have active voices representing LGBTIQ francophone voices (also including african francophone countries)

  1. WikiConvention francophone/2019/Programme/Les transidentités, qu'est-ce que c'est et quels problèmes dans les wikis ?
  2. WikiConvention francophone/2019/Programme/Les enjeux de la représentation sur Wikipedia, l'exemple des communautés LGBT
  3. WikiConvention francophone/2019/Programme/Write for the Rights: Pour une Wikipedia plus inclusive et accessible

Nattes à chat (talk) 18:20, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

This is great documentation! Thanks for sharing non-English language LGBT+ program results. I hope that we can start collecting more reports like this to show international engagement and so that everyone can get inspiration and learn things from the way that other regions do their programs. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:26, 7 October 2019 (UTC)
Thanks @Bluerasberry:! Nattes à chat (talk) 01:07, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

LGBT+ User Group Meeting - November 19, 11:00am EST

The poll for the LGBT+ User Group Meeting (via webinar) in November, 2019, is now open. Please vote for our next day and time for us to meet: https://doodle.com/poll/xpu2ay5dwxq6zpbi
This poll will close on Monday, October 28, at 12:00pm noon EDT. --- FULBERT (talk) 15:56, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

The November, 2019 LGBT+ User Group meeting will be on Tuesday, November 19, at 11:00am EST. See your local time here. The live meeting will be via Zoom webinar https://zoom.us/j/170580743. Please download and install the Zoom player on a computer or mobile device for the best experience. The meeting agenda and page where we are tracking this is here. Please share this information with any in your network who you think will want to attend. --- FULBERT (talk) 20:25, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

Queering Wikipedia Conference

Hi all,

I am happy to share with you the meta page for our Queering Wikipedia conference. For now, I am using the UG's logo until we make one for the conference. I didn't add basically any content (just did the template). Looking for your ideas and feedback (especially regarding the logo @Ladsgroup:.--Kawayashu (talk) 18:23, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Thanks!Nattes à chat (talk) 18:36, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Current status October 2019

Per Wikimedia movement affiliates/Affiliates Status Report, we are currently out of compliance. -Another Believer (talk) 23:05, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

What does it mean we are out of compliance Another Believer, and what steps do we need to take to become compliant? --- FULBERT (talk) 15:54, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
@FULBERT: Good question, and one I don't know how to answer immediately. I thought this was just resolved ahead of the Wikimedia Conference, but maybe that's longer ago than I realize. Likely some report links need to be updated at Reports#Wikimedia_User_Groups, but I'll have to take another look when I have more time... -Another Believer (talk) 18:54, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
I will reach out to AffCom about this Another Believer and ping here once I learn more. --- FULBERT (talk) 18:12, 24 October 2019 (UTC)
I contacted AffCom about this, and they emailed me today and stated we are out of compliance for 2018-2019 as our UG "report for activities conducted between August 2018 and August 2019 became due at the end of September 2019" and was not submitted. I believe you are currently the AffCom rep for this Another Believer so you should have received an email notice about needing to be done. It seems to me we have two things to do -- we need to get this report complete and submitted, and we should explore transitioning the AffCom responsibilities for reporting to others in the UG so we can spread around this work a bit and ensure it and its related communication gets done so we remain current. This issue has come up in the monthly UG calls, and in this regard I volunteer to take on this role and complete the reporting that it requires to ensure we remain compliant with AffCom requirements. Thoughts? --- FULBERT (talk) 20:26, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
  • I wish that we could request to receive AffCom communication in the usual wiki way, which would be public and on our talk page. If they must email then to the mailing list would be my second choice. For a third choice it would be to any individual who in turn would post to this talk page or to the mailing list. I see no particular need for privacy around administrative requests from the WMF. For now - yes I support FULBERT being contact. As to sorting the administrative labor to do this - we need to discuss either here on the board and also in the monthly meeting. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:31, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
This is the first I heard that RachelWex is one of the reps, but good to know and pinging her here about this as well. I have not worked on this level of reporting, so no better time to learn about it than the present. Please email or link me to anything you have that you think would be helpful for getting this reporting current Another Believer, and please contact AffCom with my information so they can make sure I get these Asks in the future. I will then work on this and post it here for input and feedback prior to final submitting, per Blue Rasberry (talk)'s suggestion. --- FULBERT (talk) 20:54, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
@FULBERT: RachelWex replaced Dorothy Howard as a rep back in August. If you'll send me your email address, I'll send an email to you and User:DNdubane (WMF). -Another Believer (talk) 21:00, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
Just sent it to you Another Believer. Thanks. --- FULBERT (talk) 21:06, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
Yup, received, and I've also sent an email to Dumisani, you, and Rachel. -Another Believer (talk) 21:08, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

It may be an idea to review Wikimedia LGBT+/2018 and Wikimedia LGBT+/2017 and maybe simplify the annual report of activities to a very simple date based index of links to other reports rather than transclusions or the reports themselves. As mentioned in the last zoom meeting, this should be considered open to everyone to add UG related events in multiple languages, such as when UG participants are organising LGBT+ related editathons and content drives. In this way, the Affcom reporting requirements would be a natural consequence of keeping track of our events, meetings and conferences rather than special bureaucratic effort. BTW, I didn't get any emails from Affcom either; it would be nice to confirm who they have listed to write to. -- (talk) 20:39, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

I agree with you about having this here or on some related page and linked here so the reporting is not enormous at once, but part of our ongoing tracking. When I inquired, AffCom stated that they have Another Believer and you as contacts. I will also ensure this gets cleaned up and updated with both AffCom and more present here on the UG page for transparency. --- FULBERT (talk) 20:59, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
Lol, shouldn't be this confusing re: group reps. We'll get this settled with User:DNdubane (WMF) as soon as possible. -Another Believer (talk)
It a good learning point, we should probably be a bit "fresher" about who's who on Wikimedia LGBT+/Participants, not just (legal) "representatives" and "advisers" as we have several other roles around like our comms/social media points of contact (twitter, facebook, telegram...), our active contacts for different languages, the preferred points regular contact for Affcom/WMF, the 2020 conference proposal contacts, and so on. Folks drift off on to other stuff (like new jobs and other interests!) and so we ought to make a point of emailing nominated contacts at least once a year and asking if they are still able to keep those commitments. When you've been around for a few years, it's easy to forget how confusing the Wikimedia pseudo-legal ecosystem can be. -- (talk) 21:15, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
Agreed. Shall we update Wikimedia LGBT+/Participants be removing "advisors", and updating "representatives" with AffCom and social media reps? For the record, I almost never post, but I have the ability to post on the Wikimedia LGBT Facebook page. I think we should list both current and former reps, so once we get reps updated, we should update the date ranges for me, Fae, and Hexatekin. -Another Believer (talk) 21:22, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
Sounds good. I'm more of a technical backup for the Twitter account with Rachel running it and Lane having access and we can add folks as needed, coordinated via a Google doc. We should probably have something like that to coordinate each of the 'official' comms channels if they don't exist, though in the cases of Telegram and IRC it's sort of redundant as we have multiple admins with authority to do anything needed, so as the 'creator' of those channels I do not have any special tools but could be seen as a contact if there are problems. For the email list Amir is the moderator, I think they are the only one with that access.
Let's try updating, and check with folks via email where we are not sure. -- (talk) 21:36, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Report

The above discussion has evolved into one about group contacts. Shall we focus on the actual report here? If we're being consistent with previous report pages, we might go with Wikimedia LGBT+/2018 and/or Wikimedia LGBT+/2019, but if we want to be date specific based on reporting requirements, we might go with Wikimedia LGBT+/August 2018 – August 2019. -Another Believer (talk) 21:11, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

The simplicity of Wikimedia LGBT+/2019 would be nice, and links in that format to our backlog of annual reports might be useful to then add somewhere more visible in our portal pages. We may need to harmonize the old pagenames. -- (talk) 21:18, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Representatives

Trying to separate the discussion above into separate ones for Reporting and Reps. Let's discuss Representatives and possible changes to Wikimedia LGBT+/Participants here. I've already posted some thoughts at Talk:Wikimedia LGBT+/Participants. -Another Believer (talk) 21:40, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

AffCom/User Group

If I recall correctly, User:Fæ, User:Hexatekin (Dorothy Howard), and I were the initial user group reps. I'm not sure when Fæ fell off, but later only 2 reps were allowed. User:RachelWex replaced User:Hexatin in August 2019. Anything else to note here? -Another Believer (talk) 21:46, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

If an email discussion that confirmed we are limited to 2 reps that's fine, but puts more pressure on finding a better way to have elections as there's less flexibility to swap roles around. -- (talk) 22:22, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
We shelved the idea of elections for the time being at the past two monthly meetings in September and October. As the issue of reporting and overdue reports has arisen, I offered to take on that work (above) and be one our AffCom contacts, which Another Believer sent to AffCom yesterday. I will confirm once that gets adjusted on their end. I will be starting the report write-up based on the conversations we are having here, and will create a page to gather more information and input from our community. As part of this, I believe we need to create a process to either elect (which we have never done) or pass on (which we are now starting to do here) this responsibility. Since these decisions take time to adjust, they may be a good issue to bring up at the November meeting to discuss. --- FULBERT (talk) 20:55, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

Mailing list

Amir is the moderator for the LGBT email list. -- (talk) 22:14, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

It's not just me, Luara is the main moderator. Amir (talk) 19:36, 31 October 2019 (UTC)
Can you link the username for the other Mailing list moderator, Amir? --- FULBERT (talk) 20:50, 31 October 2019 (UTC)
I'm not sure if she's fine with that. Her email address is at the bottom of the page though: [1] Amir (talk) 00:16, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Facebook

I'm able to post content to the Wikimedia LGBT Facebook page, but rarely do so. Who else? -Another Believer (talk) 21:44, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Are you an effective admin for the page? There was a past discussion and I think nobody else understood how access worked. -- (talk) 22:10, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
I guess? I was given access to the page years ago, I think by User:Varnent? I've never known who else had access to posting/admin. -Another Believer (talk) 22:15, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
I am not sure, but I think there is a tool that can make us synchronize Facebook and Twitter posts (Twitter posts will be automatically shared on Facebook as well and vice versa). Maybe we can check that?--Kawayashu (talk) 20:42, 29 October 2019 (UTC)
Previously, you could use services like HootSuite to post on Facebook and other social media platforms (i.e. Twitter) at once. Regrettably, Facebook disabled this feature. I'm pretty familiar with FaceBook pages and could potentially help with this if needed.TJMSmith (talk) 02:00, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

IRC

The #wikimedia-lgbtconnect list is normally very quiet, but has been used to support events in the past. There are about 10 people with ops privileges and about 10 hang out in the channel. Probably worth listing faelig (me), varnent and guillom as contacts for any problems, or if someone wants to ensure a friendly op is around to support an editathon or other event. Though Telegram is far more popular with our community, it does need to be linked to a mobile number. IRC remains a key way that vandal fighters and project admins coordinate alerts. Consequently it's easier there to arrange live private chats with global stewards and other trusted users if a LGBT+ contributor is having problems with harassment or want to privately talk through other issues like anonymity and being allowed to edit through a VPN. -- (talk) 22:56, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Telegram

Fae is the creator, and all participants are admins. Special dedicated temporary groups have been created for past events, which is a good thing as general microcoordination of physical events tends to put off folks who are not actually there. -- (talk) 22:14, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Twitter

Fair the say the reps for Twitter are Fæ, Lane, and Rachel? Others? -Another Believer (talk) 21:44, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

We have had a guest poster, but that's it. -- (talk) 22:10, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

I have access to the Twitter account, but I don't think I can be its representative as I am not always using it. Yet, I want to suggest to have maybe 3 or 4 admins for the different languages. In fact, I rememebr User:RachelWex told me that according to statistics, most of the followers on Twitter are from North America, and far less from other continent. I assume this is because of the language barrier mostly (I am sure of it for at least the francophonic community), so maybe having an admin for each language can help making our communication more accessible and inclusive?--Kawayashu (talk) 20:42, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

Wikimedia Summit (formerly known as Wikimedia Conference)

I think we should post a list of reps at major conference as well. I rep'd the group at Wikimedia Conference 2015 and Wikimedia Conference 2016. -Another Believer (talk) 21:50, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Non-English contacts

Perhaps we could formalize a couple of folks to be handy points of contact for our LGBT+ communities in French, Spanish, or other languages, and may want to more often share updates about LGBT+ related events, or is that something handled another way? -- (talk) 23:18, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

The francophone project has an LGBTIQ portal and the project les sans pagEs (LSP) is explicitely tackling "gender issues". LGBTIQ people are pretty much present in LSP. We have a telegram group, a twitter account, a face book page, a wordpress website. Some of us are in the LGBTIQ telegram group. Nattes à chat (talk) 15:31, 29 October 2019 (UTC)
@Nattes à chat:: I think we should have someone as a "french contact", because not necessarly everyone in the francophonic community is aware of LessanspagEs, and surely not all of them are aware of all what the LGBT+ User Group is doing because of the language barrier.
By the way, I volunteer to be the "arabic contact".--Kawayashu (talk) 20:42, 29 October 2019 (UTC)
I can be the contact for Persian language. Amir (talk) 19:36, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

As we seem to have a couple people step up here, we may want to also consider how best to coordinate across languages and cultures. In other words, what would we hope a non-English contact could do or how make things known or available? I am not asking this to prescribe, but rather to explore how we can maximize our resources and awareness. --- FULBERT (talk) 11:26, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

Introducing Wikimedia Diary: A memory book (notebook) for all

Wikimedia Diary
Hello Wikimedia LGBT+/Archive 9, I wanna share you about Wikimedia Diary, a public memory book (notebook) in which Wikimedians from all over the world are free to write any worth noting event/activities/experiences by them or community in this Wiki world. It is a more casual place to write about what one is up to.

As we all know, a diary is a book in which diarist keeps a daily record of events and experiences. Likewise, the basic idea of Wikimedia Diary is that we do many activities here in wiki world which we are proud of, but unfortunately it became only the history anytime. So, It is meant to record those activities on the happened date with a signature (~~~~) which is worth noting, and letting fellow Wikimedians know about what inspirational you've did. It would motivate users from all around the world to keep on cool activities and publish a note. I hope you share your activities with all of us on the page, and please let your friends know about Wikimedia Diary. Also, your feedback is welcome on the discussion page. Thank you!
Kind regards,
Tulsi Bhagat, Initiator of Wikimedia Diary, Wikimedia movement communications group.
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:09, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

2018 and 2019 Annual Reports

I updated and submitted the 2018 and 2019 annual reports as required by AffCom. This should bring us again back into compliance with reporting. I will ping us here when this is all updated on there end.

Please take a look at the reports and add / edit anything that needs to be updated or included. Pinging Another Believer RachelWex Amir Kawayashu Bluerasberry Pharos for areas you all may know more about than I do when I combined these. --- FULBERT (talk) 19:07, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Thanks you so much for doing this. Should we log the LGBT+ meetings in Wikimanias as well? Also the monthly meetings we had (just a link to the minutes) Amir (talk) 21:47, 12 November 2019 (UTC)
FULBERT. Sorry I forgot to ping you Amir (talk) 21:48, 12 November 2019 (UTC)
I think that is a good idea Amir. Want to add it directly or, if easier, give me a link to them and I will add? I think we want to be as complete with these things as possible, and that is why I pinged Another Believer RachelWex Kawayashu Bluerasberry Pharos in this as well as I think they all may know of or have more information to add so we can show, as much as possible, how much the User Group and its members are really doing. --- FULBERT (talk) 11:24, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

@FULBERT: Thank you for preparing this report! Would it be beneficial to add a mention of the LGBTQ+ lunch meetup that took place at WCNA [2]? Minutes are avalible on the etherpad. TJMSmith (talk) 02:16, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

As an aside, always remember to move the etherpads' contents to a wiki page once the etherpad stops being actively edited. Etherpad is not searchable and it might vanish any time (it already did several times). Nemo 08:10, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
Good points TJMSmith and Nemo, thanks. Will do today. --- FULBERT (talk) 11:22, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
I added a mention of the meetup from WikiConference North America to the 2019 report and also moved the meeting minutes out of etherpad and onto the conference page itself. --- FULBERT (talk) 20:16, 16 November 2019 (UTC)
Thank you for working on these. I think they are fine.
So long as most people will be able to find the reporting location (navbar?) then it will be easier for anyone to add a very short abstract of any user group related event. The requirement for these reports is just that they exist and are reasonable, there is no penalty for finding out that a few things were missed, or that any specific event was not recorded as well as some might like. So I suggest that an aim of doing little more than "sufficing" is a useful approach that should never require anyone to feel exhausted or nervous about knocking these out. -- (talk) 18:22, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

I sent a follow-up to AffCom and the WMF representative about our compliance status. We need a Green Check Mark of completion before we can begin discussing representation at the 2020 Wikimedia Summit. --- FULBERT (talk) 20:03, 16 November 2019 (UTC)

I received notification from the Wikimedia Foundation that our Annual Report for 2018-2019 has been accepted, so we are now current. With that, we are now eligible to select and register a representative by December 16 to send to the 2020 Wikimedia Summit to represent us related to the next steps with the Wikimedia Strategy. I am asking Bluerasberry to lead us in this election process as has been done in previous years, as we discussed in the November LGBT+ User Group Meeting. --- FULBERT (talk) 11:15, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

@FULBERT: I posted below and emailed to the LGBT+ mailing list. Blue Rasberry (talk) 23:41, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

LGBT+ User Group Meeting - December 19, 12:00pm EST

Select a date for the December, 2019, LGBT+ User Group Meeting
The month is flying by, so time to pause and schedule our LGBT+ User Group meeting (live via Zoom).
This poll will close on Thursday, December 12, at the end of the day. Please add as many days and times you can possibly make, as our attendee numbers have been increasing and we want to be as inclusive as possible.
https://doodle.com/poll/gpr7zhta8fbgf88n
Thank you. --- FULBERT (talk) 19:02, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
As a reminder, we have until the end of today to vote so we can schedule our user group meeting for next week. Feel free to review the dates and times that have already been selected if you are able to expand your options. --- FULBERT (talk) 11:52, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

The December LGBT+ User Group meeting will be on Thursday, December 19, at 12:00 noon EST via Zoom https://zoom.us/j/672631944. Please add agenda items and sign up as a planned attendee if you wish on the meeting page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT_User_Group_December_2019. Contact me directly if you want me to also send you a calendar appointment via email. We have lots to discuss in what may be one of our most active years ever, now going into 2020! --- FULBERT (talk) 02:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Queering Wikipedia 2020 scholarship applications are open

Queering Wikipedia/Scholarships

Please go to the above page for basic information about the scholarships and for a link to the application form. Scholarships applications close on 18th January, so stick a reminder in your diary so you don't end up forgetting in the Christmas rush. -- (talk) 11:21, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Wikimedia Movement Strategy: 2020 Community Conversations

Dear Wikimedians,

Greetings! Wishing you a very happy new year!

We have an update for the next steps of the Movement Strategy! We're preparing for a final round of community conversations with Wikimedia affiliates and online communities around a synthesized set of draft recommendations to start around late/mid January. In the meantime, recommendations’ writers and strategy team has been working on integrating community ideas and feedback into these recommendations. Thank you, for all of your contributions!

What's New?

The recommendations writers have been working to consolidate the 89 recommendations produced by the working groups. They met in Berlin a few weeks back for an in-person session to produce a synthesized recommendations document which will be shared for public comment around late/mid January. A number of common areas for change were reflected in the recommendations, and the writers assessed and clustered them around these areas. The goal was to outline the overall direction of the change and present one set that is clearly understood, implementable and demonstrates the reasoning behind each.

What's Next?

We will be reaching out to you to help engage your affiliate in discussing this new synthesized version. Your input in helping us refine and advance key ideas will be invaluable, and we are looking forward to engaging with you for a period of thirty days from late/mid January. Our final consultation round is to give communities a chance to "review and discuss" the draft recommendations, highlighting areas of support and concern as well as indicating how your community would be affected.

Please share ideas on how you would like to meet and discuss the final draft recommendations when they are released near Mid January whether through your strategy salons, joining us at global and regional events, joining online conversations, or sending in notes from affiliate discussions. We couldn't do this without you, and hope that you will enjoy seeing your input reflected in the next draft and final recommendations. This will be an opportunity for the movement to review and respond to the recommendations before they are finalized.

If possible, we'd love if you could feature a discussion of the draft recommendations at the next in-person meeting of your affiliate, ideally between the last week of January and the first week of February. If not, please let us know how we can help support you with online conversations and discussing how the draft recommendations fit with the ideas shared at your strategy salon (when applicable).

The input communities have shared so far has been carefully documented, analyzed, and folded into the synthesized draft recommendations. Communities will be able to see footnotes referencing community ideas. What they share again in January/February will be given the same care, seriousness, and transparency.

This final round of community feedback will be presented to the Board of Trustees alongside the final recommendations that will be shared at the Wikimedia Summit.

Warmly -- User:RSharma (WMF) 15:58, 4 January 2020 (UTC)