Wikimedia South Africa/Board Meeting/17 May 2022

Two WMZA meetings were held on 17 May 2022. The first (19:00-20:00), held once every two weeks, was the operational meeting to discuss day-to-day chapter activies and how to execute them. The second was the Board Meeting (20:00-21:00), held once every two months, to discuss and decide big chapter dicisions.

WMZA operational Meeting 17 May 2022

Attendees

• Deon Steyn
• Micahel Graaf
• Douglas Scott
• Hlezi Motha
• Nobantu Modise
• Bobby Shabangu
• Nazeem Hardy
• Coenraad Loubser
• Sincerity Lawrence

Absent

• Khetiwe Marais
• Shupai

Khoe and Xan Launch

• Douglas gives an update on the second event to be held in Retreat on Saturday 21 May 2022. Andre' must still give us an exact location for the event but has promisted to provide a venue with computer access for taining of participants and to get Khoe and Xan Language activists to join the Wikipedia training.

Website upgrade

• Bobby proposes that the chapter upgrade the chapter website. This has recieved support on the board members email list. The website is outdated, old and hard to navigate and update. Bobby is setting up meetings with other chapters (Australia and Germany) to get their feedback. So far the feedback has been that they run their own websites, all have similar costs.
• Douglas has proposed using a Google Workspaces for NGOs, it will give us free access to workspace google tools as well as sort out our email problems whilst giving us personlised emails. We need to double to check to make sure that the NGO option is permamently free and has no hidden costs.
• Douglas proposes Squarespace or Wix as apposed to a WordPress
• Coenraad's points:
  • • Purpose of our website is
      • Practical go-to point for Southern African - and other communities
      • Professional contact point for partners
    • Themes - some other chapters might already have created a theme we can use. Wodpress has easy to use templates and site builders available nowadays. Mediawiki might be themable but a bit more technical.
    • Mediawiki or Wordpress and some others can be self hosted - or hosted by WMF.
• Bobby has reached out to Swiss, German and Swedish chapters regarding website. Will copy Douglas, Coenraad and Maqueen in comms.

Kiwix for SA schools project

WMZA is currently in talks with the South African presidency about setting up Kiwix at three pilot project schools. The Presidency has requested the Rasberry Pi Kiwix option (wifi out of one unit for the whole school) as apposed to a classroom level Kiwix units.

• Coenraad explains some of the costs and challenges of settig up the Rasberry Pi Kiwix units.
• Bobby suggests that he,Coenraad and Douglas continue this discussion further offline.

Meeting ajourned at 20:02; Wikimedia ZA board meeting begins.

Board meeting

Wikimedia South Africa board meeting for 17 May 2020 begins at 20:03

Attendees

• Deon Steyn
• Micahel Graaf
• Douglas Scott
• Hlezi Motha
• Bobby Shabangu
• Nazeem Hardy
• Coenraad Loubser
• Sincerity Lawrence
• Tshepiso
• Stella Ng (WMF)

Universal Code of Conduct and Friendly Space

Stella presents on the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) and global community's friendly space policy for the whole movement (Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC)) at the request of the chapter. Explenation of how the Universal Code of Conduct came about why it is important; how it developed; what does harassment look like and how to deal with it (training). Coenraad requests to followup with Stella about this in the future to learn more.

Deon asks if the UCoC covers or deals with Wikipedia vandalism and if there are any mechanisims in it to help Afrikaans Wikipedia deal with vandals more effectively. Stella suggests that this might be better handled by Trust and Safety Opperation, Stella suggests that a followup meeting be held with them to help deal with this issue.

Friendly Space policy: exists to help prevent or deal with both online and offline harrassment. Defines what harrassment is and how to deal with it. What is the "reasonable person's" standard of harrassment is, this includes power dynamics. Friendly spcae only appiles to events, UCoC covers both events and all other issues.

Question: how do we navigate the grey area of what is harrasment? Answer: "Behaviour can be considered harassment if it is beyond what a reasonable person would be expected to tolerate in a global, intercultural environment. "(https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct#3_%E2%80%93_Unacceptable_behaviour)

Next board meeting

• get metics to present at 12 July meeting
• Next board meeting at 20:00 on Tuesday 12 July 2022.