Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand, or WANZ, is an Incorporated Society and registered charity in New Zealand. As an independent organisation, and chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, WANZ supports members, partner organisations, and the broader community to contribute to Wikimedia projects through events, training and partnerships.

Becoming a member

Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand
Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand
	; New Zealand
Location	New Zealand
Country code	NZ
Approval date	17 December 2019
Chapter elevation date	12 June 2025
Official language(s)	English, Māori
Affiliations	ESEAP
Website	Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand
Facebook	Wikipedia Aotearoa New Zealand

Please refer to our website: Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand. Applicants for membership should have at least some prior experience as an editor or contributor to one or more of the Wikimedia projects: Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource. To apply for membership, please fill in our membership application form. We also recommend people join our FB group where we discuss current issues around Wikimedia projects in relation to Aotearoa and share editing tools and ideas. You're welcome to come along to one of our regular meetups as well.

Entitlements and obligations of being a member

Becoming a member of WANZ shows that you are dedicated to the mission of the global Wikimedia movement and the vision and mission of Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Inc. Benefits of membership are outlined here.

Entitlements: Members of WANZ Inc can

stand for election to the Committee (Board)
vote at the AGM
apply for funding from Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand to support Wikimedia-related projects.

Obligations: Members must pay an annual membership subscription determined at the AGM, currently NZ$5, in order to retain their entitlements as a member. Members can resign their membership at any time. Membership will terminate if the subscription is not paid within a month of the due date.

Our Vision and Mission

We are invested in the vision of the Wikimedia Foundation: Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.

Our kaupapa | mission is:

To empower and engage people to collect and develop educational content under a free licence
To represent Aotearoa New Zealand contributors to Wikimedia projects
To provide funding and training support to our members and the public
To develop and maintain relationships and partnerships with aligned organisations
To demonstrate respect for the diversity of our members, the Aotearoa New Zealand editor community, and the global contributors to content on Wikimedia Foundation projects with specific actions to acknowledge Te Ao Māori, mātauranga Māori and the bicultural nature of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our Strategy 2024–2027

The committee of Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand developed a strategy for 2024-2027 and incorporated feedback from Wikimedia users who are New Zealanders or residents of Pacific islands without an established chapter. The final and accepted strategy can be read using this link.

2026–2030 development

We’re currently in the process of developing our strategic plan for the next 3–5 years, and we welcome input and feedback from the community. Please use the relevant discussion pages on Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Strategy 2026–2030 to add your comments and questions.

Bylaws, Constitution, Incorporation and Committee

In 2022 Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand members created a Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Establishment Working Group, developed our bylaws/constitution, and held a community meeting to approve establishing Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Incorporated ("WANZ Inc") as an Incorporated Society, approve registering the incorporated society as a charitable entity, and elect a committee. That meeting was held on Thursday 17 March 2022. The Incorporated Society was registered on 7 April 2022, and is also now a registered charity. In February 2025, WANZ was re-registered under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 following approval of the updated constitution (PDF 220KB) in December 2024. The constitution sets out our purpose, what we do, and how we operate.

Chapter status

WANZ submitted an Application for Chapter Status to the Wikimedia Foundation in May 2024, endorsed by community members. The application was reviewed by the Affiliations Committee and their resolution recommended that the Board of Trustees recognize Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand as a Wikimedia chapter. In June 2025, WANZ received official recognition as a Wikimedia chapter.

Board/Committee

As at 1 July 2025, the committee (that we now commonly refer to as our Board, for consistency with other Chapters) consists of:

President Einebillion (Victoria Leachman)
Vice-President Pakoire
Treasurer Marshelec
Secretary David Nind
Board member Schwede66
Board member Cloventt
Board member LilyPadFrog

From April to October 2025, the President was on leave, and the Vice-President took on their duties. The President has now returned to her role.

Board meeting notes will be summarised in our newsletter monthly from July 2025. The contact person for the Board is: secretary[at]wikimedia.nz or dianne[at]wikimedia.nz

Staff

In September 2023 WANZ hired its first part-time staff member, Dianne Skelton, as an Executive Advisor. Email: dianne[at]wikimedia.nz

In October 2024 WANZ hired its second part-time staff member, Sophie Sparrow, as a Marketing and Communications Coordinator. Email:sophie[at]wikimedia.nz

Our Funding

Wikimedia Foundation General Support Fund

Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand has been granted general support funding for our affiliate for the multiyear period July 2023 to June 2026. Here is useful information from Wikimedia Foundation on funding:

Information on how affiliates request Multi-Year Funding applications and FAQs

Our Budget and Activities

The funding request to WMF for the 2025/26 year was submitted by 14 March. This plan included feedback and suggestions we received from the community about proposed projects and priorities for the 2025/26 financial year. We received funding in mid July.

Other documentation that the committee created to help with this application includes

Year 3 Operational Calendar

Activity: Providing grants to support programmes and activities

As a registered charity, WANZ gives grants that assist people to engage with the Wikimedia movement, build capability and expand content. We seek expressions of interest for funding of Wikimedia-related projects. Here are some examples we could consider:

Conference attendance: If you wish to speak at or attend a conference to promote the Wikiverse and editing, we could consider providing a travel, accommodation, and registration grant to support you.
Travel grants: If you have a project that you wish to undertake, but this would involve significant travel expenses, we could consider making a travel grant to support you in undertaking the project.
Hosting an event: If you are interested in hosting an event to support the enhancement of content on Wikimedia platforms, or recruiting and supporting new contributors, we could consider making a grant towards associated expenses including venue hire, catering, and travel expenses.
Large scale data, image or document management: If you have an idea for large scale data, image or document management involving manipulation, import and enriching of large volumes of content in Wikimedia platforms, and where no other sources of funding are available, we could consider making a grant towards costs.
Wikimedian-in-residence: If you propose to dedicate a substantial amount of time to engaging with an organisation (eg a national or regional cultural organisation), to improve coverage in Wikimedia platforms and recruit other contributors, we could consider making a grant by way of compensation. For this category, we expect that you will be able to demonstrate significant capability and experience across multiple Wikimedia platforms and prior experience as a communicator and facilitator.

If you are considering submitting a grant application we recommend contacting Dianne in the first instance, at info[at]wikimedia.nz. She can provide help and assistance in shaping your application for the best chance of success.

Note: as a general principle, we would not directly fund compensation/ time involved in creating / enhancing content in Wikimedia platforms. The Wikimedian-in-residence concept outlined above is an outreach initiative that is intended to increase engagement with institutions and recruit more contributors. It will include creation of content, but this comes about as a direct part of the outreach and engagement.

Register of grants made by WANZ

A table of grants made by WANZ up to April 2025 is available

Activity: Annual National WikiConference

The 2026 WikiCon will be held in central Wellington on 1, 2, 3 May 2026, in a venue close to the waterfront. More information to come.

Activity: Wikipedian at Large

Each year we fund a 6-12 month Wikipedian at Large, with the term starting 1 March at the latest. This role is a variant of the Wikipedian in Residence, and was first run in 2018-2019.

The Wikipedian at Large role is a roving advocate for Wikimedia platforms and content projects for groups and organisations around a region or even the whole country - a helping hand with outreach and development and supported by WANZ. Like a Wikipedian in Residence, they can work inside an institution to share content, train staff, and run outreach events.

The role moves quickly, doing shorter projects than a traditional Wikipedian in Residence, with the flexibility to involve different groups in different ways.

About the Wikipedian at Large

Activity: Wikimedian in Residence

This year we are funding a 12 month Wikimedian in Residence position. This grant was awarded to Auckland War Memorial Museum. This role will continue the museum's successful engagement with Wiki projects and will mentor the students selected for the 2024/25 Summer Students programme as well as focussing on community engagement and, seeking collaboration with other GLAM organisations in the Auckland.^[1] More information on how this project is developing is on the Auckland Museum GLAM project page.

Reporting back to Wikimedia Foundation

WANZ was accepted as a User Group affiliate to Wikimedia Foundation effective from 17 December 2019 and we were required to provide affiliate reporting. However, our affiliate reporting cycle is now aligned to the fiscal year of July-June to align it with the affiliate funding cycle. We are no longer required to complete affiliate reporting as we are reporting on progress via the General Support Funding Grant reporting cycle.

Grant Reporting

The reporting back to Wikimedia Foundation includes financial and business plan reporting is submitted via the Fluxx portal. The latest reports are:

The application and reporting cycle for Multi-year funding is available to view here.

Community Activity Reporting

The WANZ community completes its own annual community activity reports. These are used to record activities for the year. Members are encouraged to contribute to the annual community report throughout the reporting year. Reports will be completed annually on a July to June reporting cycle.

As we approach the end of the year, we'd love to hear about the projects and events you've been involved in over the past six months. What topics have captured your interest? What initiatives have you contributed to? Sharing experiences not only helps us highlight your work in our Annual Community Activity Report but also showcases your contributions to the wider community. We also use this information to prepare our annual report.

Please take a moment to share your updates via the link below. Your input is invaluable.

2025/26 Current Annual Community Activity Report (in preparation)

for on-going update by the community during the period:

Annual Community Activity Report for July 2025 - June 2026

Previous Community Activity Annual Reports

Annual Community Activity Report for July 2024 - June 2025
Annual Community Activity Report for July 2023 - June 2024
Annual report for the first six months of 2023 January to June WANZ changed its community activity reporting cycle to July - June to match up with the funding cycle we are on with Wikimedia Foundation.
Annual report for 2022
Annual report for 2021
Annual report for 2020

Communication

WANZ creates a monthly newsletter to provide updates from the community. View past issues on our website and subscribe here.

Community members often contribute to the Wiki-GLAM newsletter and in Diff blog posts.

WANZ currently shares regular updates on the following official channels:

Members of the Wikimedia community in Aotearoa are also active in:

Meetings

There are regular meetings around New Zealand including in Wellington, Christchurch, Ara Institute of Canterbury City Campus and online. There are irregular meetings in other cities across the country too.

For more information, please see the relevant pages on English Wikipedia:

Process Documents

Useful links

Wikipedia:WikiProject New Zealand on English Wikipedia
Wikimedia User Groups Requirements

History

There was an attempt to create a local chapter around 2006. One of the goals that drove the formation of this group was to renew a discussion about creating a chapter in the future. Before we can make a chapter, we need to have run a User Group with a range of well-documented activities for two years, so establishing this group was the first step.

From June 2018 to June 2019 Mike Dickison ran activities as the New Zealand Wikipedian at Large. Mike organised editing events around the country. There were also a series of 5 Edit for Equity events in 2019 in Wellington that were separate to Mike's events.^[2] Both of these initiatives resulted in a number of Wellington editors meeting each other and connecting for the first time.

A Wellington physical meetup was established on 22 June 2019. Initially organised as a way for two sisters to learn from each other, this meetup had a larger attendance from the outset.^[3] The meetup went online during the first New Zealand COVID lockdown and grew into two meetups – Aotearoa New Zealand online and the physical Wellignton meetup. The online connection over the first COVID lockdown resulted in more coordinated communication across New Zealand and an increase in participation in User Group activities.

The user group was formally recognised by the Wikimedia Foundation on 17 December 2019. Recognition of Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand

2020 Projects and events

Organise Wiki Loves Monuments 2020 in partnership with Heritage New Zealand.
Participate in Wiki Loves Monuments or Wiki Loves Earth - see the project page Wiki Loves Monuments New Zealand

2021 priorities

The Wikimedia Foundation has asked the User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand to identify which of the movement's strategy recommendations are our priorities for implementation in 2021 and what ideas from the Movement Strategy recommendations respond to our needs and will have an impact in the movement. The aim of prioritization is to create an 18-month implementation plan to take some of the initiatives forward starting in 2021. The 10 recommendations are described here

The attendees of the Aotearoa New Zealand Online Meetup 4 decided on

Improve User Experience
Invest in Skills and Leadership Development
Provide for Safety and Inclusion.

2021 conference / training / GLAM outreach and inclusion events

In October 2020 the User group started work on developing a forward program of weekend events for 2021. The organising committee are:

There were three WikiCon weekends planned for 2021. The locations were Hokitika in 19-21 March, Auckland in 16-18 July and Wellington in November. For further information please see the WikiCon pages.

West Coast WikiCon Delivered
Auckland WikiCon Delivered
Wellington WikiCon 26-28 November 2021 CANCELLED DUE TO COVID

Rolling Meeting Notes and action points (Google docs): https://docs.google.com/document/d/15CbPZIxDz-zfx53g2okZ9okBDfYGGIjcaIGfmdEHmSo/edit?usp=sharing

Wikipedia Rapid grant funding report for Auckland WikiCon: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/MurielMary/Auckland_Museum_Editathon/Report

Wikipedia Rapid grant funding application for Auckland WikiCon: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/MurielMary/Auckland_Museum_Editathon -

Planning document (Google docs) for West Coast WikiCon: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1agm1PwoyHpdu_DGBzt6O7jYrUIdUqnvAJDDgdWA6aes/edit?usp=sharing

Wikipedia Rapid grant funding application for West Coast WikiCon: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/MurielMary/Aotearoa_New_Zealand_Wikipedia_20_Event

Wikipedia Rapid grant funding application for Wellington WikiCon:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/MurielMary/WikiCon_Wellington_2021

Draft InternetNZ grant application text: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Om6EtOAj2kXw8xd6LGWV1l6EM4D2dE8FNSRPtYLCKGI/edit?usp=sharing

2022 Funding Applications

Rapid Fund funding application for March 2022

WANZ sought and was granted rapid grant funding to allow the new board of the incorporated society Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand to run an in person facilitated strategy weekend. The strategy weekend occurred on the weekend of 28/29 May 2022 and was very successful.

General Fund funding grant for 2022/23

WANZ sought and was granted general support funding for the period June 2022 to June 2023

A Mid Year (due 15 Jan 2023) and End of Year report (due 31 July 2023) was drafted and submitted in the Fluxx Wikimedia Foundation Funds Portal detailing activities, metrics and budget spend. The report refered to the activities documented in the inital application and submited the updated budget with final spend.

Mid Year Funding report
End of Year Funding report
2022/23 Draft General Funding Application draft in Google docs
2022/23 General Funding Application Budget
Audience Impact Model draft to detail success metrics This needs much more development to make it a useful framework and repeatable to track success and changes through multiple years.

Priorities updated for 2022

Consolidate our communication channels into an email database.

An email database has been collated by Giantflightlessbirds. Please contact Giantflightlessbirds to be added to this mailing list to receive a regular User Group newsletter.Einebillion (talk) 02:38, 6 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A 15 minute timeslot at the Aotearoa Online Meetup has been reserved to discuss User Group business.Einebillion (talk) 02:38, 6 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep organising editathons in Wellington, monthly meetings in Christchurch and provide support for our Auckland editors to start regular meetings in our biggest city.

Established and regular meetups are occurring online and in Wellington, Christchurch and the West Coast. As at 9 April 2022 Auckland is holding its first meeting after a COVID hiatus.

Run and document activities for 2–3 years

See section on annual reporting

Set up a legal structure

Options described here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KyR_-c02d8UfcMFvxPJkp1u4QKSHWJ2H/view?usp=sharing

Members discussed the proposal to incorporate at the 2021 WikiCons and during the Aotearoa New Zealand Online meetups and agreed that incorporation and registration as a Charity was the priority for 2022.

The advances we've made on creating an incorporated society is detailed in this section.

Apply for funding from Wikimedia Foundation that would allow us to cover our running costs including traveling to different cities for appropriate events like book festivals and library conferences where we'd like to promote Wikimedia's projects and WMF mission in New Zealand.

This group has successfully applied for Rapid Grant funding bids for the 2021 WikiCons and project funding bids have been submitted by individual members of this group.

The user group is seeking administrative funding for the period June 2022 to December 2023 from the General Grant Fund. See draft application This funding is intended to pay for costs of administering and advancing the organisation and incorporation of the Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand incorporated society.

Find and connect with more active members within the local community
We'd also like to reach out to users of te reo Māori and encourage the revitalisation of Wikipedia Māori
Eventually, we'd like to create a regular chapter that would serve not only contributors from New Zealand but the whole South Pacific including Niue, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga or Fiji. New Zealand has strong ties with the Pacific Islands and it's widely seen as the main center of the Southern Pacific with large Pacific Island populations living in New Zealand. We'd like our chapter to be no different. This is a big vision for us and we know we have a long way to go, but as editors who have been involved with Wikimedia's movement for many years, we have learned that with patience and hard, consistent work we can reach our goals.

2022–23 progress

The WANZ Committee committed to:

gathering 15 signatures for the application for incorporation – completed
submitting the application to the Registrar of Incorporated Societies – completed

The incorporation of WANZ was approved by the New Zealand Companies Office on 7 April 2022. The constitution is available as a pdf on this website.

assembling an application for Wikimedia Foundation funding for the April 2022 round to enable the Society to provide funding for outreach activites and administration purposes – completed

The User Group was successful in seeking a General Support grant from Wikimedia Foundation for operational funds and was allocated funds totalling $NZ 45,754.35 for 2022/23.

applying for registration as a charity with Charities Services – completed

The Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Incorporated society was registered as a charity in New Zealand on 21 April 2022.

establishing a bank account for the incorporated society and transferring funds – completed
applying for an IRD number with Inland Revenue – completed
working with WMF on next steps for organisational name change – progressing
reviewing and endorsing a set of Standard Operating Procedures. These SOPs will cover the everyday running of WANZ including things like Role Descriptions for Committee Members, a committment to open and transparent record keeping, comms platform selection etc. - progressing
holding an AGM in April 2023 – completed

2022 Events

Report for ESEAP 2022

2023/24 Funding and Activities

The 2023/24 was the first year of the three year funding period 2023–2026:

Wikimedia Foundation Conferences and WANZ Events 2023

Activity: Annual National WikiConference

The national WikiCon for 2024 was held in Auckland over the weekend of 23–24 March 2024. See information about the presentations on the event page.

Activity: Website

Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand's website is live. We are online at https://www.wikimedia.nz/.

2024/25 Funding and Activities

The 2024/25 was the second year of the three year funding period 2023–2026.

WANZ hired a part-time Marketing and Communications Coordinator in October 2024. Position Description of Marketing and Communications Coordinator

Activity: Annual National WikiConference

The national conference WikiCon 2025 was held over the weekend of 16-18 May 2025, in Ōtautahi Christchurch. It was the largest gathering of Wikipedians in New Zealand to date.

Activity: Wikipedian at Large Banks Peninsula

2025 Aotearoa Wikipedian at Large Mike Dickison is working to improve Banks Peninsula coverage on Wikimedia platforms, help Banks Peninsula institutions engage with these platforms, and build the community of volunteer Wikimedians in Christchurch with projects and on-site events.

Activity: Wikimedian-in-Residence Otago University

From May 2025, Dunedin Wikipedian Tamsin Braisher is Wikimedian-in-Residence at Otago University for six months, improving understanding and engagement with Wikimedia platforms across the campus.

2025/26 Funding and Activities

The 2025/26 is the third and final year of the three year funding period 2023–2026. WANZ will be applying to the Wikimedia Foundation for a further three year grant and will be seeking community input and feedback on a 3 – 5 year Strategic Plan currently being developed.

References

[1] ttps://www.wikimedia.nz/wikipedian-in-residence/

[2] ttps://www.antistaticpartners.com/editforequity

[3] :Wikipedia:Meetup/Wellington 7

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