Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand

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Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand

New Zealand
Location New Zealand
Country codeNZ
Approval date17 December 2019
Official language(s)English, Māori
AffiliationsESEAP
Chapters (38)
Thematic organizations (2)
Wikimedia user groups (141)



Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand, or WANZ, is an Incorporated Society and registered charity in New Zealand. It serves the user group of Wikimedians who are interested in organising and participating in outreach activities in New Zealand.

How to join[edit]

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 of WANZ Inc[edit]

Becoming a member shows you are dedicated to the mission of the global Wikimedia movement and the vision and mission of Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand. Benefits of membership are outlined in this Google document.

Entitlements: Members of WANZ Inc can

  • stand for election to the Committee
  • vote at the AGM

Obligations:

  • Members must pay an annual membership fee determined at the AGM, currently NZ$5, in order to retain their entitlements as a member. Members can resign their membership at any time.

Our Vision and Mission[edit]

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 support the Wikimedia Foundation’s mission in New Zealand: To empower and engage people to collect and develop educational content under a free licence, so it can be shared and reused freely for any purpose
  • To represent the New Zealand contributors to Wikimedia projects
  • To provide qualified support to our members and the public
  • To empower our members and support their activities
  • To develop and maintain long-lasting supportive relationships with New Zealand institutions that share the same or similar goals

The Strategy of the Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Incorporated 2022 - 2025[edit]

The committee of Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand developed a strategy 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 Google docs link.

Incorporation and Committee[edit]

In 2022 Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand members created a Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Establishment Working Group, wrote a [draft constitition], 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. The meeting was held on Thursday 17 March 2022. The Incorporated Society was registered on 7 April 2022, and is also now a Registered charity.

The current committee of WANZ is:

Contact information for the committee: secretary[at]wikimedia.nz

In September 2023 WANZ hired its first staff member, Dianne Skelton, as an Executive Advisor. She can be contacted at dianneskelton[at]gmail.com.

2023 Fund raising[edit]

General Fund funding application[edit]

WANZ has applied for and been granted general support funding for our affiliate for the period July 2023 to June 2026. Other documentation that the committee created to help with this application includes

Wikipedian-at-Large (WPAL) project[edit]

One of the key activities planned for 2023-24 is a Wikipedian-at-Large (WPAL) project. This will be a nominal 6-month paid assignment, commencing by 1 March 2024 at the latest. A WPAL project is a variation of the Wikipedian-in-Residence concept. It is not necessarily tied to one or more institutions, and is largely self-directed. The first Wikipedian at Large project was undertaken over 2018–19, and proved highly effective at increasing the public awareness of Wikimedia projects and recruiting new editors.

We have prepared a request for proposal (RFP), seeking responses from people interested in undertaking this project. The RFP is high level, because we are open to a diverse range of possibilities for projects that will help deliver the objectives of WANZ. We anticipate holding a funding meeting in mid-August, where anyone interested in making a proposal can meet individually with the committee to discuss their ideas, and obtain feedback. The closing date for RFP submissions is 15 September 2023. Requests to attend a funding meeting, and final proposals should be sent to: secretary[@]wikimedia.nz.

Register of grants made by WANZ[edit]

As a registered charity, WANZ gives grants that assist people to engage with the Wikimedia movement, build capability and expand content. A table of grants made by WANZ is available at this link: [1]

Annual Community Activity Reports[edit]

The WANZ community also completes its own annual community activity reports as well as in the Wiki-GLAM newsletter and in Diff blog posts. Members are encouraged to contribute to the annual community report throughout the reporting year. Reports will be completed annually and will be added to the committee activity and financial reporting provided to our funders, Wikimedia Foundation.

2023/24 Current Annual Community Activity Report in Draft[edit]

WANZ has changed its community activity reporting cycle to July - June to match up with the funding cycle we are on with Wikimedia Foundation.

DRAFT Annual Community Activity Report for July 2023 - June 2024

Past Community Activity Annual Reports[edit]

The earlier WANZ Annual Community Activity Reports covered the calendar year from January to December.

Wikimedia Foundation Conferences and WANZ Events 2023[edit]

Meetings[edit]

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[edit]

Useful links[edit]

Affiliations Committee resolutions[edit]

History[edit]

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 was keen to see a user group start, and created a mailing list of potential members.

A Wellington physical meetup was established which went online during the first New Zealand COVID lockdown. This 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.

2020 Projects and events[edit]

2021 priorities[edit]

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[edit]

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

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

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[edit]

Rapid Fund funding application for March 2022[edit]

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[edit]

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) must be drafted and submitted in the Fluxx Wikimedia Foundation Funds Portal detailing activities, metrics and budget spend. The report must refer to the activities documented in the inital application and must also submit the updated budget with final spend. This has been completed.

Priorities updated for 2022[edit]

  • 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[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[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[edit]

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[edit]

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