Wikimedia monthly activities meetings/Process

The Wikimedia Foundation Communications department coordinates the monthly Wikimedia activities meetings. The department utilizes the process and materials shared on this page.

Roles

• Meeting lead: Gregory Varnum
• Meeting backup lead: Samantha Lien
• Meeting driver: Sasha Redkina
• Meeting backup driver:
• Design reviewer: Blanca Flores
• IRC moderator: James Forrester

Timeline

Individuals within Communications department working on meeting meet biweekly to help maintain this timeline.

Four weeks out from meeting

• Potential topics identified
  • Meeting group
• Contact speakers for interest
  • Meeting lead
• Identify facilitator
  • Meeting group
• Contact facilitator for interest
  • Meeting lead
• Create Google Slides deck and share with meeting group
  • Meeting driver

Three weeks out from meeting

• Tentative agenda set
  • Meeting group
  • Meeting lead sign off
• As soon as speakers confirm, share slide deck and instructions
  • Meeting lead
• Designated teams within Wikimedia Foundation contacted for suggestions for content for meeting presentation slides providing highlights from past month and upcoming month
  • Meeting backup lead

Two weeks out from meeting

• Contact facilitator to confirm
  • Meeting lead
• Contact speakers to confirm
  • Meeting lead
• Contact IRC moderator to confirm
  • Meeting driver
• Coordinate with Office IT to setup video streaming
  • Meeting driver
• Invitation draft begins
  • Meeting driver
  • Meeting lead

One week out from meeting

• Reminder to presenters about slide deck
  • Meeting lead
• Deadline for slides from presenters to be added to presentation slide deck
  • Presenters
• Review and make notes on slide deck
  • Meeting team - primarily Meeting lead, Meeting backup lead, and Design reviewer
• Meeting prep meeting scheduled
  • Meeting driver
• Agenda posted on Meta-Wiki
  • Meeting driver
• Invitation sent to community
  • Meeting driver

Three days out from meeting

• Reminder to presenters and facilitator
  • Meeting lead
• Review and finalize slide deck
  • Meeting lead, Meeting backup lead, and Design reviewer
• Share technical specifics with Office IT (How many remote and any technical needs such as videos)
  • Meeting driver

One day out from meeting

• Final reminder to presenters and facilitator
  • Meeting lead
• Lock the presentation slide deck
  • Meeting lead and Meeting backup lead

Day of meeting

• Reminder invitation sent to community
  • Meeting driver

Week following meeting

• Meeting presentation slides posted on Meta-Wiki
  • Meeting driver

Materials

• Invitation template
• Meeting presentation slides developed monthly and shared privately - posted publicly following meeting

Guidelines for presenters

Informational content:

• Data (what do the numbers tell us about whether what we're doing is working?)
• Key milestones (are we on track with what we said we'd do?)
• Mistakes and lessons learned (be honest about what went wrong)

Presentation guidelines:

• Don't assume your audience knows your domain – clarity is more important than density
• Introduce yourself and your colleagues by full name and role – new folks are joining all the time, and you'll be watched on video
• Stick to the time limit
• Keep the mic close enough that you can hear it working; nobody will hold it against you if you do a quick sound check
• If people ask questions without speaking into the mic, repeat the question for remote participants and video audience
• Engage the audience (questions, etc.)
• If possible, work with a co-presenter to flip slides or demo stuff so you don't have to juggle
• Keep it light-hearted :-)

• Slides:
  • If you have screenshots, make sure the words are very large
  • Share them beforehand (e.g. as Google Docs), but in read only mode!
  • Link them from the meeting agenda
  • Upload them to Commons in PDF form (in the category "Presentation slides from the Wikimedia monthly activities meetings"), so that they are archived in our own repository under a free license, and can be embedded directly in other documentation on the wikis.
  • For remote presenters: If you will be sharing your screen, do a test run beforehand to make sure your slide deck (audio & video) behaves in all the expected ways when presented via a shared screen.

Please review the best practices in giving a presentation at the Wikimedia Foundation page for additional presentation guidelines.