September was more hectic than planned, so here comes two months of reporting at once.

Wikimania

As I mentioned last month, I organized a meetup for anyone interested in sustainable development. While decently attended, it did not pan out the way I had planned. Instead of sharing ideas of what to do, there were plenty of people who felt a need to vent their worries about the climate change. I think for the future, having a separate climate café where people just can talk about that would be useful and can make the community more sustainable in itself.

I don’t know if many others used the list all sessions related to the SDGs that I created, but at least it was useful to me during the event.

User group meetings

We had meetings in both August and September, in the first we mostly did some planning and in the second, we started the work on a strategy for the user group. More work to do in the following weeks.

Newsletters

While hectic, I managed to get the newsletters sent both for August and September.

This is the second half of my eighth report of my New Year’s resolutions.

July was not as busy as June, but I still felt like good progress was made.

User group meeting

The meeting was yet again organized by another member of the user group, and sharing responsibilities is great. While not many attended, we decided to mode forwarded with the strategy work, which will be a fresh air and sorely needed. Minutes are published.

Wikimania

Wikimania is coming up in a week, and I have started organizing a meetup for anyone interested in sustainable development.

I also looked through the entire program and made a list of all sessions related to the SDGs. Hopefully, that can help people navigate to impactful sessions.

Newsletter

I sent another monthly newsletter! This time I also got some input from more user group members, which is promising for the future.

This is the second half of my seventh monthly report of my New Year’s resolutions.

June was busy and fun! Just check all the things that happened.

Vodcast

WikiAfrica Hour had the theme: #36: Does the Wikimedia movement contribute to the SDGs? and I was a guest representing the user group. It went well in my opinion and I think it might be an inspiring episode for people who see it.

User group meeting

We had a good and productive meeting, and another member of the user group organized it. That was a lovely feeling. Minutes are published.

Affiliate health

The Affiliations Committee published new criteria for judging the health of the affiliates, and based on that I made a table to see how well Wikimedians for Sustainable Development meet them. The table makes it clear that we have some room for improvement, and makes it very actionable what we need to do.

Goals and strategy

One very concrete thing we are missing are measurable goals. So I started a page for us to collect them. When doing that, I thought it would be necessary to connect them to the movement strategy, and set up a strategy page for the user group to do that connection. Of course, both of these are just empty placeholders for now, but at least we have some concrete things for the agenda for our upcoming meetings.

Voting on the Movement Charter

The user group may vote on the adoption of the Movement Charter, so I started a page for our vote and got nominated as the person to submit it on the behalf of the user group.

Newsletter

I sent another monthly newsletter, and this one was full of stuff, both from the user group and from around the movement.

This is the first half of my sixth monthly report of my New Year’s resolutions.

April didn’t see much on-wiki activity for the Wikimedians for Sustainable Development user group, but I did do two large activities. Plus, I got my act together and sent a newsletter for March and April.

Wikimedia Summit 2024

First, I went to the Wikimedia Summit as a representative for the user group. It was a lot of work, but really focused on the Wikimedia Movement Charter, which is so generic it won’t have much direct impact on the user group activities (but possible on the governance). I was interviewed for a podcast in my role as a user group representative, but that episode will be published in early May.

Grant writing

Second, I wrote an application to the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships to work on setting up a secretariat for the user group. While the likelihood it is approved is fairly low, if successful, it would give me the opportunity to work full-time in it, so keep your fingers crossed.

As it was a fellowship, much of the application is focused on me, and not relevant to share, but I also made an action plan that might be useful for someone thinking about similar progress for their affiliate. I posted that in my own Ideas repository, along with the video pitch I recorded.

This is the second half of my fourth monthly reports of my New Year’s resolutions.