Wikimedia UK AGM 2019 – image by Jwslubbock CC BY-SA 4.0
2019 board elections and resolutions
Thank you to all members who attended our AGM on Saturday or voted by proxy. We had an excellent response from eligible voting members, receiving 91 votes in total – ensuring that the meeting was quorate and helping us to elect five board members and agree all the proposed resolutions. The full minutes of the AGM will be on wiki soon, but in the meantime we’re happy to announce the election of:
- Sangeet Bhullar
- Lorna Campbell
- Andrea Chandler
- Josie Fraser
- Rod Ward
Sangeet, Lorna and Josie were all existing trustees who were standing for another term, so we’re very pleased that Wikimedia UK will continue to benefit from their considerable expertise. We’re also delighted to welcome Andrea and Rod as new trustees, and look forward to seeing how their skills and insights can enrich the Wikimedia UK Board.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to formally thank the other members who stood for the board and encourage you to consider standing in future years, and continue to work with the charity in other ways in the meantime.
Presentations and workshops
We were delighted to hear from a range of speakers on Saturday, and our Communications Co-ordinator is currently editing a film of the talks so that they can reach more of our members. Brandi Geurkink, European Campaigner from Mozilla Foundation, gave a fascinating and informative keynote talk on the information supply chain and combating misinformation online; calling for those of us working in and passionate about open knowledge to support this work. Our programme co-ordinator in Scotland, Sara Thomas, wove a magical story of ogres and witches to shine a light on recent on-wiki activities to remember Scotland’s hidden historical women; and four other members gave Lightning Talks on subjects including Wikimedia and Museums, the Central and Eastern European Wikipedia article writing contest, Wiki Loves Monuments, and the WiciMon project in Wales – which you can learn more about by watching this video.
We had a stimulating discussion about how the policies, structure and culture of Wikipedia impact on the behaviour of its contributors. The conversations as a plenary and in smaller facilitated groups proved to be highly insightful and informative, and we are pulling together the notes from this session to inform our work on community health going forward. As an alternative to this workshop, several members went on a photography walk around the Old City in Bristol to capture some of the landmarks missing from Wikimedia Commons.
Awards
Lorna Campbell announced Wikimedia UK’s Partnership of the Year and Wikimedian of the Year, along with honourable mentions for both categories.
The Partnership of the Year Award went to Amnesty International for their collaboration with Wikimedia UK on the BRAVE campaign. This project – focused on women human rights defenders – saw 550 articles created or expanded across seven languages, as well as new relationships and partnerships between local Wikimedia groups and Amnesty sections. An ‘honourable mention’ in this Award category was given to The Dumphries Stonecarving Project, which celebrates the sandstone heritage of Dumfries.
Wikimedian of the Year went to Dr. Jess Wade, whose work is making women in science more visible through the creation of a high number of biographies on Wikipedia about prominent women in STEM; and who has inspired others to do the same in science and other disciplines. Andrew Gray received an honourable mention for his extensive and valuable work on his Wikidata project focused on British politicians.
More details about the winners and honourable mentions can be found here.
Honorary members
Former Chair and outgoing trustee Michael Maggs introduced the charity’s first Honorary Memberships, awarded by the Board to those members who have contributed significantly to the progress of the chapter. These were presented to Carol Campbell and Greyham Dawes in recognition of their outstanding work as Chair of ARC and Treasurer of Wikimedia UK respectively, and we were especially pleased that Carol was able to make the journey to Bristol to accept her Honorary Membership.
Thank you to everyone who made the AGM such an enjoyable day. You can find an online version of the Strategic Report that was in the delegate packs here, and a video about the day will be on wiki soon.