ComDev minutes 2024-02-26

Community Development Committee

Monday 26th February, 10 am - 11:30 am (online)

Welcome and apologies

Present: Caroline Ball, Kelly Foster, Rod Ward, Daria Cybulska, Sara Thomas, and Chuks Ogbonna (minuting).

Declaration of interests

None

Approval of previous minutes

Approved

Matters arising (CB)

Nil

Recruitment to the Committee - discussing applications (ST)

The members looked through the applications and deliberated on the numbers needed.  

• CB asked what the numbers needed are and DC explained that according to our charter, there are 6 members maximum, including 3 trustees. Com_Dev Charter
• We agreed to return to the board to co-op trustees to join the committee.
• CB asked what was more important to the committee in this role, someone with community experience or someone with Wikipedia experience
• After deliberations, members agreed to put three names forward for possible selection into the committee.

Action Point: Investigate Lucy Moore's potential future role as a grant committee member for the WMF and the conflict of interest that may arise from that.

Recommendations: Members recommended Lucy Moore as a member if cleared, also recommended are Ceryl Evans, Dr Kiran Sahota.

Update on Community Leaders Survey (ST)

ST gave the report - in a draft form as it is still being finalised at the time of the meeting.

• CB asked if there were any concerns, and ST answered that one of the answers to the EDI question had a slight discrepancy.
• RW talked about assessing training needs, and how we structure the survey to reach what is a diverse group of people.
• KF asked about the broader connection with the international community and ST answered that there isn’t much focus around that in the survey at the moment. She also asked what opportunities we could create for people in the UK considering that Wikimania is taking place in Poland this year.

Overview of the volunteer-related plans for 2024 (ST/DC)

The report was taken as read, ST updated that we are in delivery planning mode at the moment. Plans include another community day meeting, and working on a model that helps trainers develop confidence to run their own events. ST also gave feedback from the 2023 Train the Trainer iteration which can be found here.

• On Wikidata training, RW suggested that as much as we need the training, it would be helpful to make the interface easier. KF agreed with RW.
• CB talked about the impact of AI on Wikidata and whether we would start seeing people use AI to help them build queries and help them with different projects.
• ST also talked about widening the volunteer community.
• RW commended ST for her work in volunteer engagement.

Volunteer Grants engagement - discussion (DC)

ST gave the report, and it was taken as read. She reported that take-up of project grants has been steady since 2021.

• DC talked about the budget as outlined in the paper, she also asked for a discussion on it and how we might bring new people into the grants, being mindful the direct funding for volunteer engagement is limited within the current budget.
• RW supported the project grants concept. He expressed support for paying for admin time as a part of the grant, especially if it’s framed as expenses, and not income. We would want to avoid paid editing though.
• The group discussed ‘gratuities’ as one term that has been used to talk about compensating people’s time - it was suggested that ‘payment’ would be better. A mention that this payment is a contribution to the estimate of the true cost of the work could also be helpful.
• KF suggested that it would be useful to communicate more explicitly about our goals for the project grants on the website. E.g. include target areas, outline suggested amounts to be applied for, ballparks.

AOB

KF asked if it is possible for another group or organisation(s) to co-host the community day with WMUK, this will be looked into by ST.

Useful links:

WMUK Com_Dev C'ttee Charter

WMUK Project grants