Meeting:2011 AGM/Candidates/Charles Gregory

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Hi everyone, Im Charles, and since I'm running for the committee I thought I should post a little bit about myself!

Outside of Wikipedia

I was born, raised and educated in Launceston, Tasmania. I have half of a Bachelor of Computing from the University of Tasmania, but I realised my schooling was getting in the way of my education. :)

I have worked in the IT industry all my life, through a variety of helpdesk, desktop support, server/network support and similar roles. I've worked in various sectors - education, scientific research, small business - and for the past 7 years in the energy sector.

I've been happily married to Emma and living in Hobart for the past ten years, and have three children - an almost-four daughter, a two year old son, and a one month old daughter. I also have an interest in sustainable building and we are in the middle of building a sustainable, energy efficient house for our growing family!

My other interests are quite varied - home theatre, football (soccer), running, photography, politics and genealogy.

Other related organisations that I've been involved in include:

  • Linux.conf.au 2009 - I was a volunteer for this event, held in Hobart in January 2009
  • Digital Tasmania - the Tasmanian consumer action group (incidentally - in 2008 we lobbied the government to roll out a fibre-to-the-home network, and to start it in Tasmania - and the rest is history)
  • OpenStreetMap.org - a free, open access, worldwide atlas - with similar aims to the Wikimedia Foundation

Wiki life

My first involvement with Wikipedia was in 2002 - i started editing and soon became addicted! I was appointed an Administrator of the English Wikipedia in 2004. I've also made a small number of contributions to other Wikimedia projects, mostly images to Commons.

I was (proudly) a member of the interim committee at the time of Wikimedia Australia's establishment in 2008. I didn't nominate for the next couple of years but ran for and was successful in rejoining the committee in 2010-2011 - and of course, I'm running again this year - thank you to Craig and Andrew for nominating me!

It was quite a learning experience as shortly afterwards, we participated in the Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser which changed the organisation dramatically. The fact the committee had to work without a secretary for a significant part of the year also put I was pleased to participate in the Strategic Planning workshop which resulted in the development of the Draft Strategic Plan (to be voted on at the 2011 AGM).

One of the core platforms I ran on last year was improved communication between the committee and the rest of the chapter. This was something that many incoming members of the 2010-11 committee agreed upon and as such it was no surprise that communications was deemed a very important part of our Strategic Plan. I believe the committee has been very successful in this regard, with a lot more mailing list traffic and regular public meetings.

Since our Strategic Plan mentions communications significantly, I've also been involved in setting up the chapter's social media channels (no, these have not been launched yet in case anyone is looking for them!)

Of course being from Tasmania, a state that often goes without representation at times, I'm keen to encourage local events for Wikipedians in the state - although in the past it has been only me! This year is the first time we have had more than one active Tasmanian WM-Au member so hopefully we can start something at the AGM!

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