Meeting:2012 AGM/Candidates/Charles Gregory

Hi everyone! I'm Charles Gregory (User:Chuq), I live in Hobart, Tasmania, and this year I am running for secretary and ordinary committee member.

Outside of Wikipedia

I was born, raised and educated in Launceston, Tasmania. 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 been happily married to Emma and living in Hobart for the past ten years, and have three young children. 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 - a 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 Wikipedia. I am also a member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF).

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 again the following year! I was a partcipant in WMAU's Strategic Planning Workshop, in July 2011. As many of you know, I was nominated and appointed into the role of secretary last month. This AGM I am nominating myself for both secretary and ordinary committee member.

Activities in the past year

  • Setting up the chapters' social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter (these have been "soft-launched" - so you may not be aware of them yet). This includes collaborating with the Wikimedia Foundation's social media team.
  • In February, Running training sessions with Leigh Blackall in Hobart and Kingston, Tasmania.
  • Was nominated as our chapter's representative to the Wikimedia Chapters Association. The first meeting was in July and we are currently going through the establishment phase (which, for an international organisation, is rather time consuming!)
  • In July, attended Wikimania 2012 in Washington DC. My report of the event is at User:Chuq/Wikimania_report.
  • In September, helped with the first locally organised Hobart Wikipedia meetup.

Plans for the following year

- The duties of secretary are quite a heavy workload; however I still hope to particpate and otherwise support additional program work such as:

  • WMAU's participation in Wiki Loves Monuments 2013.
  • Further collaboration/communication with the Australian OpenStreetmap community.
  • Further expansion of our profile on social media
  • Supporting as many Australians to attend Wikimania 2013, to be hosted in Hong Kong in August 2013.

Process wise, I support Gideon Digby's proposal to expand the committee to eight people. Many delays were experienced this year with the six person committee having difficulties in achieving quorum in order for meetings to proceed. The increased resources that a larger committee would bring would be of great benefit.

If this proposal succeeds, I will suggest that unofficial roles of Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer be created. As well as helping out during periods of high workload, or when staff are unavailable (such as when on holiday or otherwise uncontactable), it would also be useful to ensure that internal processes and knowledge are not lost when new committees are elected.

Closing

Thankyou to Craig and Graham for nominating me. I thank the members for their support in the past, and hope you are willing to support my continued presence on the committee!

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