Meeting:Board (2026-01-20)
See also the list of all meetings.
Meeting Details
Date and time: 20 Jan 2026 17:30 GMT+10:30 AEDT/18:00 AEST/17:00 ACDT/17:30 AWST/15:00
Meeting channel: Zoom
Meeting start time 06:03 pm AEDT
Meeting end time 07:40 pm AEDT
Meeting objectives
Meeting objectives:
Record of attendance
Attendees: Elliott, Jeremy, Kassi, Kerry, Emily, Mylee.
Apologies: Peter Neish, Shravan Rao
Decision
Decision: That the minutes of the Board meeting held on Tuesday 9 December 2025, be accepted as an accurate record of that meeting.
Moved: Kerry Raymond; seconded: Emily Mierisch; outcome: Passed
Moved: Kerry Raymond; seconded: Emily Mierisch; outcome: Passed
Notes:
Reports
Executive Officer’s report
Please find below a summary of key activities and updates from the past month:
Programs and engagements
- Partner Projects 2025–2026 no current update due to Christmas and Summer holidays.
- WikiCon Canberra 2026 call for submissions has closed and the program subcommittee is scheduled to meet during late January. The call for Scholarships/Travel subsidies is now open until 2 February 2026. Registration has also opened so please use this link to register. Reminder that Monday 13 April will be our Strategic Planning Day for Board and staff. If you are ready to book your travel then please let Belinda know.
- TJC’s ICIP & IDSov project has engaged five people on the Indigenous Expert Working Group, with a sixth person being engaged shortly. This group consists of:
- Leonard Hill (as the representative for AIATSIS)
- Yanti Ropeyarn
- Tamika Worrell
- Kirsten Thorpe
- Jessica Russ-Smith
- APNIC / Ian Peter archive: Cameron has been re-engaged as the Digitisation Officer and has commenced work on the project. Caddie and Elliott will also be reengaged to continue with components requiring expertise in copyright, project management and potential digital resources using the collection.
- The Australian Cultural Fund have facilitated the AUD$5000 grant from the Australian Communities Foundation. Now that we have established the connection with the Cultural Fund, we’ll explore how we might be able to offer an interim solution for people and organisations to donate to WMAU and receive a tax receipt. However we must ensure we obtain DGR status ourselves longer term.
- Belinda and Elliott had a meeting with the Hon. Michael Brown MP (South Australia’s Assistant Minister for AI, Digital Economy, Defence and Space Industries) and Mike Wait SC, Solicitor General for South Australia. Mr Brown had previously discussed with Belinda the possibility of SA’s Crown Copyright material being uploaded to Wiki Commons. Discussion with Mike Tait focussed on orphan works and Wikimedia Commons.
- WANZ Aotearoa New Zealand have informally invited Belinda to be a keynote speaker on the TJC ICIP Project, at their WikiCon 2026 in early May. WANZ would fund or contribute to the travel costs. Belinda explained to WANZ it would be Terri or one of her team to speak. However on clarification WANZ are more interested in the process WMAU took in the 2-3 years leading up to engaging Terri Janke and company, rather than the particulars of the Protocol itself. WANZ will provide more information for the WMAU Board.
- SLQ have provided Kerry with a USB containing a significant number of out-of-copyright images for uploading to WikiCommons. Kerry will work with Alice, and in time invite volunteers to assist with the project.
- Article written collaboratively by Pru Mitchell, Alice Woods and Belinda Spry with Dr Katelyn Mroczek (La Trobe) and others on Wikipedia and science communication in University, published last year in Frontiers in Education online journal, has received over 6000 views and 544 downloads. Development and evaluation of a Wikipedia based group assessment to enhance science communication (2025) in the Frontiers in Education.
Operations and governance
- An Australian editor advised WMAU that they have received concerning threats from a member of the public. WMAU are supporting the editor and liaising with WMF Legal team, Trust & Safety team.
- Last week on 15 January Wikipedia celebrated it’s 25th birthday - an historic milestone. We had good attendance at the Community Meeting on 13 January, and also look forward to celebrating a belated-birthday party in person on Saturday night at WikiCon Canberra. Please leave a birthday message on our Australian virtual birthday card.
Opportunities
Meetings
- The Hon. Michael Brown MP (South Australia - Assistant Minister for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, Defence and Space Industries) and Mike Wait SC (Solicitor General)
- Elliott met with Simon Poulson (NSLA EO)
- Dianne WM Aotearoa New Zealand
- Regular ESEAP and ECC calls and meetings
Grants
- The Australian Cultural Fund facilitated the payment from the Australian Communities Foundation.
Communications Report
Social media analytics
| Total network size by platform as of December 2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | December 2025 | Annual change |
| X (formerly Twitter) | Followers | 4365 | 4368 | Down by 3 | 4050 | Up by 315 |
| Followers | 2208 | 2173 | Up by 35 | 2008 | Up by 200 | |
| Followers | 827 | 830 | Up by 3 | 666 | Up by 161 | |
| Threads | Followers | 179 | 179 | none | 151 | Up by 28 |
| Followers | 501 | 500 | Up by 1 | 387 | Up by 113 | |
| Mastodon | Followers | 290 | 286 | Up by 3 | 224 | Up by 66 |
| YouTube | Subscribers | 301 | 301 | none | 214 | Up by 87 |
| Cumulative network size | 8,671 | 8,637 | Up by 34 | 7,700 | Up by 970 | |
Website analytics
2 news stories were published on the website in December 2025
- Wikimedia Australia supports proposed reforms in the Copyright Amendment Bill 2025
- Wikimedia Australia ICIP and IDSov
| Total network size by platform as of December 2025 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | December 2024 | Annual change |
| Visits | 6210 | 3042 | +104% | 3992 | Up by 2218 |
| New visitors | 5717 | 2626 | Up by 3091 | 3352 | Up by 2365 |
| Returning visitors | 493 | 416 | Up by 77 | 640 | Down by 147 |
| Page views | 8410 | 4523 | +85.9% | 6849 | Up by 1561 |
| Average visit duration | 44 seconds | 57 seconds | -22.8% | 1 min 7s average visit duration | |
| Most visited page | 507 | 239 | Up by 268 | 490
/Tribute_to_JarrahTree:_an_exceptional_Australian_Wikimedian |
Up by 17 |
Email analytics - Announce newsletter
| Total subscribers and unsubscribes to the Announce monthly newsletter in December 2025 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | December 2024 | Annual change |
| Subscribers | 527 | 524 | 3 | 502 | +25 |
Ticketing
| Total followers of Humanitix account in December 2025 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | November 2024 | Annual change |
| Followers | 89 | 89 | none | 75 Humanitix | 14 |
President’s report
Meeting with Government of South Australia
- Belinda and I attended a meeting with Michael Brown MP, Assistant Minister for AI, Digital Economy, Defence and Space Industries, Government of South Australia, Mike Wait SC, Solicitor-General for South Australia and Brown’s Ministerial Advisor to discuss a potential donation of Crown copyright material held by the Government of South Australia to Wikimedia Commons.
- While details for the project are not finalised yet, it was discussed that the depositing agency would likely be State Records of South Australia and/or the State Library of South Australia.
- Brown also expressed interest in contributing orphan works held by the government. We discussed the potential of s 200AB to support bulk uploading of orphan works to wiki platforms and the orphan works limited liability scheme proposed in the Copyright Amendment Bill 2025 to support use of orphan works by end users. However, there are also important questions around the application of the American copyright law given the platforms operate on a dual copyright law basis.
Meeting with Simon Polson, NSLA
- I met online with Simon Polson, CEO of National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) to discuss WMAU signing the Open Heritage Statement.
- NSLA was not aware of the Statement so I provided an overview of it and an explanation of WMAU’s reasons for signing.
- Polson said he would raise the Statement at a future NSLA meeting.
Secretary’s report
December membership statistics
| Total members of WMAU in December 2025 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | Sept 2024 | Annual change |
| Financial members | 94 | 94 | 0 | Not available | Not available |
| Lapsed memberships | 0 | 3 | -3 | Not available | Not available |
| Member applications | 6 | 3 | 3 | Not available | Not available |
Treasurer’s report
Financial statements
Financial statements tabled:
- Profit and Loss Statement December 2025
- Balance Sheet December 2025
The Australian Communities Foundation grant has been processed through the Australian Cultural Fund and the funds have been transferred to our bank account. This has been allocated to Grants, rather than Donations.
Donations are quite healthy this financial year (2025/26) totalling just over $12,700, with $3,837.19 in December 2025. At the same time last year we had received approx $8500 in total and $2002 in December 2024.
Reviewing the halfway point of the financial year and first year of the triennial grant period, we have expended $250,525. (as seen on the P&L report) of our $484,289 annual budget and the one-off funding of $149,011 for the ICIP &IDSov Protocol for WMAU (Combined total $633,300). Major commitments in coming months include WikiCon Canberra, final payments to Partner Projects, Wikimania and ESEAP conference scholarships and further installments for the TJC ICIP & IDSov project.
Out-of-session decisions
None this month
Matters for discussion
Strategic planning day agenda
ACTION: Discuss Strategic planning day and what we want to achieve.
Suggestions:
- How is implementation of the 3 and 10 year WMAU plan going? Discuss with members to prioritise key areas and actions. Pulse check. Where do we need to get more sophisticated in metrics and methodology.
- Presentation during WikiCon Canberra to engage with members, providing opportunities for them to give feedback, input and ideas (eg, similar to WikiCon Adelaide with WhiteBoards, sticky notes, direct discussions with Board members, feedback forms) - Kerry and Jeremy WikiCon session
- Closer look at membership engagement and building stronger relationships between WMAU. Data collection around Australian editors.
- Communication Strategy and Content Strategy. Thinking about how to engage members and community in email conversations on topics using the members mailing list. Create genuine two-way communication.
- Potential for WMF or an external provider (eSafety or similar) to present on Online Harassment/Cyber bullying as a training session for Board and staff. This can be handled in a regular Board meeting or at a separate time. Could also be offered to members.
WikiCon Canberra 2026
- Travel funding update - subcommittee to meet soon
- Programming update
- Board travel - Belinda can start booking people’s flights and accommodation now to get good prices on flights. Let her know as soon as you have your travel dates locked in.
- DGR status and WMAU Rules of Association
- Subcommittee to report on their meeting on 9 December.
- Problems arising in last AGM around Rules conflicts, and instead look at drafting Co Ltd by Guarantee with pro-bono lawyer (Maddocks, Melbourne).
Policy and procedures
Belinda working on updating Policies using the feedback from the last Board meeting. Thank you for the input and suggestions.