Meeting:Board (2026-07-14)
See also the list of all meetings.
Particulars
Date and time - 14 Jul 2026 18:00 GMT+9:30 AEST/18:00 ACST/17:30 AWST/14:00
Meeting start time
06:07 pm AEST
06:00 pm AEST (Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart)
05:30pm ACST (Adelaide, Darwin)
04:00pm AWST (Perth)
Meeting end time
08:04 pm AEST
Record of attendance
Attendees: Elliott Bledsoe Kassi Hays Mylee Joseph Peter Neish
Apologies: Emily Mierisch
Absent: Jeremy Ludlow Shravan Rao
Moved: Kassi Hays; seconded: Mylee Joseph; outcome: The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 16 June 2026 were accepted. Abstain: Peter Neish (did not attend meeting)
Matters for noting
Reports
Executive Officer’s report
Please find below a summary of key activities and updates from the past month:
Programs and engagements
- Wikimania Paris 2026: The First Nations keynote panel session at Wikimania Paris 2026 is finalised and the link to the session is on Eventyay. Guest panelists include Terri Janke, Migoto Eria (Aotearoa), Michelle Callipol (WM Chile) and Therese Ottawa (WM Canada). The session is in the main auditorium and will be streamed and recorded. We are also facilitating a pre-conference 2-hour workshop led by Terri and Shevaun on Tuesday 21 July called CultureStrong: Respecting Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and Indigenous Data Sovereignty on Wikimedia Platforms. This will not be streamed or recorded (due to technical limits at the venue) but the session is on Eventyay here.
- ICIP and IDSov Project: Terri Janke and Company (TJC) have provided the final ICIP &IDSov Guide and the final draft of the Issues Paper. We will publish the documents on our WMAU website as part of the launch, and will share widely through our newsletters, social media and upcoming events. We will also be circulating a survey at Wikimania as part of Terri and Shevaun’s workshop there, to gather further feedback and input for the next phase of work.
- Partner Projects 2025–2026. Two partner projects are almost complete and will be providing final reports and their final documentation this week. The AMaGA project timeline has been revised, with time extension to identify a more engaged regional partner, and for WMAU to present to the national AMaGA conference later this year.
- Craig Franklin Award: Callout for community member/s to join the Award subcommittee, as well as nominations for awardees has gone out, and will provide regular reminders through August.
- APNIC / Ian Peter archive: The additional box of records from Pactok will be added to the archive as they complement the collection. Cameron has found other work and can no longer participate in the final stage of the project. Alice will receive and review the box of records, identify some key documents to digitise, and preserve the documents in archival supplies. Caddie has one more oral history to record, and all other recordings and transcripts are now in the archive. Caddie and Sam are finalising some technical work on a webpage that will facilitate public access of the archive records and metadata. Belinda and Elliott will approach the National Communications Museum to hold the collection long term. Final Report will be complete by the end of July or possibly mid-August due to Pactok records.
Operations and governance
- The Craig Franklin subcommittee - callout to community for member/s has gone out through newsletters and the members mailing list.
- The Diversity, Inclusion, and Safety Standing Subcommittee callout for community members has gone our through newsletters and the members mailing list. We have received two good applications as of 13 July.
- A draft was developed on 23 June and circulated to Board members for an Ethical Partnerships Policy.
- Drafts for a range of documents to support moving from Inc Association to a Company Limited by Guarantee have been developed and are listed in Matters for discussion.
- Reminder - Please leave a birthday message on our Australian virtual birthday card.
Opportunities
Met with:
- User:Pengo, Partner Project on updating threatened species lists
- Dean Foley, Barayamal for Partner Project
- First Nations panel members for Wikimania, Terri, Shevaun, Matilda, Therese Ottawa, Louis Germein and WMAU team
- Norwood Payneham St Peters Library Service (South Australia)
- Kiwix Switzerland https://kiwix.org/en/
- Regular ESEAP Hub Steering Committee and Community Call meetings
Grants
- N/A
Communications
Social media - June analytics
| Total network size by platform as of June 2026 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | June 2025 | Annual change |
| X (formerly Twitter) | Followers | 4435 | 4417 | +18 | 4248 | +187 |
| Followers | 2347 | 2330 | +17 | 2046 | +301 | |
| Followers | 911 | 891 | +20 | 759 | +152 | |
| Threads | Followers | 192 | 193 | -1 | 171 | +21 |
| Followers | 563 | 550 | +13 | 425 | +138 | |
| Mastodon | Followers | 314 | 311 | +3 | 270 | +44 |
| YouTube | Subscribers | 330 | 323 | +7 | 274 | +56 |
| Cumulative network size | 9092 | 9015 | +77 | 8193 | +899 | |
Website - June analytics
6 news stories were published on the website in June 2026
- Expression of Interest: Diversity, Inclusion, and Safety Standing Subcommittee
- Craig Franklin Award 2026
- WikiLoves Pride Australia 2026
- Celebrating 1Lib1Ref Australasia 2026
- Wikimedia Australia at ESEAP 2026
- Wikimedia Australia May 2026 Update
| Total network size by platform as of June 2026 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | June 2025 | Annual change |
| Visits | 6024 | 2622 | +66.3% | 1625 | +270.7% |
| New visitors | 5648 | 3215 | +75.7% | 1266 | +346.1% |
| Returning visitors | 367 | 407 | -7.6% | 359 | +4.7% |
| Page views | 7477 | 6365 | +17.5% | 2806 | +166.5% |
| Average visit duration | 28 sec | 2 min 54 sec | -83.9% | 1 min 20 6 | -65% |
| Most visited page | 877
WikiProject Australia Popular pages between Dec 2021- Nov 2022 |
493
(WMAU help/info page) |
174
17 Inspiring Australian Women to Celebrate This Australia Day |
||
Email - June analytics - Announce newsletter
| Total subscribers and unsubscribes to the Announce monthly newsletter in June 2026 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | June 2025 | Annual change |
| Subscribers | 529 | 529 | - | 510 | +19 |
Ticketing
| Total followers of Humanitix account in June 2026 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | Jun 2025 | Annual change |
| Followers | 141 | 140 | +1 | 7 | +63 |
President’s report
Wikimania preparation
Most of my attention since the last Board meeting has been on supporting TJC and the staff to finalise the Indigenous Content Guide and the White Paper as these are a key part of our activities at Wikimania. I have thoroughly read both documents, provided feedback and done a close proofread. Both are in very good shape and I look forward to them being released publicly very soon.
In support of the pre-conference workshop I sent numerous personal email invitations to key Wikimedia colleagues inviting them to participate. We have attracted a diverse representation of Chapters which is positive to see.
This is very important work that everyone at WMAU and who has been involved should be proud of.
Regular meeting with WANZ President
James Taylor, the recently elected President of Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand (WANZ), and I have arranged a semi-regular meeting to support closer engagement between our Chapters. Belinda and I were privileged to meet James at WikiCon Wellington earlier in the year.
Secretary’s report
Membership
Two new applications, both received in July.
June membership statistics
| Total members of WMAU at 30 June 2026 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | This month | Last month | Monthly change | June 2025 | Annual change |
| Financial members | 98 | 97 | 1 | 84 | 14 |
| Lapsed memberships | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Member applications in June | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Treasurer’s report
Financial statements
Financial statements tabled for June:
- Profit and Loss Statement June 2026
- Profit and Loss comparative over 5 years
- Balance Sheet June 2026
As discussed in the previous Board meeting we had been considering the Finance review in preparation for our AGM. You will note in the P&L and the Balance sheet that both Year 1 and Year 2 of our WMF grant were received in the 2025-2026 financial year. We received the Year 2 and ICIP project funds (AUD$636,100), on 30 June 2026, and the Year 1 and ICIP project funds (AUD$633,286) on 23 July 2025. This has impacted revenue, bringing it to AUD$1,269,386, easily pushing us from Small Charity to the Medium Charity status, for financial reporting. Peter, Belinda and Elliott are in the process of identifying a suitable Auditor and are working with Key Admin ensuring our finance reports are ready to hand over for review and/or audit.
During the past year we had a significant increase in donations to over $21,000. This is in addition to the grant received through Creative Australia's Australian Cultural Fund, to facilitate $5000 from the Australian Communities Foundation. We have also earned $10,954 in interest, and received over $30,000 in the grant from APNIC for the Ian Peter archive project. Consulting costs are mainly for the scoping and delivery of the first phase of the ICIP Guide and Protocol project with Terri Janke and Company, but also for Agentry to develop an in-depth submission on Copyright and AI to the Federal Attorney General’s Dept, and copyright evaluation work on the Ian Peter archive. The significant increase in venue hire was for the National Film & Sound Archive to host us for WikiCon Canberra.
WMF Grant expenditure - as at 30 June 2026
Total Approved Budget: $484,232
Total Expenditure: $476,255
Total Remaining Funds: $7,977
Overall Position
- Percentage of budget spent: 98.35%
- Percentage remaining: 1.65%
| Strategy/Category | Budget allocated ($) | Expended ($) | Remaining ($) | % remaining |
| Strategy 1: Engagement (includes WikiCon Canberra) | 76,000 | 88,459 | -12,459* | -16.39%* |
| Strategy 2: Equity & Inclusion | 24,800 | 17,274 | 7,526 | 30.35% |
| Strategy 3: Capacity Building | 40,000 | 31,477 | 8,523 | 21.31% |
| Staff & Administration | 343,432 | 339,045 | 4,387 | 1.28% |
| TOTAL | $484,232 | $476,255 | $7,977 | 1.65% |
* Strategy 1 shows an overspend of $12,324 (16.22% above budget). We are yet to receive some reimbursements from ESEAP Hub towards Wikimania costs for Belinda.
The organisation is in a very strong financial position, having utilised 98.35% of the WMF grant budget by the end of the reporting period. While Strategy 1 exceeded its allocated budget by approximately 16.4%, this was offset by underspends across the other strategic areas, particularly Equity & Inclusion and Capacity Building, as well as a small underspend in Staff & Administration. Overall, the grant concluded with an unspent balance of approximately 1.65%, demonstrating close alignment between budget planning and actual expenditure.
Year 2 ICIP & IDSov project with Terri Janke and Company
Elliott and Belinda met with the TJC team and have begun conversations around the next phase of the ICIP Guide and implementation. More information will be provided after Wikimania and the feedback provided by the international community, as well as in person conversations there.
Proposed Year 2 Grant Budget for WMAU
Draft budget WMAU Budget for 2026-2027.
Moved: Peter; seconded: Kassi Hays; outcome: The Treasurer’s report was accepted.
Out-of-session decisions
Documenting out-of-session decisions (sometimes called flying minutes).
MOTION BY EMAIL: Staff contract renewals and salary adjustments (sent 25 June 2026)
Hi Board members,
Sincere apologies for the short notice. As we approach the end of the financial year, there are a number of matters that need to be finalised before 1 July. Please provide your response by Monday 29 June 2026.
Background
The current employment contracts for Wikimedia Australia's three staff members expire on 30 June 2026. WMAU has grant funding in place to support these positions for a further two years.
In 2025, the Board approved a one-year contract extension and modest salary increases for staff (approximately 3%). To provide greater certainty and reduce administrative burden, it is proposed that new two-year fixed-term employment agreements be issued rather than further amendments to existing contracts.
All three staff members continue to perform their roles to a high standard and make significant contributions to WMAU's operations, partnerships, projects, community engagement, and strategic objectives. The position descriptions are attached for your information.
Proposal:
- Belinda Spry
- No substantive changes to role or position description.
- Salary increase of 4.1% from AUD$120,000 to AUD$125,000.
- Alice Woods
- No substantive changes to role or position description.
- Position title updated to Community Engagement and Projects Coordinator to better reflect current responsibilities (previously Education and Project Coordinator).
- Salary increase of 3.3% from AUD$92,000 to AUD$95,000.
- Alison Smith
- No substantive changes to role or position description.
- Position increased from 0.8 FTE to 1.0 FTE to provide additional capacity for communications, content creation, stakeholder engagement, and project management.
- Salary increase of 3.3% from AUD$92,000 to AUD$95,000.
These salary increases will result in a corresponding increase in superannuation contributions. There is also a budget line for equipment should we need to purchase technology (eg, laptop, phone) for staff or the organisation. Provision for all these costs have been included in the Budget for 2026-2027 and circulated at previous Board meetings.
The proposed identified First Nations position at 0.2 FTE is not included in this motion regarding staff, and will be discussed with the Board separately.
Motion
That the WMAU Board:
- Approves new two-year fixed-term employment contracts for Belinda Spry, Alice Woods, and Ali Smith, commencing immediately and concluding on 30 June 2028.
- Approves a modest salary increase for each employee, as detailed in the proposal above.
- Approves the change of Alice's position title to Community Engagement and Projects Coordinator.
- Approves the increase of Ali's position from 0.8FTE part-time to 1.0 full-time employment.
- Authorises the President to execute the employment agreements on behalf of Wikimedia Australia.
Voting
Please indicate your vote by replying to this email with:
- Support
- Against
- Abstain
This motion by email will be considered approved if supported by a majority (4 people or more).
As always, feel free to discuss or add comments.
Your time and consideration is greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Belinda
Moved: Elliott Bledsoe; seconded: Kassi Hays; outcome: supported by Peter Neish, Jeremy Ludlow Mylee Joseph. Passed
Matters for discussion
Minex CRC
Wikimedia Australia has been approached by MinEx CRC (https://minexcrc.com.au/) regarding a potential paid project focused on increasing the discoverability and accessibility of its openly licensed research outputs. MinEx CRC is a large not-for-profit Cooperative Research Centre involving industry, government, universities and research organisations working in the field of mineral exploration. Note that Minex is not itself a mining company. As an initial step, Alex Lum provided a demonstration of Wikidata and the opportunities it offers for connecting and exposing research information to a global audience.
MinEx CRC has now indicated a strong interest in engaging WMAU to assist with the advertising and recruitment of a paid Wikidata Project Lead, and potentially a paid Wikidata Project Officer, to undertake the work. An initial first phase would involve identifying and reviewing MinEx CRC's openly licensed publications, datasets and other documentation, and beginning the process of adding relevant metadata and records to Wikidata. Subject to the outcomes of this phase, there may be opportunities for subsequent phases involving additional document collections and knowledge assets that require assessment and integration into Wikidata.
Minex CRC have indicated they could start Phase 1 in mid-late July 2026, with a very loosely estimated conclusion of December 2026. Future phases would commence in 2027.
The overall objective of the project is to improve the long-term discoverability, accessibility and reuse of Australian mineral exploration research through Wikimedia platforms. Given MinEx CRC's focus on mineral exploration, the Board is invited to consider whether this opportunity aligns with Wikimedia Australia's values, strategic objectives and proposed ethical partnership principles.
NOTE: At this stage, no agreement has been entered into and discussions remain exploratory.
Please also see the Policy section below, where Belinda has developed a simple DRAFT Ethical Sponsorship and Partnership Policy (see Decision Making Rubric to support decisionmaking for this and future opportunities).
Questions:
- Does the organisation have a record that is inconsistent with Wikimedia values?
- Could the partnership undermine community trust?
- Would the partnership affect our ability to work with First Nations communities?
- Would a reasonable observer conclude that WMAU is supporting open knowledge or endorsing the partner's industry or activities?
- Can WMAU undertake this work while maintaining independence, supporting open knowledge, respecting First Nations relationships, and avoiding any perception that it is endorsing mining activities?
- Should Wikimedia Australia undertake a paid project to improve access to openly licensed research produced by an independent not-for-profit research organisation operating in the mineral exploration sector?
NOTES: Risk around Conflict of Interest.
AGM 2026 planning: 20 September
Please review the 2026 AGM Planning document which outlines timeline, key stages and documentation.
Are you staying on or has your term expired? Please review the following on our website to help establish your terms served:
- Last year’s 2025 AGM has a table with each Board member listed
- Also our WMAU Board page.
If you have made a decision to remain on the Board or step-off please advise Elliott, Shravan and Belinda by 31 July 2026. This will allow us time to plan for and approach new Board members in the leadup to the AGM.
Are there any major changes, proposals or information we need to share with our membership at the AGM? For example, the update of the Rules of Association. What else requires input, consultation and a vote from our membership?
ACTION: Advise on your intention to remain on the Board or step off. Additionally, please send ideas to Belinda, Elliott and Shravan by 1 August, to be prepared for the pre-AGM communications to members.
WMAU Diversity, Inclusion, and Safety Standing Subcommittee
We have received two excellent submissions from community members interested in joining the DIS Standing Subcommittee.
They are:
- Joy Nettleton. Involved in the CSU and ANZSI Wikidata project, and is a qualified primary school teacher.
- Claudine Chionh. Works at Australian Queer Archive and has previous governance experience being a director of intertwine, which provides inclusion and intersectionality training and consultation; and as a member of the Victorian Greens, on both the Queer Greens and Multicultural Greens working groups.
The Standing SubCommittee includes: Kassi (Chair), Mylee (if needed to support), Alice, and potential Joy and Claudine.
Should we consider gender balance and/or any other groups to ensure representation? No, the current makeup is fine.
Moved: Elliott Bledsoe; seconded: Peter Neish; outcome: In favour: Kassi Hays & Mylee Joseph Passed
Partner Projects 2026-2027
As with previous years, we have capacity in our budget under the Capacity Building budget to offer 3 Project Partner grants of up AUD$10,000 each, or less if smaller amounts are applied for. We will have the ICIP Guide to support projects this year, and have incorporated guidance and questions in the submission process to ensure that all applicants consider First Nations perspectives from the outset.
Ali has set-up the Partner Projects in Asana and documentation in our shared drive, and is also preparing content for the website and newsletters. Approximate timeline and key dates: applications open 31 July and close 14 September, offers out to successful applicants by 30 September, sign contracts by 16 October, first funding payments released 19-30 October. Projects run through to 31 May 2027.
We will need two Board members and two Community members for the subcommittee to evaluate submissions. Last year this was Kassi and Emily representing the Board, and Kerry and Annie from our community. Consider Conflict of Interest if the organisation you work for (or have close connections with) is going to apply.
Moved: Elliott Bledsoe; seconded: Mylee Joseph; outcome: The Board approved the commencement of the Partner Projects 2026-2027, the allocation of funding, and created the Partner Projects subcommittee to review and select submissions to receive funding.
NGA First Nations Wikimedian in Residence project partnership
Post WikiCon Canberra we’ve had lengthy discussions with key staff at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) who will support a First Nations Wikimedian in Residence partnership project through their First Nations Alumni program commencing in October. We have $7500 from our Equity and Inclusion budget to allocate to this (separate to Partner Projects). We also allocated an additional $15,000 for Indigenous Engagement to support a First Nations Reference Group and community consultation that could feed into this NGA project or further work by TJC on the Implementation of the ICIP Guide.
Moved: Elliott Bledsoe; seconded: Mylee Joseph; outcome: The Board approve.
Drafting of Learning Report for WMF
The Draft Learning Report 2025-2026 to summarise our achievements, outcomes and lessons learnt during the first year of our current triennial WMF Grant is due at the end of this month. It is still being completed and also populated with statistics and metrics. If you have any suggestions for significant items that should be included please add comments or feel free to edit. To be completed and uploaded to Fluxx by 30 July 2025. Will circulate by email for comments.
Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG) update prior to AGM
Elliott will provide an update on the Creative Commons proposal and CLG.
Belinda has prepared a DRAFT briefing paper and supporting materials in the lead up to the AGM for discussion. This was presented briefly at the 2025 AGM, and also at WikiCon Canberra. Recognising the timeline is tight for this to be presented at the 2026 AGM, but we may be able to circulate this after Wikimania and get enough support. An online information session in August (at least a month before AGM) would be very useful.
Supporting material - all DRAFT:
- Draft Briefing paper (6 pages)
- Draft Comparison table handout (3 pages)
- Draft FAQ’s (4 pages)
- Draft Quick Guide for Members (3 pages)
WMF Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC)
Following up on progress of all Board and staff to undertake the UCoC training :
- Overview
- Module 1: Establish a shared understanding of the UCoC
- Module 2: Identification and Reporting (UCoC - Violations)
- Module 3: Complex cases, appeals and closing - DRAFT
Policy and procedures
Draft Ethical Sponsorship and Partnership Policy
Wikimedia Australia could adopt a practical Ethical Partnerships and Sponsorship Policy. This would cover paid projects, sponsorships, grants, large donations, in-kind support, and strategic partnerships under a single framework.
An environmental scan suggests that most charities and not-for-profits focus on three key principles:
- Alignment with mission and values
- Protection of organisational independence and reputation
- A transparent process for assessing risk and making decisions
This approach is reflected in policies from the Wikimedia Foundation, and other Australian charities.
A useful principle for WMAU could be along the lines: Does this opportunity advance our mission and strategic objectives, rather than simply generate revenue?