Meeting:Committee (2024-04-15)


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Committee meeting

15 April 2024

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This meeting has two pages: one restricted-access page (only for members of the current Board) and one public-access page (which may have sensitive information redacted).


  • Present: Amanda Lawrence, Bunty Avieson, Peter Neish, Kelly Tall, Tom Hogarth, Elliott Bledsoe, Jeremy Ludlow, Alice Woods (proxy for Belinda Spry)
  • Apologies: Belinda Spry, Emily Mierisch
  • Etherpad:

Meeting opened: 7pm AEST

Acknowledgement of Country

Previous meeting

Decision
Decision: That the minutes of the 18 March 2024 meeting be accepted
Moved: Tom; seconded: Bunty; outcome: moved
Notes:


Matters for Noting

Executive Officer's Report

Staffing update

Key Admin advised that the $8000 in funding provided 22 days of additional staff time between 4 April and the end of the financial year. This has enabled staff members to increase hours from 4 April to focus on the Evaluation and Stakeholder Analysis. A productive meeting with WMAU staff and WMF staff Rebecca Maung (Manager, DE&L, Community Growth) and Jacqueline Chen was held on 4 April to commence this work.

Partner Projects

WiR - EPA Victoria

Olivia Fougerais, the Wikimedian in Residence (WiR) at the Evironmental Protection Agency (EPA) has completed her Residency and provided her report, a final blog post and slides she presented to EPA staff.

WiR - Biodiversity Heritage Library

Nicole Kearny and Jack Eastaugh are working on solutions with our community regarding some of articles tagged for deletion/notability.

WiR- Environment Centre NT

Caddie Bain is holding a second editathon for ECNT on 6 April.

WiR - Library and Information Science WikiProject

Mary Coe has provided a progress report, is drafting a blog post and is working successfully with her students on Wikidata. Mary has also instigated discussions between WMAU staff and CSU Students Placement team for internships or residencies at WMAU.

ESEAP Preparatory Council

The ESEAP Preparatory Council has released the Draft ESEAP Hub Charter and asked for community feedback and input on the Talk page. The election process for the proposed Congress and Council of the ESEAP Hub will be released soon. Expecting extensive discussion with revised versions available at the ESEAP conference in May. Members of the Wikimedia Board are encouraged to add comments.

First Nations and Wikipedia Report

Professor Bronwyn Carlson has advised the DOI for the report has been allocated. The draft report has been designed by Jannah Poole Designs with artwork licensed from The Torch for the cover.

Australian Citizen Science (ACSA) update

Jessie Oliver advised that the Australian Citizen Science (ACSA) Committee considered a more formal partnership. However due to their current partnerships, programming and very small number of staff (one person part-time) they will hold off from a ormal partnership at this point in time. Will revisit late this year or next year, with a probable joint event, during Science Week or Citizen Science Week 2025.

President's Report

Advocacy update

WMF Global Digital Compact Advocacy Group

The Global Digital Compact (GDC) was proposed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his 2021 report, Our Common Agenda, which explored the future of global cooperation to address the interconnected challenges of the 21st century. The GDC will develop a framework for global digital cooperation, covering a wide range of issues including access to digital technologies, digital inclusion, digital governance, the use of digital technologies for sustainable development and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. After a consultation process in 2023, the GDC will be formally negotiated by UN member states in 2024, with the final text to be adopted at the UN Summit of the Future in September 2024.

Wikimedia Foundation Global Digital Compact Advocacy

Draft Open Letter by the Working group is in development for publication on 23 April 2024. WMF aims to use the open letter to influence key stakeholders in the GDC process to (a) remind them of our points (b) ask them what they submitted/think as a way to hold them accountable to engaging in the process. They will also be using the open letter to inform the general public in multiple countries about our vision for the GDC. WMAU could support campaign about the letter - a media kit will be released. See meta for updates.

Australian Copyright reforms flagged

More details can be found here: https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/copyright-reform-protect-remote-learning-11-04-2024

“As a result of concerns raised at the Ministerial Copyright Roundtables, the Government will be moving amendments to the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) to make clear that existing rules for copyright materials in the classroom also apply when lessons are delivered online.”

“The Government will also be conducting further consultation on the design of a proposed Australian ‘orphan works’ scheme.‘Orphan works’ are copyright materials for which an owner cannot be found, yet represent significant cultural value for users and Australian society. Progress on these issues will occur simultaneous to the Government’s ongoing work on Copyright and AI through the Copyright and AI Reference Group, which was also established as an outcome of the Ministerial Copyright Roundtables.”

Expecting an exposure draft for online teaching and learning.

Action
Action: Watching brief on orphan works.

Charters

ESEAP Hub Charter

Draft now available for review (see matters for discussion)

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ESEAP_Hub_Charter

Movement charter

Full draft of the Movement Charter has been published on Meta for review, Community Engagement – April 2 to April 30, 2024. The Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) invites everyone in the Wikimedia movement to share feedback on the full draft of the Wikimedia Movement Charter.

WMF Affiliate Strategy

Report consultation occurred Feb- March 2024. Strategy can be found here.

WMF Annual Plan 2024-2025

Mariana Iskander (CEO Wikimedia Foundation) sent an email about the annual plan and the need to adjust the WMF strategy. Plan can be found here.


Secretary's report

Membership report

February 2 new membership applications (Complimentary staff memberships)

Treasurer's Report

Year 3 Draft Budget

Draft Budget submitted on 19 March and now waiting for feedback from Jacqueline Chen (Senior Programme Officer - ESEAP Region).

Overview of the Grant budget at 10 April (9-10 months)

Strategy 1: Engagement - utilised 69% Strategy 2: Equity & Inclusion - utilised 80% Strategy 3: Capacity Building (set costs for Staffing and Admin removed) - utilised 92% (Note recent large spend for S3 was on AIATSIS course, Project Partners grants, Content, and staff time increase for Evaluation, Stakeholder Analysis)

Decision
Decision: That the Treasurer’s Report be accepted.
Moved: Peter; seconded: Jeremy; outcome: moved
Notes:

Matters for Discussion

APNIC and Ian Peter archives

In last year’s Partner Projects we received an application from Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) regarding the Ian Peter archive - a small collection of records around the origins and development of the internet in NSW, Australia and South East Asia. APNIC have approached us to work in partnership on a project and have funding to support. Elliott Bledsoe and Belinda Spry met with Sylvia Cadena, Head of Programs and Partnerships of APNIC and discussed what would be involved:

  • Continuing the curation of the records
  • Digitisation process of physical records, to create a digital catalogue that mirrors physical collection
  • Upload and incorporate into Wiki platforms (Commons, Wikidata, Wikipedia)
  • Potential to involve a range of Universities, experts, students, volunteers and Wikimedian-in-Residence.
Action
Action: WMAU to develop a partnership proposal for APNIC


ESEAP - Summary

The ESEAP Preparatory Council has released the Draft ESEAP Hub Charter and asked for community feedback and input on the Talk page.

The proposal is that each of the 15 affiliates/chapters will have one representative, and then 14 other ‘open seats’ representing a combination of User-groups and also individuals with an active interest/relationship with the ESEAP region. These 29 people will be the ESEAP Congress, and from this group there will be nine people elected as the Council.

Current model is to have a Congress with one representative from each affiliate and also independent members and then a Council of nine chosen from the Congress. There are some calls to have the Council as separate from the Congress.

The Board is encouraged to submit questions and suggestions to the Talk page, where there are ideas around the independence of the Council, etc. The election process for the proposed Congress and Council of the ESEAP Hub will be released soon. Expecting extensive discussion with revised versions available at the ESEAP conference in May.

HR Policy – due for review

The WMAU HR policy is due for review. Amendments will include removal of specific wording and instead refer directly to the National Employment Standard for current conditions. For example, an update is the national change in legislation on Family and Domestic Violence Leave (page 5 of our Policy) from five days to 10 days. Also added Annual Shutdown section (page 4), and slightly refined the Professional Development section (page 12).The HR Policy overall is working well but with the above changes it will remain current.

Action
Action: WMAU committee to review for decision in May meeting

First Nations report

Final Draft of the First Nations report by Professor Bronwyn Carlson was distributed to the Board for review and discussion with comments to be finalised within the week.

Action
Action: Board to provide feedback on report by 21 April and Amanda, Elliot and Belinda to provide consolidated feedback

Charles Sturt University CSU Students Placement team for internships or residencies at WMAU

Alice and Belinda met with Mary and Anita Dewi from Charles Sturt University (CSU) regarding Student Placements with WMAU. and, with your approval, will send through the following document with information about WMAU as an organisation and what we could offer students/have them work on.

Action
Action: In principal support

Craig Franklin Award 2024

WMAU Staff has drafted guidelines for the Craig Franklin Award and has sent to subCommittee for feedback, and these have largely been accepted at this stage. A brief biography of Craig Franklin has been drafted to add to the awards section of the website and this has been sent to members of WMAU Board and community who knew Craig for their feedback.

Events

Current events can be found on [site here]

Global Events

Global activities

National activities

  • ALIA Conference, Adelaide, May 2024
  • ICA Conference Conference, Gold Coast Visiting Wikimedia academics attending - opportunity for side events.
  • IFLA Information Futures Summit, 30 Sept - 3 Oct (Brisbane)
  • ALACC (Australian Libraries and Archives Copyright Coalition) and CC Australia are holding a side event on Open Access on 3 October, which we will be invited to.

Meeting Close:

9pm AEST

Next Community meeting: Wednesday 8 May 2024

Next Board meeting:  Monday 20 May 2024  

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