Wikimedia UK is growing. Since we were founded nearly two years ago we have raised nearly £100,000 to support Wikipedia and similar open content work; we have hosted an international conference and arranged a museum backstage pass event and run an event with twenty museums across the country generating free images for Wikipedia; over 80 people have become members; and we have made significant progress towards getting charity status.

All this we have managed so far with just volunteers. But now we want to employ a Part Time Office Manager to provide administrative support to our activities. We hope this will improve our capacity to run events and engage our volunteers in the things that interest and inspire them.

The post will pay £10 per hour for 8-12 hours per week and will be for an initial term of six months, starting as soon as possible.  Standard holidays are paid in addition along with the necessary expenses for the role, including internet costs, telephone calls and stationery. The ideal candidate will be IT literate with a number of years of administrative and bookkeeping experience, ideally in a non-profit context.

Full details of the position are on the Wikimedia UK wiki.  If you are interested in applying or would like further details you can email the chair of Wikimedia UK, Andrew Turvey or call him on 07754 881 562.

The deadline for applications has been extended to Saturday 4th September.  To apply please email your CV and covering letter detailing your skills and experience in this area.

Please share these details with anyone else you think may be interested. No agencies please.

Need a book for your Wikipedia research?

Is there a rare book you need for your Wikipedia article research? A location that you need to get to for a vital piece of information, or to do some outreach? An essential piece of equipment that will help your Wikimedia activites? Wikimedia UK might be able to help.

Microgrants are grants of between £5 and £100 that help improve or facilitate your editing or outreach activities on any Wikimedia project. Microgrants schemes have been successfully run by several other Wikimedia chapters; we’re delighted to be able to bring them to the UK, starting immediately!

We aim to fund at least a dozen microgrants in the 2010-2011 financial year. You need to be a member of Wikimedia UK to apply for a microgrant – but if you’re not one already, then it’s easy to join. Once you’ve applied, then the Microgrants Committee—currently Thomas Dalton and Mike Peel—will give you feedback on your application and will let you know whether it’s successful or not. Once approved, you’ll be able to either spend the money and claim it back, or ask us to spend it directly for you. After the completion of the grant, you’ll need to report back to let us know how it went.

The microgrants process is designed to be very easy to use. While we do require you to write a grant application before getting the grant and a report after you’ve finished the activity the grant is for, there is no need for those to take a long time. A couple of paragraphs for each should be absolutely fine.

We’ve made some microgrant examples available to give you some ideas. Please, check out the rules and then send in your application!