At the AGM in April it was agreed that professionalising Wikimedia UK and recruiting our first permanent staff would be one of our priorities this year, We are now coming to the end of the process for choosing our first Chief Executive and would like your help with this.

This Sunday is the regular monthly wikimeet in London (details & directions) and the three final candidates will be there to meet the community. We would be interested to hear your impressions of them so that this can feed into the final decision of who to employ. If you require financial assistance for travel costs to attend please get in touch as we have a small budget that may be able to help.

This has been the result of a lot of hard work. Back in May we visited three recruitment agencies to discuss our staffing needs and how they could help. We selected prospect-us, a recruitment firm that works exclusively in the not-for-profit sector, who we felt would be best suited to provide us with the step by step help we need. They helped us draft the job description and advertised on the Guardian, Charity Jobs, as well as in their own network. We also advertised within the Wikimedia community using the geonotice facility on the english Wikipedia.

Over 100 people requested the application pack and 83 people applied for the post. The trustees worked with prospect-us to longlist 16 candidates who then met our consultant for a one-on-one interview. We then shortlisted six people for interview by a panel. We are very grateful to our partner GLAM institutions who who agreed to sit on the interview panel, bringing much appreciated expertise into the process. We also benefited from the help of Sebastian Molenski, President of Wikimedia Deutschland, who have already been through a similar process. The British Library kindly donated a room for our interviews, further demonstrating the importance of such relationships for the Wikimedia movement.

This appointment is going to be one of the most important decisions Wikimedia UK makes this year. We have designed a thorough process to test candidates on all the different angles. With your help, we can ensure that our new Chief Executive is the right choice for Wikimedia UK.

Location of WikiConference 2011

Wikimedia UK’s Annual Conference and AGM is this weekend. This is an opportunity for all Wikimedians in the UK to have their say about the future of their local chapter.

The prospects for next year are looking very promising: we start the year after a very successful fundraiser, with over £600k available to support and promote the Wikimedia projects in the UK. We’re building a track record of successful partnerships with museums and other “GLAM” institutions – including events at the British Museum, the British Library and Derby Museums. We have engaged with researchers at places like Cancer Research UK and the Bristol Wiki Academy.

Press coverage of Wikimedia issues has shown been a remarkable turnaround with a large number of positive articles in the national and local press and TV. This was particularly true of the coverage of the 10th Anniversary of Wikipedia.

This AGM will elect the fourth Board of Trustees of the chapter. We have received a record number of nominations and there are eight candidates contesting seven seats. You can ask a question of the candidates online here and read their candidate statements here.

The members are also being asked to decide whether to extend the term for board members from one to two years, to improve the continuity around the time of the AGM. We are keen to hear members’ views on this proposal.

If you are currently a member, you can vote on the potential board members and the resolutions by emailing tellers@wikimedia.org.uk and following these instructions:

Here to vote on resolutions.

You can also come along to the AGM to hear the candidates set out their plans in person and debate the resolutions.

If you haven’t joined the chapter yet, it’s not too late. You can join online here and then cast your votes straight away. Please note membership is subject to acceptance.

Now’s a great time to get involved!

The Wikipedia Contribution Team was founded in 2010 to help with the Wikimedia Fundraiser and to help encourage people to edit and build community spirit. Since 2010, their numbers have increased from 10 participants to over 40 and growing! The team has begun their Backlog Drive – which aims to severely reduce the backlogs on Wikipedia in 6 weeks – and now they have started real-life outreach to help encourage members of the public to edit.

It started with an event at Imperial College, London. On the 9th of February, six Wikipedians joined the Imperial College Wikipedia Society to hand out leaflets and encourage students to edit. They also spoke to the college’s librarian about possible collaboration in future between Wikipedia and the library. The event was a roaring success with future events planned at Imperial College over the next few weeks.

However, the biggest success has been the amount of interest the program has garnered from other Universities. People from institutions as diverse as the Open University to the University of Sheffield have been interested in having events held in conjunction with their college. Because of this, the Contribution Team is happy to announce a series of events, funded with the help of Wikimedia UK, at various Universities throughout Britain. This includes the Universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham and Leeds.

If you would like to take part in these events, as a volunteer or simply as someone who would like to watch, please consider signing up at the Wikipedia Contribution Team Events page. They would love to have you!