Wikimedia South Africa/Operational Meeting 3 October 2023

WMZA Ops Meeting 3 October 2023

Previous Meeting Minutes:

Attendees

• Bobby Shabangu
• Deon Steyn
• Douglas Scott
• Ingrid Thomson
• Michael Graaf
• Shupai Mchuchu

Agenda

General Updates

• School competition is running fine. The competition is run on Teams.

The competition is run every Tuesday, and kids are allowed to join in and ask question. Every week there are about 5-8 participants, Deon hopes to activate one or two of them.

WikiIndaba Conference 3-6 November

• WikkiIndaba conference will be taking place in November in Morocco. Bobby is part of the organising team, programme is ready and finalised as well as the scholarships which has been finanlised.
• Bobby is in contact with the bank to know the processes of them sending funds to Morocco. The bank is unable to send a proof of payment which will be made to the events company.
• The chapter is keeping a 10 which is around 200 000 rands as we are the fiscal sponsor. Some funds are being used to sponsor Michael trip to Morocco as his hackathon project was approved.
• The Morocco visa embassy is not working online. One has to go to the embassy, between 9-11 am Monday-to Friday.
• Other option is one going to Pretoria but it is costly. Those who are not in Pretoria can Courier to Bobby and he can apply on on their behalf.
• It was decided that Michael and Shupai will courier their passport to Bobby to apply

Directors liability insurance: suggestion to renew

• Douglas to explain the agenda item. Brief, of the story, Douglas had spoken to our accountants to have insurance for board members. The accountants have even given options of companies which we can use. This is a board meeting agenda item, which can be tabled at the AGM meeting

Wikipedia session at the LIASA (Library and Information Association of SA)

• The event is on the 11th of October 2023, they have a 2 hour session at the conference, they will be 30 delegates who can attend the face to face event. Jan-Hnendrick will be in attendance of the conference. A lot of seasoned Librarians would be in attendance as well. The conference is a Hybrid, but it is not being recorded. *Ingrid to share finalised program

Deon's invitation to the Festival door het Afrikaans in Netherlands 24-26 November in Den Haag

Deon has been communicating with the Community in the Netherlands, He has been invited to the Festival in the Netherlands. Deon is asking for funding from the chapter to go join the festival As much as this is a board meeting agenda, a decision needs to be made earlier, noting the visa application as well as flight prices. It was suggested that a special meeting can be held to make a decision on the matter. Michael further suggested for a fast track email, to make such decisions quicker as well as to keep paper trail Bobby and Douglas seconded Michaels suggestion, of Deon sending an email to the whole board, and a decision can be made via email. Deon to send a full detailed email of the purpose of the attendance of the conference. Deon to send monies, which will be needed to make the trip happen Connections are needed for the Afrikaans language and also connect with other langauge Wikipedias The Netherlands community will be paying for accommodation and ground travel

Next ops meeting will be on the 17 October 2023