Wikimania Committee/Minutes/2018-07-22 Wikimania Cape Town

Participants

Report on some aggressions in the streets
Report on some issues related to harassments and protests
Issue related to the side-conference "Whose Knowledge" which was not open (the process needs to be different in the future: either the events are open or they are organised in different locations)

Contact person for the Wikimania Committee at the moment is Andrew Lih
There is the necessity to identify a person in charge of Wikimania Program. Members of the committee are invited to propose/suggest names.

Software to manage the scholarships
Software to manage the program (Phoebe is discussing about it with some developers)
Improving the collaboration with the communication team and reinforcing the communication of the event
Clarifying roles and procedures within Wikimedia Foundation. Ellie Young is planning a meeting to propose to establish an event team.
Difficulties in managing the budget of Wikimania. October-December: Wikimedia Foundation defines its budget for Wikimania; June: it is when expenditures for Wikimania become more pressing. But payment require 30 days.
People who receive a scholarship need to be fed (dinners need to be included). Ellie explains that at the moment it is possible to apply for refund for the dinners and that the procedure is very clear and everybody knows it. Iolanda says that she received a scholarship and she didn’t know about the procedure.
For events co-located in the preconference (i.e. Whose Knowledge) it is important to clarify if they are on invitation only and to have an application process so people can apply to attend the event (and eventually the organisers will decide to accept or not the applications). The application system allows to open up the event at least up to a certain level.

Necessity to clarify the process and to create an open space for submission. At the moment the process is not sufficiently open and clear: even if people can submit proposal by contacting Ellie Young or members of the committee, it is better to have submission pages online.
At the moment we have: Armenia, Prague (they host the hackathon), India and the proposal of organising a large inclusive event with other like-minded organisations (like Creative Commons)
If it is not possible to assign WIkimania, other events can be organised in locations asking to host Wikimania. For example regional meeting, the hackaton... This can be a solution to thank teams applying for Wikimania and to take advantage of their interest and commitment for other wikimedia events.

Ellie Young sends the proposal she is submitting to the Wikimedia Foundation about the event team
Iolanda Pensa drafts a letter for the Wikimedia Foundation asking to clarify the roles of the Wikimedia Foundation and the local teams for Wikimania (this is important to allow local teams to know what the event implies.
Iolanda Pensa drafts an application form for Wikimania 2020 based on the selection criteria.