Volunteer Strategy Gathering/July 2015

This Volunteer Strategy Gathering will take place on 25th July 2015 at Top Office Machines, 133 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG. The space has been kindly donated by WMUK member User:EdSaperia.

The purpose of the day is to get a better understanding of how Wikimedia UK works with its members and the volunteer community to further the work of the Wikimedia movement.

There will be a short presentation about our new project planning process, designed to ensure we have ambitious and sustainable projects. This will be followed by sessions discussing our proposed structures and mechanisms for interacting with volunteers and engaging them in our work.

Please bring your ideas for projects and your ideas for how we should work with the community. We hope to have a productive day and finish with some actions for both Wikimedia UK and the community.

The official schedule is to follow, but we start at 10:30, finish by 15:00 and then this will be followed by the AGM. Lunch will be provided. A draft schedule is as follows:

1. Welcome and introduction to the day
2. Call to action
3. Thoughts from our CEO-elect
4. Introduction to the project-based approach
5. Proposals: volunteer structures and processes
6. Round table discussions 1
   1. Project-based approach and procedures (incubation and evaluation)
   2. Volunteer structures
7. What you can do for the staff and what the staff can do for you
   1. 'what you can help me do'
   2. 'what I can help you do'.
8. Round table discussions 2: Best practices for volunteer-staff liaison
9. Round table discussions 3: How would this work in practice?
   1. Groups to select an idea to 'incubate' and 'evaluate'
10. Next steps
11. Thanks and close

We hope to be joined for the day by our CEO-elect. He or she should have been appointed by then, but will probably not yet have started work.

1. We develop a shared understanding of these proposals, including the new volunteer structures and working processes
2. We gain insights from volunteers and staff as to how both could work most effectively together to achieve our common goals
3. The next steps and the timeline for achieving those are clear
4. We provide an opportunity for the CEO-elect to meet our community and to start working together.

Ground Rules
We want to have a critical and constructive discussion, and we want all present to be able to contribute. So attendees would be asked to:

• Respect other's skills, knowledge and experience.
• Listen carefully to all comments
• Be open to ideas and make criticism constructive.
• Focus on material issues and on the resolution of those issues.
• Make the most of our limited time.
• Respect Confidentiality and "Chatham House Rules"

And try not to:

• Be defensive
• Lose sight of the strategic picture
• Act in an attacking or dismissive manner

AGM

The 2015 AGM will immediately follow the close of the Volunteer Strategy Gathering.