Microgrants/Imperial College Wikipedia Society
- Overview
Imperial College Wikipedians are now in our second year and have recently held a highly successful Freshers’ Fair. We would like a microgrant to help maintain our momentum by providing food and refreshments at our next two events.
- Budget
- ~£35 – Small buffet at our first Wikisocial of the year on the 16th Oct, 1830, Union Bar. Freshers’ fair mailing list members (>120) who purchase (free) Society membership from the Student Union will join us for a free pizza buffet and a chat about how to get involved with Wikipedia and the Society.
- ~£15 – Snacks and refreshments at our Newbies’ Wikilounge on the 23rd Oct (Venue TBC). New and old IC Wikipedians to meet for our first edit session of the new term with an emphasis on training newcomers and making Wikipedia editing a social experience.
- Timeline
Members of IC Wikipedians will pay for consumables themselves over the next three weeks of October and seek to be refunded from the microgrant as soon as is feasible. A report on the outcomes will be available the day following each event i.e. the 17th and 24th Oct respectively.
- Expected outcomes
We have two measures of success with regards to IC Wikipedians:
- The number of students who obtain official society membership through Imperial College Union. “”The Union requires each club to obtain a minimum of 20 official memberships each year to prevent dormancy status. Society mailing list members do not automatically have society membership and memberships from a previous academic year do not roll over to subsequent years.””
- The number of students who subsequently attend edit sessions or events held at three weakly intervals.
- Who I am
Edward Harding, President of Imperial College Wikipedians, Imperial College PhD student and avid WikiGnome.
- The IC Wikipedians run regular social edit sessions during the academic year for like minded people to get together and edit anything of mutual interest. We aim to make the experience as sociable and relaxed as possible and encourage new people to come and learn how to contribute to the Wikipedia articles that they use the most.
- Discussion
Any comments welcome
- Reports
Having done well at the Freshers’ fair in terms of email sign-ups, an important goal in the run up to our first event was to convert interested signee’s into official IC Wikipedian memberships. By the 16th October we had achieved a fantastic 39 members, beating both the union minimum of 20 and our old record of 25 for 2010/11. The Wikisocial itself was a very successful first event for the term with 17 of our members joining us at the Union bar to meet new people and find out more about the coming year. A great mix of people, from 1st year undergraduates to postgraduates, have recently joined the Society and from quite a variety of subjects. Two of our newest members also expressed a strong interest in the upcoming “Training the Trainers” event. Our first Wikilounge is now fast approaching (Tue 23rd Oct) and the venue has been confirmed as the 3rd Floor Breakout Area (Sofas opposite the lifts) of the Biochemistry Building ( also called Sir Ernst Chain Bld), South Kensington Campus, Imperial College. We are hoping to see our old-timers help our newest editors to get set up on Wikipedia and ultimately get as addicted as we are.
Actual Costs:
- Pizza Buffet - £35.95