WMUK Skills Development Training 2016

Aims

These free workshops will help with the development of WMUK trainers' soft skills.

You can attend both, or just one of them, depending on your interests and areas into which you’d like to develop.

This is a significant investment for Wikimedia UK, so it would be great if the attendees were then able to use what they learn in volunteering with us.

Course details

Volunteer engagement:

Do you want to get more people involved with editing Wikipedia? Have you wondered how to get newbies more involved and build the community?

This workshop explores why volunteer engagement works for organisation like Wikimedia locally, nationally and internationally. We will explore ways to encourage more volunteers to get involved with WMUK, and how to get existing volunteers to do more.

We will look at how you can get people from different backgrounds interested and involved with editing Wikimedia. Our participants will look at what motivates people to get involved; what rewards exist for volunteering; the difference between staff members and volunteers and what activities volunteers enjoy.

The workshop will also help to develop practical and appropriate strategies for WMUK to increase the numbers of enthusiastic and active volunteers. The workshop will end by developing individual Action Plans for activating, communicating with and motivating new volunteers.

Project Management for Wikimedians:

This workshop will help individual Wikimedians to use the principles of project management to set up and deliver successful WMUK events. Whether you are setting up a small meeting to train local business people about Wikipedia or a weekend editathon at a large university, project management techniques can help.

We will look at the best way to deliver a successful, top quality project on time and on budget.

Our participants will explore how to use simple but effective project management techniques. They will also consider the different skills needed to manage projects in a volunteer environment. They will also look at ways to assess risk factors and how to manage potential problems before they happen.

The workshop will end by creating a blueprint for project managing a Wikimedia event for volunteer members of the community.

Dates

The Volunteer Engagement training is 1/2 day and will be held on January 8 (Friday), 2016 from 14:00-17:00.

The Project Management training is a full day session and will be help on January 9 (Saturday), 2016 from 10:00 to 17:00.

Location

The sessions will be held at Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4LT. Meeting room 1A-B, basement.

Travel and accommodation expenses

Wikimedia UK will pay for travel and accommodation expenses for those that need it. If you do require reimbursement for any of these, please make Wikimedia UK aware of this in advance. It would be appreciated if you could make your own arrangements though.

Facilities

The training will take place in a room arranged in a classroom layout. There will be two flipcharts with pens, a screen, and a projector will be in the room. Refreshments will be provided. WiFi will be provided. You don’t need to prepare anything for these workshops.

Contact person

If you need further details contact Karla Marte, WMUK - karla.marte@wikimedia.org.uk

Registration of interest

Because the space for both sessions is limited please let us know if you are interested in attending any of the sessions by signing up below - do note whether you're interested in both, or just one of them. Please also briefly outline (2-3 sentences) why you’re interested, and how you could use the skills learned.

• Jason.nlw (talk) 09:37, 7 December 2015 (GMT) This course would help develop my project management skills which would be used in all aspects of my roll as a Wikipedian in Residence. Volunteer engagement is an area in which i have already had some expearience, but would like to learn more about how i could make better use of volunteer networks and how to retain volunteers following initial events.

• Elflin (talk) 22:59, 10 December 2015 (GMT) I would be interested in taking part in both training sessions, as I feel that they would be a great continuation of the Train the Trainer session I took part in with Wikimedia last year in Edinburgh. I'm currently working in a digital fabrication lab in Glasgow and my boss is keen to support me to run some wikimedia related events in the space. I have a few ideas i'd like to develop in that context and these training sessions would be a great opportunity for me to discuss and test out those ideas with other members of the wikimedia community. I would need help with travel expenses to be able to attend training in London.

Do note that this is not a first-come, first served list: the order in which people add themselves is of no significance. WMUK will be contacting you closer to the date to confirm your place.

Closing date

The closing date to respond to the registration of interest is December 17, 2015.