Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy/Implementation/Announcement

Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy: Affiliate health criteria and changes to User Group recognition process

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Dear all,

I would like to thank all of you who shared feedback with us during this phase of the Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy process that started in November 2022, both on- and off-wiki (you can read the report from the first phase here).

Since that point, AffCom has been working with the Board of Trustees, Foundation staff, affiliates, and wider community members to enable them to provide appropriate guidance to affiliates regarding what it means to be an active and healthy Wikimedia organisation. As a result of those conversations, AffCom has voted to adopt the following 10 criteria for affiliates, grouped into four main areas:

1. Goal delivery;
2. Organisational Development (Good governance & communication; Financial & legal compliance; Affiliate health & resilience);
3. Leadership & Inclusion (Diverse, skilled, and accountable leadership; Diversity balance (especially gender); Universal Code of Conduct compliance);
4. Engagement & Collaboration (Internal (membership) engagement; Community connection; Partnerships & collaboration).

You are encouraged to read more details about each of these criteria here, including guidance on how each can be met. All criteria will be tracked for all affiliates, except for the criteria around financial and legal compliance, which only apply to those affiliates receiving funds and/or that are incorporated.

Staff and AffCom are working on streamlining affiliate reporting requirements, and responding to feedback raised during the community feedback period about the reporting burden. The new requirements of data collected in reports would be useful also for different Foundation teams and departments, and allow for the creation of detailed regional or global reports that demonstrate affiliate health and impact.

In July 2024, AffCom will work to finalise the implementation plans for the changes to the affiliate requirements and application process. In August 2024, updates will be made to Meta-wiki and other supporting platforms.

You can follow the process here.

The insights from the 2023 process also included recognising a need to strengthen AffCom processes for evaluating potential User Groups’ furtherance of shared movement goals, sustainability, and general ability to be healthy and active movement participants. AffCom adopted the revised process for User Group recognition, and will be pausing new User Group recognitions until September 2024.

No immediate changes are happening, except the pause of considering new User Group recognitions until September, for applications received after today, June 12, 2024. Once more detailed implementation plans are developed, there will be an update here and on the relevant Meta pages with the next steps after Wikimania.

To provide your feedback, please leave a comment on the main talk page on Meta. Alternatively, you can join Open AffCom office hours on June 19 at 14:00 UTC or request a conversation as a part of Talking:2024. You can use the Let’s Talk to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.

Looking forward to your feedback!

Best regards,

Nat & Mike & Lorenzo

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees Liaisons to the Affiliations Committee