A Global Council for our Movement

We have come a long way – as a global movement of passionate, open knowledge contributors, as a multilingual set of small and large projects, organized groups and affiliates, and for us in particular, as a committee of volunteers with a great task. We are happy to share important new drafts of the Wikimedia Movement Charter with you and look forward to receiving your feedback. 

As a committee of diverse contributors from around the world, we bring together different backgrounds, languages, Wikimedia journeys, and life experiences. We are geographically dispersed and collaboratively creating support structures and policy for a complex, interconnected movement that has grown in tremendous ways over the past 22 years. Not easy! We have been doing this by meeting virtually for many months, over countless full committee and drafting group calls. We also had the chance to come together 3 times in the past 18 months to collaborate, most recently in early June. 

Drafts to evolve together 

We have spent a great deal of time drafting and redrafting these draft chapters and are happy to share them with you so they can be improved upon and strengthened, to create our Movement’s Charter and shape its future. So this is a big invitation to you and your community members. The first draft chapter is for the Global Council and the second, which will be shared later in July, will focus on Hubs.

We have also been working on draft chapters for Decision-Making and Roles and Responsibilities, and a glossary document. We decided to keep the current conversation focused on the Global Council and Hubs and hope to share the other drafts with you when the concepts of the Global Council and Hubs are more developed. 

If you’re short on time, we have some open questions – on funds dissemination, Global Council structure, and membership – where we would love more input. You can share your thoughts on wiki, during calls, or at quite a few upcoming virtual and in-person community events. Read below to find out more.

Next steps

Taking a step back before moving forward, the concept of a global, representative governance body has a long history in Wikimedia. Going back to 2005, this is perhaps the closest we have come to creating a global decision-making body for our movement compared to previous attempts over the years. Even if this effort is strongly rooted in our Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy, there are limits to how much a committee of volunteers can create on our own. That’s why we need you. 

Help us improve the draft chapters on wiki until September 1. We will also hold informational and coworking sessions at Wikimania and various upcoming regional and thematic events from September to November. We hope to have a member from the MCDC available at each event to hear your thoughts and capture your feedback.

Please also join us for a conversation: 

• The next meeting of the Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN), July 16 at 02:00 UTC and 16:00 UTC
• The MCDC Launch Party, July 30 at 14.00 UTC. Register here and let us know if you need language interpretation support.

Individuals or groups, particularly those from under-resourced Wikimedia communities, are invited to apply for a grant to organize conversations in their languages. The Regional Specialists of the Movement Communications team will be of support to any community organizers.