December Updates from the Movement Charter Drafting Committee

December was a shorter month, the Movement Charter Drafting Committee met three times and had their scheduled break from December 18 to January 2. 

• 7 December – Monthly drop-in session: The focus of this session was on the Global Council. The support team provided an overview of the Global Council’s purpose and function to ensure call participants were aligned. A practical exercise was carried out, in which the participants were presented with a number of previous Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees resolution areas. They then had the opportunity to vote on whether these resolutions should be handled in the future by the Global Council or the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. The practical exercise was followed by a discussion. Please read the detailed recap of the call on Meta or watch the recording on YouTube.   
• 11 December – Wikimedia Summit organizers met with the MCDC members to align on expectations for MCDC’s involvement at the Summit. 
• 14 December – MCDC’s regular meeting: The MCDC discussed the Global Council, shared their reflections on the open call on December 7 as well as the new proposal for the ratification process.

Participate 

Based on the suggestions from the MCDC’s monthly open community calls, the support staff has put together a straw poll to gauge the perspectives on some of the expectations related to the purpose, role, and function of the Global Council. This poll will propose some of the areas of accountability and decision-making derived from the historic resolutions of global nature from the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation to define where movement participants think these decisions should be made in the future. You can respond to the survey publicly on Meta or use the anonymous Google Forms survey. All the responses will be accounted for in the MCDC’s discussions related to the Global Council.

What’s next?

• MCDC’s in-person meeting: Members and supporting staff continue working on the agenda for the in-person meeting in January. During their in-person session, the MCDC will work towards content consolidation. 
• In January, the Committee will not be holding a community drop-in session due to the Committee members attending an in-person meeting in Atlanta. Details of the next session with the community will be shared in early February.
• By the end of January, the support staff will publish a summary of the Movement Charter conversations and feedback from September-December 2023 on Meta for your review.

Special highlight: hear from the Movement Charter Ambassadors 

The Movement Charter Ambassador Program Round 2 has been finalized. Below you can read more about the activities held by the Ambassadors in their communities. 

MCDC Conversation Wikimedia UG Rwanda by RebeccaRwanda. Rebecca Jeannette Nyinawumuntu is a Co-founder of the Wikimedia Community User Group Rwanda, where she plays a crucial role in fostering community engagement and establishing partnerships. As an MCDC ambassador, she contributes to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee community conversations . She leads the organization of Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), Wiki for Human Rights, and Wiki Loves Women (WLW) initiatives in Rwanda. Her dedication extends to active participation in the Wikimedia Foundation Movement strategy Implementation plan in the Africa Great Lakes region. Rebecca is also the founder of OSM Rwanda and a passionate community activist in open data, focusing on underrepresented community growth, governance and advocacy in her volunteer work. Currently pursuing an MSc in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management, she exemplifies a commitment to both academic and volunteer pursuits.

(Movement Charter Conversation in Wikimedia Banjar Community on September 2 2023, photo by Arcuscloud, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Movement Charter Online Conversations in Wikimedian Communities in Indonesia by Arcuscloud. Arcuscloud started contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2019, after attending a training on how to edit Wikipedia in Banjarmasin by Wikimedia Indonesia. Since then he has been involved in Wikimedia projects and Movement in various ways, including becoming a Movement Charter Ambassador.   

(PPC Meet-up at Casino Espanol de Manila, by Ralff Nestor Nacor, CC BY-SA 4.0)

A Journey of a Thousand Steps by Buszmail. In his own words: “Juan Bautista H. Alegre heads Pilipinas Panorama Community, a thematic community based in Manila, Philippines; and has been editing Wikipedia for longer than 15 years. “Johnny Alegre” is a member of the ESEAP (hub) Preparatory Council. He was a president twice, of two distinct  Philippine Affiliates (WMPH and PH-WC), and attended the Wikimedia Conference in 2015, the Wikimedia Summit in 2022, and Wikimania 2023 in-person — and is looking towards attending the Wikimedia Summit in 2024. He tenured as Movement Charter Ambassador in two consecutive years (2022-2023) and is listed as an MCDC Advisor. He translated the Movement Charter drafts in their entirety into the Tagalog language.”