Latin American Executive Directors gathered for the first time in Bogotá, Colombia

The Latin American Executive Directors and coordinators gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, a day before the EduWiki Conference. Executive directors and coordinators from Wikimedia Argentina, Wikimedistas de Bolivia, Wikimedia Brasil, Wikimedia Chile, Wikimedia Colombia, Wikimedia México, WikiAccion Perú and Wikimedistas de Uruguay participated in the meeting.

The meeting took place at Wikimedia Colombia’s offices, and it was born as a result of conversations after the Executive Director meeting in Oslo, Norway. Upon coming back, EDs from Latin America started having conversations, and we collectively decided that the EduWiki Conference presented a good opportunity to have our first in-person meeting. 

Our agenda included conversations around perspectives for the region, with a session facilitated by Manuel Franco-Avellaneda, from Wikimedia Colombia, that included a fun and engaging activity building different scenarios for the Wikimedia movement in the region with Lego blocks, focused on being a corporal activation that would allow us to think together and build reflections in a collective way.

Then, we had conversations around strategic planning processes that are being developed by affiliates. There, we exchanged aspects of our programmatic areas. We identified a few areas where collaboration could happen: strengthening communities and strengthening our organizations. For the first one, we identified as important aspects establishing better connections between Portuguese and Spanish speaking communities, improving involvement and retention of volunteers, and fostering the development of a technical community. As for the second point, we identified opportunities related to exchanging knowledge on internal processes and reporting, and sharing models and templates for making projects.

Lastly, we wrapped up with a session on fundraising. The session included an overview of the current fundraising landscape, particularly in the Wikimedia movement; a capacity assessment of our current fundraising abilities; and lastly, we delved into a case study of Wikimedia Brasil’s fundraising practices and methodologies.

We also invited staff from the Wikimedia Foundation to exchange ideas on strategy, fundraising, and advocacy efforts.

Upon coming back, we ran a small survey. Everyone agreed that the meeting happened in amicable terms, and most people found the meeting useful. This meeting was our first attempt to strengthen collaboration among Executive Directors from Latin America, to find commonalities and work towards a shared agenda.

We want to thank Wikimedia Colombia for being such a wonderful host, and we look forward to receiving the rest of the Executive Directors at São Paulo, in Brasil, at the end of the year, for the global DEs meeting.