The seedling we planted is growing every year: My notes from the CEE Youth Group’s 2025 meeting

Every person feels proud when they see the seedling they planted in a forest, garden, or any other place growing healthily. I believe our story is quite similar in nature. The CEE Youth Group, established in May 2023 with the support of the CEE Hub, met in Prague in 2023 and 2024, hosted by Wikimedia Czech Republic. This year, Wikimedia Armenia welcomed us in Yerevan. I will briefly share my experiences from the meeting held between November 21-23, 2025.

What has happened since the last meeting?

During this term, we divided into working groups within the group, as Social Media and Internal Governance, and worked to achieve our goals. While listening to Nikos speak about the Social Media working group, we also heard about the Internal Governance working group from Kamola and me. We heard various interesting data about the group from Nursultan, such as group members’ activity rates and average ages.

Internal Governance Working Group

Kamola and I explained the internal document that the internal governance group has been working on this term, and the roadmap we followed in creating it. This internal governance document covers many topics from the group membership process to the structure of working groups, from the decision-making mechanism to the responsibilities of the core team.

To summarize, the working group held two online meetings. During these meetings, we analysed the group’s current situation, discussed which changes should be made to, group’s structure, and the decision-making processes, resulting in the drafting of a document.

Social Media Working Group

Nikos stated that the working group shared youth-focused activities in the region throughout the term on the CEE Youth Group’s social media accounts and produced various videos at the Wikimedia Youth Conference held in Prague.

Some interesting statistics

Nursultan shared various interesting data with us this year, such as the activity rate of group members, demographic analysis, and meeting statistics. The data that surprised me the most was the age distribution by country. Nursultan stated that the average age of the group is 22, with Albania being the youngest at an average age of 18.7, Estonia (not reliable, only 1 member) and Kyrgyzstan being the oldest countries in the group at an average age of 24.6.

For those who are curious, here is a presentation of the statistics: CEE Youth Group – Results for (almost) 3 years

Our skills and developing them further

Following these presentations, as young users in our local communities, we wrote down our achievements and struggles over the past months on sticky notes in groups, explained them to all other participants, and posted them on the boards. As I mentioned during the meeting, this actually showed that even though we belong to different communities, we have achieved similar things and were struggling with similar issues. As young people facing similar problems, we can work together to find solutions. That’s why I can say that this part was quite productive.

Defining the group’s goals for 2026

We went through the papers with questions on these three topics one by one and wrote down the ideas that came to mind: What can CEE Youth Group do to support development of leaders? — How does an ideal wiki-leader look like? — Leadership: what has happened so far?

Following this event, we determined the activities we would carry out in 2026, ranging from supporting local events by group members to managing the group itself. The next day, we prioritized these work topics according to the group’s needs, and those who wanted to participate signed up for tasks by writing their names next to the relevant items. Afterwards, the working groups determined the dates of their next meetings internally and completed the activity.

A nice walk around the city

After lunch on the first day, we went for a walk in the nearby parks. However, this was not an ordinary walk. Because at each stop, the person accompanying us and the questions changed until our next stop. When we stopped, we shared the answers to the questions with each other in a circle. I can say that walking outdoors and listening to other participants’ experiences and stories motivated me for the future.

In conclusion

At this meeting in Yerevan, as I mentioned earlier, I realized that although we are in different places, we have experienced similar successes and struggles, and that we can find solutions together. Furthermore, the responsibilities we have taken on for 2026 will contribute to the development of the group, which will enhance our leadership skills.

As I said, we are watching the sapling we planted grow. Every participant who has contributed to the development of this group since 2023 and the support of the CEE Hub in this regard show that this sapling will become a strong tree in the future. Thanks to Wikimedia Armenia for hosting this meeting, to CEE Hub for giving us this opportunity, and to everyone who contributed. Hope to see you all again next year to see what we’ve achieved in 2026 and plan for 2027!