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Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Steering Committee/2011-05-06

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Wikipedia Ambassador Steering Committee

The Wikipedia Ambassador Program Steering Committee was convened as a Skype conference call at 1600 UTC, 6 May 2011. This was the first meeting of the Steering Committee since the election held in April 2011. It was a transition meeting involving both the outgoing members of the original committee and the newly elected members.

Members present included:

  • Outgoing committee members:
  • New committee members:

Annie and Sage will continue to sit in on Steering Committee meetings as liaisons with the Foundation.

Agenda

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1. Introductions and thoughts about what new members want to see from the U.S. Ambassador Program

Sage invited the participants to introduce themselves, and asked the new members to state why they had become Ambassadors and what they saw as the future for the Ambassador Program.

2. Members of the original committee explained the responsibilities of the committee to the new members. The new members then questioned the outgoing members on specifics of the program and its future.

  • Background: The new committee will have the task of transitioning the Ambassador Program from one driven Foundation staff to a volunteer driven program. This task will at least include proposing structures and processes in the following areas:

The role of the Steering Committee (providing guidance, rather than directing):

  • Converting the recruitment and acceptance of ambassadors to a volunteer community process.
  • Expanding the program in a sustainable manner.
  • Articulating strategic goals for the Program.
  • Expanding the program while maintaining or increasing quality.
  • Developing a process for removing ambassadors when necessary.

Activities

  • Meetings
  • The Steering Committee will meet Weekly or bi-weekly via conference calls. Notes of the meetings will be published online.
  • The Steering Committee will use appropriate means to keep the community updated about what it is doing.
  • Organization
  • The Steering committee will have a Chair, who will invite members to weekly meetings, set the agenda, and facilitate meetings
  • The Secretary will keeps notes and publish them in a public place.
  • Future structure of the committee and transition of the Ambassadors Program from a United States-only program to a global one.
  • The Foundation staff recommended that there be a separate steering committee for each country that develops an ambassador program. (A given ambassador program may therefore be dealing with more than one language Wikipedia, while several national ambassador programs could be working within a given language Wikipedia.) Institutions of education differ in structure and function in different countries, and each ambassador program will need to reflect local conditions. Some issues that will have to be dealt with include:
  • Overlap issues, especially with online ambassadors working in more than one national ambassador program.
  • Global compatibility of the program, i.e., that the term "online ambassador" means much the same thing in every country that has an ambassador program.
  • The Foundation is working to start a pilot ambassador program in India. This progam will provide a chance to experiment more (e.g. with no strict distinction between Online and Campus Ambassadors) and to find a local model that works best.
  • Alex Stinson envisions a UK ambassador program where a group of regional ambassadors there, primarily responsible to the UK chapter, will communicate regularly with this (US) steering committee.
  • Frank Schulenburg suggested that experiences and best practices be documented online.
  • New steering committees should not have to reinvent the wheel -- the older steering committees (this committee, so far) should advise to the younger steering committees to help them get off the ground. (Donald Albury described this as a "collaborative effort between the steering committees of the individual countries").
  • Piotr Konieczny proposed that our experiences and descriptions of best practices be developed on the outreach wiki.

3. Laying out what the committee needs to accomplish in the next few months, including:

3.1. What the Public Policy Initiative staff will be doing through September, by which time the Foundation hopes to have everything critical to running the U.S. Ambassador Program firmly in volunteer hands.

3.2. The evolution of the Online Ambassador role at U.S. universities as the program scales. A preliminary proposal for reshaping the "pod" structure for US classes is at: Online Ambassador role changes

3.3. A volunteer-run system for removing ambassadors from the program when necessary.

Christopher proposed a two-step process, with the first step being a request from a professor or from students, or a request from the community. christopher was asked to develop ideas for the second step.

3.4. Committee ideas

  • Filling in the roles (and deciding which roles there are)
    • Communicator, chair person
  • Cleaning up the old SUP structures & SUP contact group stuff

4. Housekeeping

  • Getting the new members signed up for the ambassadors OTRS queue
  • Update the Steering Committee page to reflect new members

Agenda for next meeting

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Future things to discuss

  • Selection process in relationship to community values
  • Connecting Universities and Schools page and Ambassadors pages on Wikipedia

The meeting adjourned at 1730 UTC.

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