Reports/Report 6

Date: Oct 4, 2011

Dear Wikimedia India Members and Community,

The highlights of Chapter for the preceding month (Sep-2011) are given below.

Membership Update
The membership count, as on Oct 1st, 2011, stands at 95 members an addition of 14 members since last month.

AGM and Executive Committee Elections
The  first Annual General Body Meeting was held on the 24th of  September,   2011 at the registered office of the Chapter in Bangalore. EC elections  to fill three vacancies were held. Naveen Francis, Sudhanwa Jogalekar    and Tinu Cherian (  Profiles ) were elected  to the EC. EC extends a warm welcome to all the  new members and looks forward to working as team to further grow  the  Wikimedia movement.

Chapter would like to thank the Nominations Committee and all the members who helped in the smooth conduct of Elections.

Gautam steps down from EC
Gautam  John has stepped down  from the Secretary's role and EC, in order to  pursue  his professional and personal life priorities. Chapter thanks Gautam for his  contributions to Wikimedia Chapter and wishes him all  the best in his  future endeavours. New Secretary election process is in progress and we  will be updating once the new Secretary is elected.

Outreach and Wiki Acadamies
About   30 participants primarily comprising of Deputy Directors and Chief    librarians of the department attended the first Wiki Academy conducted   at Indira Priyadarshini State Childrens Library, Department of Public   Libraries, Bangalore. All participants were given a copy of Chapter   brochure, Welcome to Wikipedia,Evaluating Wikipedia quality brochures.

Arjuna   Rao Chavala explained how Wikipedia was founded ten years back and  how   it became the fifth most popular website with content in over 270    languages. He clarified how the principles of verifiability and Neutral   point of view help in ensuring the quality of  Wikipedia  articles. Omshivaprakash, Kannada Wikipedian demonstrated how one can  contribute  to Wikipedia by  explaining various commands available on  Wikipedia  page. Several participants made use of the internet lab  available to  create accounts,  browse Wikipedia and create articles. ( Detailed report)

This  has generated three to four leads for conducting similar events from   different parts of the country. Chapter is following up with the  proposers to firm up the schedules. Readers are requested to volunteer  in identifying additional  co-hosts for Wiki Academies and help in   conducting the same.

We look forward to your continued support

Best,

On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter,

Arjuna Rao Chavala

President