2025-05-10 General Assembly
Wikimedia Belgium (WMBE) invites all effective members to the General Assembly.
Only effective members can vote. If you can't be present, you can give a proxy to another member. One single proxy allowed per member. There is only a physical gathering, no video conference.
Venue
[edit]| Saturday 10 May 2025 from 14:00-18:00
Amazone, Middaglijnstraat 10 Rue du Méridien, 1210 Sint-Joost-ten-Node |
Introduction
[edit]Meeting administration
[edit]- Chair of the meeting: Geert Van Pamel
- Vote counting:
- Note taking:
Presence
[edit]General meeting attendees in order of registration:
Voting members
[edit]Becoming an effective member
[edit]The Board confirms three new effective members:
Proxy declarations
[edit]Non-voting participants
[edit]| Counting | Result |
|---|---|
| Count of presence | |
| Count of proxies | |
| Associate member | |
| Total represented | |
| Ordinary majority |
Introduction round
[edit]Everyone introduced themselves briefly.
Activities in 2024
[edit]Geert shows the 2024 activity overview, including the Public Domainday, Industriemuseum, Jenevermuseum, Vrouwen van papier, Meemoo (Project Visual name authority).
- public domain day
- annual photo contests Wiki Loves
- a number of writing sessions with different organizations
- collaboration with educational institutions and heritage institutions
- Geert gives an update on Wikimedia Europe (General Assembly in Prague), the (last) Wikimedia Summit in Berlin, and Wikimania in Katowice.
- Dominique gives an overview of the Hackathon in Tallinn.
- second edition Schrijven voor Wikipedia (only PDF)
- publication of Vrije kennis ontsluiten met Wikimedia (book and PDF)
Approval of the Annual Accounts 2024
[edit]Geert gives feedback on the annual accounts and the financial report.
Annual accounts Wikimedia Belgium 2024 - Report of the audit committee 24 May 2025
[edit]Composition of committee
[edit]The committee consisted of Frans Grijzenhout and Dominique Labar.
Opinion of the committee
[edit]Checks and balances
[edit]General suggestions
[edit]Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund
[edit]- The FVV Committee thanks for donations to the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund.
- Doing a gift is made easy with the Payconiq QR-code.
- The Belgian government is requiring people to provide their national number (consequence: international donations are not possible any more).
- In 2024 we did not realize a project. We plan to execute at least 2 projects in 2025.
- Renewal of the contract with the King Baudouin Foundation till 2028.
Approval of financial statements
[edit]Discharge of the board
[edit]Approval of the budget 2025
[edit]Geert presents an overview of the budget and the activities in the first half year of 2025 and adds an outlook for the second half of 2025. We received a WMF grant of 80.860 € for 2025.
We have a freelancer as of December 2024 for 2 days per week for communication (e-mail, internal and external websites, social media), project management, and partner relationships.
Board elections
[edit]Association rules
[edit]Geert explains the procedure and the nominations.
- A mandate as Board member is valid for 2 years
- The Chair needs to be re-elected every year
- The number of Board members is between 3-6; Board decision 2015-12-05 approved at the 2016-01-23 General Assembly
- Effective members can become a Board member after being candidate board member, and after election by the GA
- Associate members can become effective member, after 6 months being associate member, upon request, and after approval by the Board
Candidates
[edit]Can continue their 2nd year Board member without re-election:
Up for re-election:
Voting by the General Assembly
[edit]| Statement | Yes | No | Abstain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approval of the Annual accounts 2024 | |||
| Agree to Discharge the board 2024 | |||
| Approval of the Budget 2025 | |||
| Approval of Board member Geert Van Pamel | |||
| Approval of Board member Norbert Matheuwezen |
Other subjects
[edit]- Application Peer-to-Peer platform for the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund; approved by the Committee, applied to the King Baudouin Foundation. We plan to start this in Q2.
- We plan to execute at least 2 projects for "Friends of WMBE" in 2024
Communication
[edit]- Every Tuesday evening from 19:00-21:00, an informal virtual meeting and helpdesk
GLAM
[edit]This summer, we will organise several photo competitions: Wiki Loves Heritage, Wiki Loves Monuments.
Expense claims
[edit]Participants of the general meeting may submit an expense claim.