2026-04-18 General Assembly
| APPROVED |
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. Associate members can become effective member, after 6 months being associate member, upon request, and after approval by the Board.
Venue
[edit]| Saturday 18 April 2026 from 14:00-18:00
Transport & Mobility Leuven, Diestsesteenweg 71, 3010 Leuven |
Introduction
[edit]14:00 Opening of the session
Meeting administration
[edit]- Chair of the meeting: Griet De Ceuster
- Note taking: Caren Vervaeke
- Vote counting: Bas van Pelt
Presence of members
[edit]List of general assembly attendees:
Voting members
[edit]- Frans Grijzenhout
- Roland Rotsaert
- Inge Van der Stighelen
- Robin Pepermans
- Rony Vissers
- Norbert Matheuwezen
- Bas van Pelt
- Griet De Ceuster
- Dominique Labar
- Antoine
Becoming an effective member
[edit]The Board confirms the following effective members:
- Nyo Dekens
- Mohamed El Yousfi
- Mondo
Proxy declarations
[edit]| Proxy giver | Proxy holder |
|---|---|
| Geert Van Pamel | Inge Van der Stighelen |
| Ciell | Frans Grijzenhout |
| Mondo | Nyo Dekens |
Non-voting participants
[edit]Associate members
[edit]- Pieterjan
Observers
[edit]- Caren Vervaeke
| Counting | Result |
|---|---|
| Count of presence | 12 |
| Count of proxies | 3 |
| Total represented | 15 |
| Ordinary majority | 8 |
| Associate members | 1 |
| Observers | 1 |
Introduction round
[edit]Everyone introduced themselves briefly.
Activities in 2025
[edit]The activies in 2025 are presented, including the Public Domainday, Wiki Loves photo contests, Industriemuseum, Meemoo (Project Visual name authority), and the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund.
A brief explanation of the founding of Wikimedia Belgium.
Overview of activities in 2025:
- Public domain day
- Dominique participated at the General Assembly of Wikimedia Europe in Prague, and the Hackathon in Istanbul.
- Board planning days: Every year in September, location: by the sea, hours: 2 days (including overnight stay).
- A Freelancer completed her first year as a communications and project manager.
- 4 photo contests:
- Wiki Loves Heritage
- Wiki Loves Monuments
- Wiki Loves Monuments Luxembourg
- Wiki Loves Denderland
- Planned photo contests 2026 (in the sommer months):
- Wiki Loves Heritage
- Wiki Loves Monuments Belgium and Luxembourg
- Wiki Loves Denderland
- Collaboration with museums and archives; WMBE works closely with strategic partners to promote the use of Wikipedia/Wikimedia.
- Industry Museum Ghent
- Projects of the Friends of Wikimedia fund:
- Wiki Loves Denderland
- Huis van Alijn and Industriemuseum
- meemoo
- Heritage institutions & Archives
- Visual Name Authority (meemoo)
- Wikipedia in Education:
- Antoine has led sessions for teachers on how to use Wikipedia in education.
- Erasmushogeschool Brussel - Journalism course, History subject - for 7 years now there is a session for the students who have to write a Wikipedia article.
- Partnerships:
- Friends of Wikimedia Fund
- WikiFranca
- Wikimedia Europe
- Press about Wikipedia and Wikimedia:
- Wikipedia was interviewed by Radio 1 "Zijn er nog vragen?" by Kobe Ilsen
- Standaard Solidariteitsprijs: The design must be delivered before the end of June; 1 pager
- Communication:
- Publication of Vrije kennis ontsluiten met Wikimedia (book and PDF; second edition D/2025/13702/0001)
- The CC BY-NC-SA is not the best solution. But it was required for the first edition (part of a project of de Vlaamse Gemeenschap). For the next edition CC BY-SA should be used (needs approval from Hilke Arijs and Geert Van Pamel). The design of the book is owned by the printer. The CC BY-NC-SA licence is not a problem as such, because all the images are public domain, or being created by Hilke. An attachment will be published with the list of images, and their credits. WMBE must be a role model to correctly apply copyright rules.
- New website wikipedia.be. Since January 2025, the domain name is owned by Wikimedia Belgium. It was originally paid for by Wikimedia Netherlands. The website has been modified for automatic browser language detection.
- Note: we started in February 2025 with Bluesky instead of Twitter/X.
- Please email all content for newsletters and social media to socials@wikimedia.be
- Activity report 2025
- Publication of Vrije kennis ontsluiten met Wikimedia (book and PDF; second edition D/2025/13702/0001)
Approval of the Annual Accounts 2025
[edit]Full review of the financial report.
- Annual Accounts 2025 (legal statements)
- Financial report 2025 (WMF grants)
Annual accounts Wikimedia Belgium 2025
[edit]Composition of committee
[edit]The committee consisted of Frans Grijzenhout and Nyo Dekens.
Opinion of the committee
[edit]The committee had full access to the accounts. During the audit, a few incorrect entries were identified, which have since been corrected. No other irregularities or anomalies were found. In the opinion of the committee, the financial statements/2025 give a true and fair view of the expenditure and income in 2025, the provisions and the equity as at 31 December 2025.
The audit committee recommends that the general meeting approve the financial statements/2025 and grant discharge to the board for the financial year 2025.
Checks and balances
[edit]The bank account balances as at 31 December 2025 have been verified and tally with the bank statements. The receipts for 2025 have been checked. The entries tally with the bank statements.
Expenditure has been checked by means of random checks. Expense claims from board members have been checked in full. In addition, all WMBE statements have been checked. This involved examining exactly where the expenditure went and whether it corresponded with the relevant documents, invoices and expense claims.
Balance sheet: Equity has increased by €1,011.17. Cash and cash equivalents have increased by €16,484.53. This was mainly due to the WMF grant for 2026, which was received as early as December 2025. The amount has been recorded on the balance sheet under liabilities.
General suggestions
[edit]Nihil
Control of the WMF grant
[edit]The WMF grant for 2025 amounted to €70,860. Half of this amount was received in 2025, and the other half in 2025. In addition, the WMF granted permission to reduce the repayment for 2024 by €10,000. This amount is also included in the balance sheet as at 31 December 2024. The total budget for 2025 thus amounted to €80,860.
Expenditure in 2025 totalled €78,089.28. The balance of €2,770.72 was added to the 2026 grant following approval by WMF.
The WMF grant for 2026 amounts to €59,010 + €2,770 and is shown under liabilities on the balance sheet as at 31 December 2025.
Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund
[edit]A separate budget used for projects.
- In 2025, WMBE received €18,260 from the fund. In 2025, €9,008 was paid to the participating institutions for the implementation of the projects. As the projects will continue into 2026, a provision of €9,252 has been included in the balance sheet.
- Donations of 20,014.20 € were received in 2025. The total amount available as of 1 January 2026 is 41.656.82 €.
- In 2025, we started 3 projects. In 2026, 2 projects will start. Read more here.
For information:
- The FVV Committee thanks for donations to the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund.
- Doing a gift is made easy with the QR-code.
- The Belgian government is requiring people to provide their national number (consequence: international donations are not possible any more).
- Renewal of the contract with the King Baudouin Foundation till 2028.
Audit report by Nyo Dekens
[edit]Declaration
[edit]Having carried out my checks, I have not identified any further issues or irregularities. Based on the documents and statements reviewed, everything appears to be in order. I therefore recommend that the general meeting approve the financial statements for 2025.
Work performed
[edit]Over the past month, I have carried out random checks on the expense claims of various members to ensure that they were correctly submitted and processed. For the board members, I have checked all expense claims in full. I have also checked all WMBE statements. In doing so, I looked, amongst other things, at exactly where the expenditure went and whether it matched the corresponding documents and expense claims. Initially, there was some uncertainty as I did not yet have immediate access to everything and because Frans had spotted a few errors in the documents. I subsequently checked these points during my audit. Fortunately, it turned out that he had already identified these errors and followed them up in collaboration with Geert.
Approval of financial statements
[edit]The financial statements were approved.
Discharge of the board
[edit]The board was granted discharge.
Approval of the budget 2026
[edit]| Budget item name | Grant funded | Carry-over from 2025 |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning or training expenses | 14.450,00 | 14.450,00 | |
| Operating expenses | 2.970,00 | 2.770,72 | 5.740,72 |
| Programmatic expenses | 7.350,00 | 7.350,00 | |
| Staff expenses | 30.000,00 | 30.000,00 | |
| Travel and participation expenses | 4.240,00 | 4.240,00 | |
| Total | 59.010,00 | 2.770,72 | 61.780,72 |
An overview of the budget 2026, the activities in the first half year of 2026, and an outlook for the second half of 2026 is presented. We received a WMF grant of 59.010 € for 2026.
- Additional income:
- Training & Services
- Donations
- Members
- Additional funding via Friends of Wikimedia Belgium, but this is not an operating budget for Wikimedia Belgium. These donations are used solely to fund projects.
- Outlook for 2027:
- The budget for 2026 will depend on the strategic plan that Wikimedia Belgium will submit
- Wikimedia Belgium must professionalise in order to secure more funding from the Foundation
We have a freelancer for 1 day per week for communication (e-mail, internal and external websites, social media), project management, and partner relationships.
Board elections
[edit]Association rules
[edit]The procedure and the rules for nominations is presented.
- 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
Candidates
[edit]Can continue their 2nd year Board member without re-election:
Up for re-election:
New candidate:
Voting by the General Assembly
[edit]- Approval of re-election of four board members
- Approval of new board member Nyo Dekens
| Statement | Yes | No | Abstain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approval of the Annual accounts 2025 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Agree to Discharge the board 2025 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Approval of the Budget 2026 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Approval of Board member Dominique Labar | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| Approval of Board member Geert Van Pamel | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| Approval of Board member Griet De Ceuster | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| Approval of Board member Inge Van der Stighelen | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| Approval of Board member Nyo Dekens | 13 | 1 | 1 |
Note: board members can't vote for themselves, as this is considered being a conflict of interest.
Other subjects
[edit]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.
The meeting was closed at 17:00, followed by a drink and some snacks.