Newsletter August 2023

Report General Assembly

It was the first physical general assembly of Wikimedia Belgium since 2019. The general assembly on 29 April unanimously approved the 2022 financial year. There were 10 members present, 2 proxies and 1 non-voting volunteer. A detailed discussion of the balance sheet followed, as well as the audit committee's report.

This was followed by the election of the new board. Mike and Sam indicated they would not renew their terms of office for personal reasons. We would like to thank Mike and Sam for their many years of contributions to the Wikimedia community. They become advisors to the board, as provided for in our governance procedures. We welcome a new board member: Norbert Matheuwezen (Norbert zeescouts).

Please find the report of the meeting. You can also read the activity report and the 2022 financial report there.

We were guests of Amazone where a writing session on their project "Wikipedia as a tool for gender mainstreaming" was held in the morning.

Photo Contests Wiki Loves

The summer of 2023 is going to be very busy in terms of photography. From July to September, no less than four photo contests will go on under the motto "Wiki Loves", on the subject of heritage and monuments.

Two contests are going international (Wiki Loves Living Heritage and Wiki Loves Monuments). There is a national photo competition (Wiki Loves Heritage), and a regional one (Wiki Loves Pajottenland Zennevallei) as an initiative of the Erfgoedcel Pajottenland Zennevallei.

The Wiki Loves Living Heritage, Wiki Loves Heritage and Wiki Loves Pajottenland Zennevallei events run from July to September, while Wiki Loves Monuments takes place in September only.

Those interested in judging can let us know at jury@wikimedia.be. Judging is a very exciting activity and takes place entirely online. It takes place in October, during which you might spend 4 evenings on this task. Judging uses the Montage tool. The aim is to complete one round each week. You can evaluate the photos at your own pace. The judges evaluate the photos independently. The jury makes a motivation report for the winners together. The more judges, the lighter the work...

Wikipedia pages wanting photos contest

Wikipedia articles often do not yet have a photo, even though media files are available on Wikimedia Commons. Sometimes a photo is missing in a single language. This is unfortunate, because a photo makes an article enjoyable to read.

Add a first photo to a Wikipedia article. This is very easy to do. Either you can add an infobox that automatically uses a photo from Wikidata.

You automatically enter the competition until the end of August by mentioning #WPWP #WPWPBE in the edit summary of the relevant Wikipedia article. This activity is useful to combine with the above photo contests.

Writing contest

As usual every year, the Dutch Wikipedia is once again organising a writing contest. Get motivated and join in to write a great article! You can participate from 1 August onwards. Articles must be finished by October 31. You can participate here and find more information.

Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund

The Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund has the honour of successfully concluding the first two projects. For the two projects together, we disbursed €9,600, based on invoices and the activity report. These projects are supported by tax donations through the King Baudouin Foundation.

• KOERS. Museum van de wielersport, history of cycling
• Amazone, gender mainstreaming, the inventory of women's associations

New projects are welcome via friends@wikimedia.be.

Collaborating with museums

Wikimedia Belgium collaborates with several museums. This is a good opportunity to encourage volunteers to help document museum collections.

• The Fotomuseum Antwerpen Goes to document the Gevaert photo paper.
• The Guido Gezelle archief has a year-long project to archive Guido Gezelle's letters.
• The Industrial Museum Ghent: writing session every first Thursday of the month at 4 p.m.
• The Jenevermuseum Hasselt is working on a year-long project to list gin distilleries on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.

Wikipedia in education

More and more universities, colleges and humanities schools contact us to teach their students how to write a solid article for Wikipedia. It helps students do research on a topic, look up sources, and make their knowledge available to the public. Some concrete examples from the past few months:

• Atheneum of Beveren-Waas
• Subject history in the journalism course of the Erasmushogeschool Brussel.
• African archaeology UGent
• History of the Middle Ages UGent
• Vives Kortrijk
• Women and science with ULiège

Heritage institutions

• Project Wiki Loves Pajottenland Zennevallei
• Project Erfgoedlijnen Roeselare

Tool to find regular Wikipedians

Would you like to know which wikipedians are active every day? There exists a tool to find out. Would you like to know the absolute champions?

Donations to the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund

We have a new QR code available that allows you to donate directly via Payconiq. Scan the code with your smartphone, enter the amount and confirm the payment. Never has transferring a donation been so easy. The King Baudouin Foundation provides Belgian tax certificates for donations of at least € 40. A classic structured bank transfer remains possible at any time. Several European countries accept a tax certificate, according to their own conditions.

Contact us

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