Wikipedia

Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Election 2025#Election FAQ


WikiWednesday Salon
When and Where
DateWednesday, September 10, 2025
Time6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Open Hour)
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (Wiki Salon)
LocationHybrid - Online & at Prime Produce, 424 W 54 Street

Wikimedia New York City invites you to attend its 2025 Annual Election/Members Meeting, a special WikiWednesday held on September 10 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 PM ET. No experience of anything at all is required. All are welcome!

As part of the Members Meeting, we will also focus on the Wikimedia NYC Programs Plan for the coming year, our Financial Report, and Annual and Monthly event teams for the coming year.

All attendees are subject to Wikimedia NYC's Code of Conduct.

Details

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  • Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2025
  • Time:
    • 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Open Hour)
    • 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (Wiki Salon)
  • Location: Hybrid - Online & at Prime Produce, 424 W 54 Street!
  • This month's facilitator is Pharos.

How to connect online: To join just follow this url: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85212519478

Agenda

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Welcome

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Annual Meeting

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  • Wikimedia NYC Annual Report
  • Financial Report
  • Team activities for coming year
  • Wikimedia NYC Elections (polls open until 8:00 pm!)

Recent/upcoming events

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Election FAQ

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What is the Members' Meeting?

The Members' Meeting is when the WikiNYC community votes to elect a new Board of Directors.

How many people will be elected to the WikiNYC Board?

This meeting will fill three elected seats, half of the elected seats on the board. Once in place, the six elected board members (including the three still serving from last year) can appoint up to five more, for a total of up to eleven. Elected board members serve a term of two years, and appointed board members a term of one year.

How are officers selected?

There are four standard officer positions: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Nominees may indicate interest in serving in one of these roles, but the board members will decide on these appointments internally.

What are the responsibilities of being a WikiNYC board member?

The WikiNYC board is responsible for the overall governance of the organization. Some legal details are available in our bylaws. The board manages finances, keeps track of membership, develops and implements strategic priorities, engages in annual planning processes, applies for grants, writes grant reports, maintains communications with the Wikimedia Foundation, holds monthly board meetings, handles issues regarding the code of conduct, pursues or facilitates events and relationships that further our goals, and works with accountants, lawyers, consultants, and any other relevant professionals whose services the organization requires. Not every board member is active in all of these areas, but nominees should expect to be involved with most of them to some degree. Despite a long list of responsibilities, it is not a full-time commitment. Separated from the volunteer activities any WikiNYC member can participate in, most board members probably spend an average of about 5-10 hours/month on official duties, with somewhat more time for officers.

If you want to learn more about people's experiences, reach out to one of the current board members listed on our Meta page.

Are board members compensated for their time?

No. This is a volunteer board.

Do I have to divulge my real name?

You are welcome to just use your Wikimedia username during the nomination phase. However, if elected, board members do have their real names and usernames published publicly.

Who is eligible to be an elected board member?

Nominees must:

  • be dues-paying members of Wikimedia New York City (contact info@wikimedianyc.org if you're not sure if your membership is current)
  • live primarily in New York or the greater New York Metropolitan Area
  • nominate themselves on the nomination page by 11:59 PM (Eastern Time) on September 7. Note that this ahead of the meeting to ensure voters sufficient time to read about the candidates.

How do I vote?

  • You must be a dues-paying member of Wikimedia New York City, having renewed in the past 12 months (since Sep 2024)
  • Register to join at wmnyc:Membership
  • Voting will be online, via emailed ballots from the ElectionBuddy service
  • Poll will be open for the 48 hours from 8pm September 8 to 8pm September 10
  • Contact info@wikimedianyc.org for any membership questions, to confirm your status, and to ensure your ballot is sent to your preferred email

How do I nominate myself?

Edit the Nomination page and copy the template there. Paste it in a subsection under the "nominations" header underneath. Change the subsection heading to be your username. Note that some of the questions have word limits. For fairness, we will be checking the word count and truncating statements that go too long.

Nominations

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Richard Knipel

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Username
Pharos (talk)
Have you been on the WikiNYC board in the past? If so, when?
I have served on the WikiNYC board since the start of the chapter, which I helped to found originally.
Describe your involvement with WikiNYC in the past. If you were a board member in the past, please also include a summary of the contributions to chapter governance you're most proud of. [500 words max]
I was the founding president of WikiNYC until 2017, and have served in that position again since 2022. Besides the building of human connections through the chapter and its communities across time, I'm proudest of my part in the hiring and onboarding of our nonprofit's first Executive Director over the past year.
Why do you want to join the WikiNYC board? In what ways would you be most interested to help? [500 words max]
I want to provide a bridge and help shepherd the next generation of WikiNYC leadership, taking our place as a vital New York City cultural institution in an emerging local free knowledge ecosystem.
Which, if any, of the officer positions align with your skills and interests? (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary). This is just to gauge interest; the elected board will decide who should be in which position. Answers like "none of the above" or "I'd prefer to wait and see" are acceptable.
I am willing to continue as president for another term, though I had hoped to facilitate a transition before now, and would still look forward to supporting that.

Patrick McGee

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Username
patrick.mcgee58
Have you been on the WikiNYC board in the past? If so, when?
No.
Describe your involvement with WikiNYC in the past. If you were a board member in the past, please also include a summary of the contributions to chapter governance you're most proud of. [500 words max]
I've only in the last year become involved with WikiNYC through my work as an Associate Archivist at CUNY. I've attended a few events, and I am looking forward to getting more engaged with the community.
Why do you want to join the WikiNYC board? In what ways would you be most interested to help? [500 words max]
I am interested in issues of information and media literacy, and have found Wikipedia vital to my understanding of where interventions in these areas can be made. I'd love to support the increasing use of Wikipedia in spheres of education.
Which, if any, of the officer positions align with your skills and interests? (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary). This is just to gauge interest; the elected board will decide who should be in which position. Answers like "none of the above" or "I'd prefer to wait and see" are acceptable.
I'd prefer to wait and see.''

Brandon Duderstadt

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Username
bstadt (talk)
Have you been on the WikiNYC board in the past? If so, when?
No
Describe your involvement with WikiNYC in the past. If you were a board member in the past, please also include a summary of the contributions to chapter governance you're most proud of. [500 words max]
I do a lot of research with and on Wikipedia, and live in NYC, so I sort of naturally started hanging around WikiNYC events. My Wiki research revolves around large scale visualization and vectorization, and has been published at venues like ACL and CVPR. I also presented results from my work at Wikipedia Day 2024.
Why do you want to join the WikiNYC board? In what ways would you be most interested to help? [500 words max]
I hadn't really considered joining before Pharos approached me, but I am a strong believer in the importance of open source, science, data, and knowledge, and I believe that WikiNYC is an institution that is dedicated to furthering these ideals. Given my background as a technology entrepreneur and AI engineer, I believe I am uniquely suited to help WikiNYC navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Which, if any, of the officer positions align with your skills and interests? (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary). This is just to gauge interest; the elected board will decide who should be in which position. Answers like "none of the above" or "I'd prefer to wait and see" are acceptable.
None - I'd prefer to spend some time on the board as a member before considering an officer position.

David Isaac Hecht

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Username
Wileycount (talk)
Have you been on the WikiNYC board in the past? If so, when?
I have served on the WikiNYC board for the past two years.
Describe your involvement with WikiNYC in the past. If you were a board member in the past, please also include a summary of the contributions to chapter governance you're most proud of. [500 words max]
I have served as Board Secretary for the past two years. In that time, I am proud of helping the board implement our strategic plan, support the development of the chapter with Pacita and the staff, helping organize and facilitate the strategy retreat, organizing the Community Garden editathons, and generally helping make our events and projects happen.
Why do you want to join the WikiNYC board? In what ways would you be most interested to help? [500 words max]
I am excited to contribute to the organizational capacity of the chapter. I have experience in nonprofit and organizational management that I have been able to lend to the chapter, and hope to continue to do so. I also am excited to provide event production support for WikiConference North America.
Which, if any, of the officer positions align with your skills and interests? (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary). This is just to gauge interest; the elected board will decide who should be in which position. Answers like "none of the above" or "I'd prefer to wait and see" are acceptable.
I am happy to continue as Secretary again, although I'm also happy to collaborate or support another Board Member in that work.

Abbad Diraneyya

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Username

عباد ديرانية (talk)

Have you been on the WikiNYC board in the past? If so, when?

I have been on the board since Ocober 2024.
I co-facilitated the process of the 2025-2026 strategic planning and defining priorities, employing to my best what I've learned from being part of the Wikimedia 2030 strategy team as well as on other affiliate boards. I've been participating in Wikimedia NYC events on a near monthly basis. I have been at events like governor's Island Wikinics, prime produce edit-a-thons, and Wikipedia's birthday celebration. I also gave a presentation on WikiData Day in 2023, and a lightning talk at WikiConfernece North America in Indianapolis.

Why do you want to join the WikiNYC board? In what ways would you be most interested to help? [500 words max]

New York City has relatively recently become my home. In additional to the perspective I have from running Wikimedia affiliates half-way across the world (for my detailed movement conributions, see here), I'm eager to bring into the NYC chapter what I have learned during my time here, in which I earned a master's degree from Columbia and started working for Uber in creating GenAI chatbots. I believe that these major technological disruption are something that we collectively need to face sooner than later, and that Wikimedia NYC is uniquely position to lead this with its location in a leading technological frontier.

Which, if any, of the officer positions align with your skills and interests? (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary). This is just to gauge interest; the elected board will decide who should be in which position. Answers like "none of the above" or "I'd prefer to wait and see" are acceptable.

I'd prefer to wait and see

Sign up

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To sign up for this event: Log in or create an account.

Regrets

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Possibly

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Likely

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