Hi,
as promised a few weeks ago, here's the report for Februar 2009. March
and April to follow. The report is written from the perspective of
February so some wording may seem odd today.
== Projects ==
=== Zedler Award ===
Preparations for this year's presentation of the Zedler Award are under
way. Closing on a date and a venue were the main goals in February. A
meeting of partner was planned for March to discuss open issues.
=== School project ===
Catrin and I attended Didacta, an education fair, in Hanover to gather
some leads for potential partnerships. Some more work was put into the
project outline which was presented to leads we've contacted before.
=== Wikimedia Conference ===
Preparations for Wikimedia Conference continued as well. Our Community
Assistant Henriette Fiebig took over logistics. Daniel Kinzler and
Guillaume Paumier took over responsibility for the program of the
developer's and the chapter's tracks, respectively. We've selected
T-Labs as the venue which was offered to us rent-free.
=== Newsletter ===
Just in time for the general assembly, we'll be producing a new version
of the chapter newsletter. Catrin will be responsible for content and
design with contributions coming from board members, staff, and
volunteers. The newsletter will be printed in newspaper-style but will
also be available online. Main topics for the first issue will be
activities from the past months, the relocation of the office to Berlin,
the results of the fundraising campaign, the print-on-demand service
started by pediapress, and the 2009 Zedler Award.
=== Content cooperations ===
Mathias continued his talks with SLUB and other potential partners. An
agreement with SLUB is expected soon with first uploads to Commons
starting in March.
=== Public relations ===
February saw the launch of a print-on-demand service at Wikipedia
managed by pediapress, which was covered heavily by news media. Another
hot topic was the intentional addition of a fake middle name in the
article of Germany's new federal ministor of commerce, Karl-Theodor zu
Guttenberg. Our PR activities used this event as an opportunity to once
again promote our school project for media literacy in the classroom.
Overall, there were about 40 stories on Wikipedia, most of which relied
extensively on the chapter's PR activites managed by Catrin.
== Finances ==
=== Closing 2008 ===
Financial reports for fiscal year 2008 were finished in time for the
general assembly. Overall revenues for the year were €443,955.55
(2007: €289,393.29, +53%). Of those, €375,876.48 were revenues from
donations and €30.000,00 were revenues from license deals. Overall
expenditures were €344,444.35 (2007: €143,089.62, +141%) including
depreciation at €59,819.40.
=== Investments ===
The board approved new servers and tech gear for Amsterdam on January
12. An order worth €15.836,39 has placed this month.
== Staff ==
Sören Brandes started in the office as a student worker on February 26.
We've continued our search for an executive director. The search
committee decided to call for offers from headhunter to get a better
idea of services and costs involved. A new meeting was planned for March 1.
== Misc ==
For the rest of the year, these are the events and projects currently on
the radar:
March: CeBIT, General assembly
April: Wikimedia Conference
June: Wikimedia Deutschland 5th anniversary
July: You and Me
August: Wikimania 2009
September: Wikipedia Academy (?)
November: Zedler Award, Quadriga