Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy/Implementation/User Group recognition process

• Submit the application through the Meta-wiki form. This application is received by AffCom and processed by support staff. As part of the application form, you'll be asked to:
  • Create a Meta page for the User Group (containing information about the group and outlining planned activities of the group for their first year).
  • Create a public letter of intent on Meta using the suggested template, and share the letter with all affected/overlapping Wikimedia movement affiliates and applicable projects on their contact pages and global mailing lists as applicable.
• Support staff will add an appropriate category to the User Group's Meta page reflecting the status of the application. For applications that do not have enough required information and/or not submitted in good faith (i.e. for trolling, abusive requests, etc.), staff will inform AffCom before archiving it.

Staff will review the application and will share recommendations for required actions to the applicant, if necessary. Staff will prepare a criteria review report once all necessary actions are completed.

AffCom will send a list of questions privately to the applicants. Applicants have 14 days before the live interview to answer the questions in writing. AffCom will host a 60 minute live interview with the applicant to discuss their application.

AffCom votes whether to progress the application to the one-year trial period.

• If AffCom approves the resolution, the one-year trial period will commence.
• If AffCom rejects the resolution, applicant will be informed by the committee.

The Recognitions Subcommittee checks in with applicant to review progress/challenges.

The User Group submit an annual activity report to AffCom. If the report is not submitted in time, the recognition process will not move forward.

AffCom votes to decide on the User Group recognition status.

• If AffCom approves the resolution, the User Group status will be confirmed.
• If AffCom rejects the resolution, the User Group will be informed by the committee.

You are eligible to form a user group if:

• you have at least 3 members with 300 or more contributions to a Wikimedia project on a registered account that has existed for more than 6 months;
• you agree to comply with the user group agreement and code of conduct;
• you agree to follow the trademark policy; and
• you are independent from other Wikimedia organizations

Suggested name: Wikimedia Community User Group [your area or topic]

See the name guidelines if you want to choose another name.

Please provide the city and country where your group is planned to be based. If your group is planned to be an international group, you can put "International".

Please provide the name, email address, and Wikimedia username for 3 members with 300 or more contributions to a Wikimedia project on a registered account that has existed for more than 6 months.

Please provide a link to your group's page on Meta-Wiki. If you don't have a page yet, you can review this setup guide. Your Meta-Wiki page should contain:

• basic information about your group; and
• an outline of your group planned activities for the first year.

As a group, you must be independent from other Wikimedia organizations. Please provide a link to your group's public letter of intent to all affected/overlapping Wikimedia projects and movement affiliates. If you don't have one yet, you can use this suggested template

Please link to the Commons file of your user group logo.