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On June 4th & 5th, 2026, the Volunteer Supporters Network (VSN) held their 2026 Annual Meeting, online. The Volunteer Supports Network (VSN) describes itself as “an open network of Wikimedians supporting Wikimedia volunteers" with a "mission... to enhance volunteer support in the Wikimedia movement.” The Volunteer Supporters Network has been active in some form since its founding at Wikimania 2014 London. “In 2022, management of the VSN was split between Wikimedia Austria & Wikimedia Poland. Following a period of expansion during the pandemic, management was passed to Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Argentina. These periods were funded by Movement Strategy Implementation Grants, and documented in reports for 2022 and 2024. In 2026 Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Argentina applied for and received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation to expand the Volunteer Supporters’ Network into a Hub Pilot with the goal of moving toward being a more global network.
Day 1 of the Annual Meeting, held on June 4th 2026, was "reserved for the VSN community, members, and liaisons registered on this page.” (I did not qualify to attend this.)
Day 2 was “open to everyone in the Wikimedia community, regardless of their role or experience.” (I did qualify to attend this and that is what the following report will cover.) The Venue was an online zoom chat with English, Spanish, and French interpretation available. Day 2 was moderated proficiently by Lucy Iwuala, Programs Coordinator at the Igbo Wikimedians User Group. The Igbo Wikimedians User Group were co-organizers of the event alongside the VSN. (In addition to moderating, Iwuala also displayed a great taste in music, DJing between the two sessions on Day 2. Powers that be, book her for the Wikimania afterparty!)
Per the event page, the organizers of the WSN Annual meeting were: Chinonso Chidi, Robert Obiri, Vic Sfriso, Sara Thomas. The two day online meeting Event page counted 151 participants. My rough and unofficial count via the pictures shared on commons: 25+ individuals the first day, 75+ individuals the second day.
There were five presenters on Day 2, every presenter had 8 minutes to speak.
User:RMaliqi (EdWH) spoke about the EduWiki Mentorship Program and EduWiki Newcomer's Starter Kit (2026). She also explained The EduWiki Hub's Open Educational Resources.
User:CCasares (WMF), from the Community Development team at the WMF, presented on Let’s Connect, a four year old program that included workshops, learning clinics, and “connectathon” meet-ups. There was recently a meeting Let's Connect Learning Clinic on June 18th, 2026, focused on How to give feedback as a Wikimedian. The connect-a-thons reminded me of the WikiSalon gathering concept and the learning clinics with “structured editing tasks and human connections to support their work” reminded me of Edit-a-thons.
Benedict Udeh, Wikimedia Foundation Communications Specialist, Founder and Program Coordinator Wiki Mentor Africa and Ig Wikidata-Hub, presented on Wiki Mentor Africa. As described on their project page, “The Wiki Mentor Africa program is designed to help new and inexperienced developers/programmers in the African communities on not just how to make edits on Wikidata but mentoring Africans on building/maintaining Wikimedia tools by pairing them with more experienced Wikimedia tool creators/contributors.” In addition to presenting the Wiki Mentor Africa program, Udeh explained during the Q&A session the importance of making a safe space for women in the Wikimedia editing community and the success he has seen when a safe editing space is provided for women.
Amanda Juno presented on capX (Capacity Exchange), a new “platform for finding and connecting with fellow Wikimedians to exchange knowledge, skills, and services on a global level” run by Wikimedia Brasil. Juno described capX as a place to “find people to keep on doing the human labor, the human work.” Reach the capX team by email (capx@wmnobrasil.org) or via a Telegram Group (https://t.me/CapacityExchange).
User:Feliani_(ESEAP_Hub) presented on the Wikimedia East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Regional Cooperation (ESEAP) Hub. As of June 2026, the ESEAP Hub is supporting 6 Chapters, 10 recognized User Groups and more than 20 active or emerging community groups throughout the region. Feliani described that the ESEAP HUB has had success when providing a safe space for editing, focusing on reducing the intimation factor while also letting new communities know they don’t need to be perfect to contribute.
After the five presentations and a break, a group discussion was held on trends and impacts seen in local communities. Contributors included: Martin Rulsch, Tania Sola, Maju Planas, Robert J., and Sara Thomas. Not surprisingly, the first answers focused on the impact of AI of the Wikimedia projects.
There was a lot of interesting ideas to share on the topic of AI. Links to the AI Noticeboard, WikiProject AI Cleanup, and Artificial intelligence were shared in the chat. User:Martin Rulsch (WMDE), who is the Wikimedia Duestchland (WMDE) Advisor Communications Movement & Community in the Communitys & Engagement Department, shared that WMDE has just organized its first conference, hosted March 6th to 8th 2026, focused on the German Wikipedia community and AI: Treffen zu KI und Wikipedia 2026: Meeting on AI and Wikipedia 2026 - German Wikipedia.
User:Robertjamal12 spoke on AI and declining readership, expressing that we need to “invest more time into the leadership” so we can properly check for AI abuse. Robert also shared a link to the African Wikimedia Admins Space and encouraged interested parties to get involved.
I shared in the chat that Artificial intelligence in Wikimedia projects was the focus of Wikimedia NYC's Wikipedia Day 2024 hosted Jan 14, 2024 at Pulitzer Hall, Columbia University.
User:Martin Rulsch (WMDE) shared how WMDE is particularly concerned about young editors and readers and that they are intentionally engaging with young editors. “Drop of young readers and young contributors is most important to our community” Martin explained how in Germany, there is a monthly online events to encourage youth editing: Jugend editiert: Youth Editing - German Wikipedia and that the chapter has a project manager for youth engagement: Florian Kanitz.
Tania Sola, of Wikimedia Mexico, emphasized the importance of being patient when engaging new volunteers and when working with the volunteer communities in general. Sola expressed that there is no exact formula that works for all communities.
Maju Planas of Wikimedia Argentina (WMAR) spoke on gathering virtually and the success they have seen in Argentina by letting editors get to know the administrators, which creates “a positive circle where... administrators get recognition from the community” "We encourage people to be kinda and patient in the Wikimedia Argentina community. When we think about transferring knowledge, we not only think about working online, we also think of the human side of it, trying to be kind and patient.”
Planas described how at WMAR they work to create a pathway for new event organizers so there are new volunteers to lesson the burden on the organizers. User:Sara Thomas WMUK shared that the Volunteer Supporters Network has a resource on burnout. User:Martin Rulsch (WMDE) shared that at “WMDE, we have staff members take the workload off of the volunteers.” Additionally, Martin shared that WMDE offers a free of charge, counseling service in mitigating Wiki-burnout to any editors interested: Beratungsstelle: Advice Center - German Wikipedia
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