The 12th New York City Meetup event was held on Sunday, March 29, 2009 in the Columbia University area. This was the seventh of the meetups with a session dedicated to discussing meta:Wikimedia New York City issues.

There will be one public meeting in the afternoon at Columbia University, where we will discuss further steps to organize the Wikimedia New York City local chapter, and provide a salon-style forum for discussion of Wikipedia and Wikimedia issues.

Additionally, there will be optional post-meeting social activities at a local restaurant.

Watch this space for future possible changes. And please watchlist this page.

Main public meeting (to discuss Wikipedia issues and chapter formation):

• 1402 Pupin Hall, Columbia University. Take the elevator to the 13th floor and then walk up one flight of stairs. Meeting to be held in the library at the east end of the hall from 2:30 PM until 5:00 PM.

• A post-meeting walk to The Symposium, a Greek restaurant. After the restaurant, we can return to Pupin Hall for an observing session with the telescopes on the roof weather permitting. 5:00 PM onwards.

If you plan on arriving late, and are concerned about not finding your way to the group, you can drop your mobile phone number ahead of time at Special:Emailuser/Pharos (e-mail will not be able to be checked during the actual meetup time, leave requests ahead of time).

Nearby subway stations:

• 116th Street–Columbia University (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) (That's the number 1 train)

Bring your own ideas!

• Follow-up on ideas raised in the January meeting and the February mini-meetup
  • How the mini-meetup with the WMF guests went
  • Increasing Wikimedia organizing in the Northeast US (Hartford, Philadelphia, DC, Boston)
• Chapter business
  • Signing incorporation papers for Wikimedia NYC (finally!)
  • Review of Wikipedia Loves Art
  • WMF Chapters meeting this April in Berlin
  • Chapter-selected Board seats process
  • Participating in Open Everything NYC April 18
  • Wikipedia classes with the New York Public Library in May: Wikipedia at the Library
  • "Wiki-Conference New York": A one-day regional scale Wikimedia conference for 100-200 people, to be planned for the summer
  • WMF grants to chapters: what should we apply for?
  • Initial planning for our annual election meeting
  • Initial planning for 2009 Wikis Take Manhattan
  • Perhaps an undergraduate internship program, with recruiting from Students for Free Culture
  • Time and place of next meeting? A more defined schedule?
  • Other suggestions for projects?
• Speakers and roundtable discussions
  • What people know about the Toolserver, bots, and edit assist programs. What people would like in tools, scripts, and templates to assist them in accomplishing their tasks. Discussion initiated by User:Dispenser.
  • —
  • —
    • I would encourage anyone with a desire to present to sign up here, and we'll try to make room for you.--Pharos (talk) 18:16, 21 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedians/Wikimedians, from the sign-up sheet.

• User:Becksguy
• User:Daniel Case
• User:Dispenser
• User:DGG
• User:Elipongo
• User:Frenezulo
• User:Gosgood
• User:Jeremyb
• User:Newyorkbrad
• User:Pharos
• User:Salmon1

A draft of incorporation papers for Wikimedia NYC was presented, which was modified on the advice of those at the meeting. All interim board members present at the meeting signed the finalized incorporation papers, which will now be forwarded to our Treasurer to file with the New York State authorities. Next steps will be establishing a membership system, and then holding elections.

User:Daniel Case and User:Pharos will represent Wikimedia NYC at WMF Chapters meeting this April in Berlin, and there was some discussion of what we should bring to the agenda of that meeting.

Local Wikimedians have been invited to participate in Open Everything NYC on April 18.

"Wiki-Conference New York" planning is proceeding for July or early August, likely associated on the weekend with our annual picnic. We are currently evaluating several possible venues for this event, particularly to hold it at NYU.

We had a review of the multi-city museum project Wikipedia Loves Art, as well as the our members' expedition in Wikipedia Takes the Subway.

Upcoming photography events include the regional Wikipedia Takes Philadelphia in May, and Wikipedia Takes Manhattan 3 in the Fall.

User:Dispenser gave a presentation on his work on tools and bots, and started a discussion to solicit further ideas for tools and bots which would be helpful to the Wikimedia community.