Wikipedia talk:Meetup/NYC/May 2009

May meetup date
Maybe May 31 would work, or May 24 if people like the idea of doing it over Memorial Day weekend. Thoughts?--Pharos (talk) 00:55, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Either of those dates look good, but it's a little far in advance. Maybe if we do it over a weekend, Wikipedia Takes the Subway 2 could be held in conjunction? Meetare Shappy  Cunkelfratz! 01:08, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
 * May 31 works for me. Memorial day weekend is typically bad for most people, so I would avoid it if you can. --Mblumber (talk) 04:08, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Those sound like probable dress rehearsal dates for Un ballo in maschera, so I don't know if I could attend. It goes up the first two weekends in June, and I'm singing Silvano.  since these are double cast, and which cast is which is generally not determined until after we have rehearsed a while, so I can't predict which, if either, would be better, in terms of my attendance.--Scottandrewhutchins (talk) 03:30, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I have to attend a graduation the weekend of May 31, so I will not be able to attend if the meet-up is scheduled on that date. (Although I also have a graduation to attend two weeks earlier, so I may just not be able to attend either way this time around.) :( Newyorkbrad (talk) 16:22, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I will also be unable to come on the 31st. how about June 7? DGG (talk) 18:26, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Usually, we meet in odd-numbered months and CT meets in even-numbered months. Meetare Shappy Cunkelfratz! 18:30, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * May 17? I mean, right now June is out of the question for me because I have to prepare for my high school graduation and finals. Mitchazenia : Chat   Trained for the pen 18:31, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, as indicated above, I have a graduation out-of-town that weekend also; but if either the 17th or 31st works best for everyone else, I will just have to miss the meet this time around. :( Newyorkbrad (talk) 20:16, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm... I think May 17 may be looking best at this point, as unfortunate as it would be to miss NYB.--Pharos (talk) 19:09, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * May 16 is Wiki Takes Philadelphia, if it doesn't get rescheduled. --Mblumber (talk) 01:14, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Mblumber and I talked about this, and since Wiki Takes Philadelphia is almost certainly going to be delayed anyway, I think May 17 is still probably our best shot for NYC.--Pharos (talk) 01:10, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

OpenEverything NYC
Who is attending the OpenEverything NYC event on Saturday? --Aude (talk) 13:44, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I am. We should have spread the word more widely, but I'll put something on the mailing list today.--Pharos (talk) 13:51, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I just had a talk with the organizer of OpenEverything, to try and get a lay of things and see what our possible role might be. Basically, the event is structured as an unconference, which means the session topics will be decided by consensus of the ~150 participants that morning.

There should be about 8 sessions total, running over the course of the day in the 4 rooms. I think our focus would be on joining or starting a session on Open Education, and maybe raising two or three ideas that are viable to collaborate with like-minded groups on, like photographic projects, library initiatives, and work with universities.--Pharos (talk) 01:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Given that many of the NYC Wikipedians will be in Connecticut and not at the event, I'm not sure I can justify the time and expense of coming to this event this time. I'd rather save the money and come to a meetup or regional event during the summer. --Aude (talk) 21:08, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I am not certain that I'll be able to do it, and since there are limited number of places--I think they're almost full already--I don't want to sign up  to the detriment of someone who really knows they'll be going.DGG (talk) 22:28, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I already notified them that I can't come, but my spot is probably available if another Wikipedian wants to attend instead of me. I'm also curious what the UNICEF conference space is like, as a possible event space if we want to organize something at some point.  They hosted Web4dev  in February, but don't know how many attended that, and not sure what else has been hosted there. As the NYC chapter develops, we should be aware of things like that. --Aude (talk) 23:24, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I actually went to the OLPC Story Jam New York there last March. They are definitely a venue with a long-term interest in open source/free culture, and something we should look into for the future.--Pharos (talk) 01:56, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Just wanted to give everyone an update on OpenEverything NYC, and how things went. As it turned out, there were actually quite a few folks there interested in Open Education and collaboration with public libraries, and we even got to planning an "Open Education League" of New York, that Wikimedia NYC can hopefully be a partner in in future.--Pharos (talk) 22:30, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Wikimedia New York City is invited to a party
Forgive the somewhat off-topic post. Most of you probably do not know, but today I was on the People's Court representing a dog rescue I used to be heavily involved in, Waggytail Rescue. They focus on small dogs, primarily Chihuahuas, who have been severely beaten and abused. The case revolved around a woman who adopted a dog, decided she wanted to go with a free dog through a friend, and then wanted her donation back so she sued them. Comedian Lisa Levy and myself (along with Little Man) represented Waggytail in the dispute.

Next Thursday at Whiskey Town bar in the East Village we are having a party for Waggytail where our part of the episode, which featured the Littlest Man in the World prominently, will be viewed and you are all invited. 8:30 p.m., viewing of the episode at 9:00, and party until whenever. It should be a very interesting crowd between myself, Lisa and Holly, one of my best friends and a former dominatrix who used to have a show on VH1 and who runs the rescue. I hope some of you can make it out. Here is the bar's details. If you want to read up on the experience beforehand, here's a blog post about it. It would be great to see you guys. -- >David  Shankbone  02:55, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Wikimedia Merchandise
From the last meetup we had talked about how the offical Wikimedia merchandise sorta sucks. Now that we have a chapter, we could conceivably start working on merchandise which could (partially) fund our operation. Easiest projects that we could tackle at this point are witty shirts and maybe Commons Picture Calendar. — Dispenser 07:02, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * This has actually been a hot topic recently in discussions between the various chapters and the foundation, and the scope of future agreements between the two, particularly related to the usage of trademarks. I hope this is something that we can get to start talking about.--Pharos (talk) 00:29, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Incorporation
I'm working on getting the papers back from NYS. It is a three step process of:
 * First, get a certificate of permission from the Education department
 * Second, file the certificate with the Secretary of State and be incorporated
 * Third, file the incorporation papers with the IRS so we can take donations tax free

I sent the papers to the education dept a couple weeks ago and haven't heard back yet. I'll post more when I do.  MBisanz  talk 20:11, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the update, and keep up the good work!--Pharos (talk) 00:36, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * What will our tax status be? You mentioned NYSED, so we're going to be 501(c)3 educational? --Mblumber (talk) 03:25, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * For NYS purposes we will be an educational charity (it is a broad term in NYS), but for federal purposes, we will simply be a broadly supported public charity (aka 501(c)(3)).  MBisanz  talk 08:58, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

See you folks in an hour or so
On my way to Pupin!--Pharos (talk) 16:57, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
 * On my way to the subway, at 1:54, my friend who was supposed to land at 2:30 texted to say he just landed, wiping out my 30/45 minutes I was going to be able to spend at the meeting. Sorry guys.  Too much going on.-- >David  Shankbone  18:49, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Bring a friend! 2009 wiki NYC recruitment drive
Following up on some discussion at the recent meetup here.

I'd like to encourage everyone to keep a friendly eye to the talkpages, and take this recruitment drive as an opportunity to personally invite a few local wiki-folk of their acquaintance to join us at the meetups.

It's really important that we are reaching out to everyone who is a part of the Wikipedia/Wikimedia community in the New York area, and that they are all made to feel welcome at our meetups.

So, it would be excellent if we could let them know about the meetups, about the meetup page, about future events, the Invite roster and the mailing list.

Sign up here if you can invite 3 wiki-folk, and enter the drawing

 * Winner of the random drawing gets a copy of the Wikipedia-hating book The Cult of the Amateur'' purchased from the Strand's $1 pile.


 * Pharos (talk) 20:45, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

picnic reservation
how are we doing on this? DGG (talk) 04:46, 28 May 2009 (UTC)