A lot has happened in the Community Programm of Wikimedia CH (WMCH) over the last year. With Aldéric Stähli in early summer 2024 and Dorine Barth in the late autumn, WMCH welcomed two new Community Programm Managers to the team, after Lia Beretta (focus: Tessin) had moved on in the spring and Flor Méchain (focus: Romandy) had left in autumn.

Aldéric Stähli, “Aldé” for short, grew up in Switzerland and lived mainly in Bern and Friburg. He started working in the music industry at a young age and discovered Internet forums around the same time. He initially studied Special Education at the University of Friburg. After gaining some professional experience, he specialised in the prevention and sensitisation of mixed consumption among young people and adults, and obtained a Master of Arts in Social Policy and Social Problems with a subsequent Master’s specialisation in Education for Sustainable Development. He has been an international speaker at health conferences for various health promotion programmes. He has been active in various associations and co-organised music festivals and events of different sizes. Aldéric has learned a lot about lobbying and the (mis)use of the internet and is therefore very proud to work for an organisation that matches his goals and intentions. He is Swiss and speaks French, German and English, as well as having a basic knowledge of Italian.

Born in Burkina Faso, Dorine Barth spent most of her childhood in Winterthur (Zurich). She completed her Matura (A-levels) there, before being accepted to take part in the international ‘Franco-German Studies’ course run jointly by the University of Bonn and the Sorbonne. During her studies, she sharpened her awareness of intercultural issues. She also began learning Italian at the University of Bonn. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she worked for a few months in a coronavirus testing centre, before spending two and a half years at a Swiss start-up, where she was until recently responsible for the strategic and operational management of an international team. A Swiss national with a command of Swiss German dialect and standard German, Dorine is also fluent in English, French and Italian.

Wikimedia CH has taken the change in personnel as an opportunity to reorganise the tasks and increase the percentage of each contributor‘s workload within the Community Programme.

Aldéric Stähli (90%) is primarily responsible for the French speaking community. He takes on tasks for the entire Community Programme (e.g. reimbursement of expenses for wiki contributors).

Dorine Barth (90%) focuses on the Italian-speaking community and is responsible for community work in German-speaking Switzerland together with Ulrich Lantermann.

Ulrich Lantermann works as a Senior Expert in various Wikimedia CH programmes. thirty percent of his working time is dedicated to the Community Programme. He mainly works on projects and supports contributors in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

As Team Lead, Maurus Achermann (80%) coordinates the Community Programme throughout Switzerland across the different languages and regions . He is responsible for the programme’s strategic and personal development, as well as its finances. As WMCH does not currently have a full-time Community Programme Manager for German-speaking Switzerland, Maurus takes on a coordinating and supporting role.

The activities of the Community Team are divided into two main areas:

Continuous services and development priorities

 

The continuous services include:

  • Vibrant partnerships:
    The Community Programme maintains and develops partnerships to support the development of its partners’ projects and promote joint Wikimedia project activities: In 2025, the Community Programme has so far supported eleven project grants with established and new partners: Established partners include Noircir, Les sans Pages, the SCI with the Wiki4Peace Camps or Who writes his_tory. Smaller grants were awarded, e.g. for the writing workshops organised by a long-standing Wikimedian.
  • Personal support:
    Volunteers receive direct support through fixed contact persons, personal contacts  and active participation of WMCH employees in events as well as financial and technical support.
  • Support for events:
    The Community Programme contributes to the success of its partner organisations’ events – with its expertise, resources and network. This can be put to the test at upcoming events: e.g. at the new regular writing workshops in Zurich ‘Let’s increase the presence for women who create culture on Wikipedia!’  or in November at the next editathon.ch in Zurich, Chur or Davos.
  • Active networking: Relevant information reaches the community via its targeted dissemination in the WMCH meta-event calendar, via the community mailings (German-speaking Switzerland, Wikimediach-fr & Wikimediach-it), and via various Wikimedia project forums (links listed in the event calendar below):
    • Maintaining and further develop the community programme team supports ten grants in 2025;
    • Maintaining regular contact & services with volunteers (via daily communication on request or on own initiative, through staff participation in events and with expense reimbursements, content-related support, networking etc.);
  • Support for exchange platforms (conferences & events);
  • Sharing of information that may be of interest for the community (on WMCH Meta Event-Calendar, through community mailings, on-wiki etc.

 

The development priorities are based on the first specific Wikimedia CH community strategy (2024 – 2026). Here, four main areas were described, the respective goals defined and concrete actions integrated into the annual plans. The following measures were selected for 2025:

1. Recruitment and promotion of voluntary contributors:

  • creation of a dashboard to systematically record the results;
  • expanding the activities of proven partnerships;
  • establishing new partnerships.

2. Community Health and bonding:

  • surveys in the community;
  • reorganisation of the community mailings according to the present analysis;
  • use of new tools if necessary;
  • preparation and promotion of new services for the Community Health of the French-speaking community.

3. Community programme management:

  • International coordination and engagement:
  • Wikimedia CH gets an in-depth insight into the organisation of ItWikiCon with a view to possible organisation 2026 in Switzerland;
  • Wikimedia CH starts to support actively the organisation of the International Volunteer Supporters Meeting.

4. Volunteer Recruitment and Empowerment:

  • Create campaign dashboard to systematically monitor activity results;
  • Expand activities of solid partnerships;
  • Start new partnerships.

5. Community Health and Retention :

  • Community Survey;
  • Reorganise Community-Mailings according to existing analysis;
  • Check advantage and use of new tools;
  • Prepare and promote new services for French-speaking community health.
  • Community Programme Management:
  • Define and update of roles & responsibilities in Miro board;
  • Develop an internal guideline for grant handling & evaluation;
  • Expenses report process upgrade (new OTRS queue for traceability);
  • Creation of a document A-Z for Community management.

 

Wikimedia CH’s Community Team is looking forward to an ongoing dialogue with the community and to continuing to contribute to good development.

 

Read more

Community Programm

WMCH annual reports