This presentation will provide attendees with an understanding of the specific actions that the CEE hub has been taking to support the growth and operation of smaller communities that operate without paid personnel. We would like to present two approaches: capacity building supported by a part-time salaried staff member and the CEE Hub micro-grant program.

Assessment of common interests of affiliates and communities through formal and informal associations using hubs as a platform for regional and interregional interaction

Based on the example of building the CEE Hub, how can other regional and thematic networks learn from this example and how could their approaches to building their networks look like within the existing Wikimedia framework?

Volunteers and staff members of affiliates from the Central and Easter Europe have worked together for the past four years to build the CEE Hub. A little over a year and a half has passed since the CEE Hub hired its two full-time (project-based) staff members. In this presentation, the staff's perspectives on the CEE Hub project's implementation, interactions with more than thirty CEE communities, and cooperation with the WMF will be presented.