Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia CEE Spring 2024

Initial feedback

Dear members of the Wikimedia Community User Group CEE Spring,

Thank you for submitting your proposal to the General Support Fund! Overall, it's a well-structured proposal, consistent with previous years.

That said, we had a couple of questions and remarks. Given that CEE Spring is an annual event, we were wondering if it might be beneficial to develop an annual plan. While we recognize that the event's core remains stable, having an annual plan would facilitate better planning and allow for adjustments based on lessons learned.

Additionally, we're curious about when you expect to transition CEE Spring to the CEE Hub budget.

Regarding CEE Women, it seems fitting to categorize it under "Gender and Diversity" as well.

Lastly, it would be helpful if you could include hyperlinks in your application where relevant, especially for separate pages like sub-contests.

Thank you for your attention to these points, and we look forward to your continued contributions to the Wikimedia community!

On behalf of the CEE and Central Asia Regional Committee, Nataev ^talk 15:17, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Nataev:, thanks for the initial feedback! :-)

An annual plan would probably not make sense, because the core of the activities will stay the same and any further development would be too much for the current group of volunteers. If that were to happen, it would probably make more sense to merge it with the annual plan of the CEE Hub, because the goals of CEE Spring and of the CEE Hub overlap quite a lot.

Transitioning CEE Spring to the CEE Hub budget within the current WMF grant structure doesn't make a lot of sense, because we would in essence reduce the available budget for the CEE Hub. We have discussed this within the CEE Spring User Group and the CEE Hub, but currently there are no plans to merge the two. Maybe this will happen if the way that funds are distributed within WMF budget changes. The current movement charter draft would enable that, albeit with control over the total budget still residing with the WMF, so it's not the ideal outcome.

There would also be the option to treat all CEE Spring prize money grants as micro grants of the CEE Hub, which we will look into in the coming months.

Sorry for not inserting any hyperlinks, we were not aware that this was possible or expected. Are there any links you're still missing or does the navigation bar of CEE Spring 2024 help with that?

Best regards, Philip Kopetzky (talk) 19:02, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 9,990 EUR

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 9,990 EUR with a grant term starting 1 July 2024 and ending 31 December 2025.

The committee wholeheartedly supports the renewal request for the CEE Spring campaign, recognizing its positive outcomes and its role in engaging both existing and new Wikimedia communities in productive regional events. It is encouraging to see the campaign's focus on youth engagement, which aligns with the priorities of both the CEE Hub and Movement Strategy.

With that said, we would like to ask a couple of follow-up questions and make some suggestions. First off, we would like to know what informal analyses or conversations apart from campaign metrics are being conducted with local communities to understand their needs. We have also noticed the growing interest from Central Asian communities -- such as the Uzbek community that came in third this year by the number of articles created -- and were wondering if it will be possible to proactively reach out to support their needs and participation in the coming years. Finally, we propose assessing the types of topics of interest in a given campaign, emphasizing a learning approach that seeks to understand and learn from these communities.

On behalf of the Regional Committee, Nataev ^talk 02:50, 5 June 2024 (UTC)