Grants:APG/Proposals/2019-2020 round 1/Wikimedia Serbia/Staff proposal assessment

Staff assessment Summary

Wikimedia Serbia is one of the oldest organizations in our movement, and has been part of the APG program for years. It took WMRS time to develop a truly strategic plan, which it did in 2018. This has led to recalibrating some of its programs, and brought about some welcome changes in the organization's program structure by refocusing priorities on impactful programs rather than less impactful legacy programs. The strategic plan was developed for the years 2018-202, which means WMRS will be working on reevaluating and rethinking is strategy next year, to adapt it to changing circumstances and possibly also Movement Strategy outcomes. We are glad to see that WMRS presents a careful approach to evaluation which it applies to its programs to evolve them. This year,n WMRS has organized the CEE conference, which has brought them back being in touch with the wider movement, and they are contemplating organizing an education conference in 2020.

Strategy and programs

Wikimedia Serbia's program structure has a traditional three program approach around Education, GLAZM and Community support.

Wikimedia Serbia's Education program in primary and high-schools is one of the strongest among Wikimedia organizations, and has been developing over the years into an efficient multi approach program, with three main activities: Wikipedia in Schools is a traditional Wikipedia in the classroom activity where students get to use Wikipedia as a tool for assignments. Accredited Seminars are targeting teachers who support the Wikipedia in the Classroom program by training them to use Wikipedia as a pedagogic tool, training which is recognized by the State as counting towards their mandatory teacher training. The Edu Wiki Camp is a more high touch approach which has been working since 2015. The education program's primary goal is increasing content, but it also serves a goal of increasing volunteer capacity.

Wikimedia Serbia's GLAM program aims at developing cooperation with cultural institutions in order to increase the presence of Serbian knowledge in the Wikimedia projects, and on the internet. WMRS support institutions in making their collections and content available. This collaboration will take different shapes in 2020, from Wikipedian in Residence positions to digitization and editathons with partner institutions.

WMRS develops a community program to support a healthy and thriving community in Wikimedia projects. It works to ensure that the community is welcoming to new editors, but also in taking care of keeping the motivation for existing community members up, offline and online. To do this, WMRS is planning their annual local conference Wikilive as well as designing a number of initiatives devoted to tackle the gender gap, LGBTQ+ representation and overall diversity of the community.

WMRS in this plan has clearly outlined its programs' alignment with its strategy and is building on past achievements and existing programs with a proven track record of success. Wikimedia Serbian has a track record of attaining its targets and developing a large number of successful activities in service of the movement. We are looking forward to the new iteration of their strategy work and how it will incorporate outcomes from the Movement Strategy.

Budget & grant request

Wikimedia Serbia is asking for 99,500 EUR, the same request the same amount as in the past two years. Their budget is reasonable although it is not clear how they have gone more than 6 months without a person filling their GLAM position for the past 6 months. We will be working with them to understand what their needs for growth might be in the future and what the best way to fulfill them might be.

• Recommendation: We recommend granting Wikimedia Serbia its full request of 99,500 EUR. Request granted Delphine (WMF) (talk) 14:38, 5 December 2019 (UTC)