Grants talk:IEG/Art+Feminism Editathon training materials and network building/Midpoint

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The Art+Feminism would like to ask for an extension of 1 day to complete the Midpoint report, and will plan to complete it on April 17th, 2015. Thanks, OR drohowa (talk) 23:29, 16 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Absolutely, thanks for the heads up and looking forward to reading the report when it is ready! Siko (WMF) (talk) 06:10, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

midpoint report[edit]

@Theredproject, Failedprojects, Siankevans, and OR drohowa: Hello! I have just finished reading through your midpoint report and would like to thank you for the very interesting and informative read.

While you experienced organizer overload, I also hope you all recognize and are proud of what you have accomplished to date!

The comprehensive documentation and resources for organizers developed through this initiative are great. Things that I really liked (in no particular order) include: suggestions for finding a local Wikipedian, how to encourage participation even among those who can only stay for part of an event, a guide for uploading and categorizing images to Commons for Art+Feminism, and the sample meet-up page markup.

Here are some comments and questions I have with regards to challenges and next steps for the 2nd half of your grant and/or renewal of the grant:

  • Engaging with local chapters: This seems to be not an uncommon challenge for grantees/grant applicants within the IEG program - but it is nice to see some specific factors identified that you believe complicated your ability to work effectively with some chapters. Given the factors you mention, do you have ideas around how you can improve interaction with chapters in the future?
  • Organizer overload and hand-holding: I like the idea of having mentors for less confident or experienced organizers. If you do explore CRMs in the future, it would be neat to look at what software options can also provide a degree of support for assigning mentors and supporting mentor-mentee relationships.
  • Librarians and access to paywalled resources: Love the idea of more support for librarians. Perhaps bolstered materials could instruct/encourage librarians to identify potential and available databases and articles in advance of events? Within the academic library context, my understanding is that most electronic access is limited to just students, faculty, staff and rarely extends to 'guest users' on campus. On the other hand, many North American public library systems have subscriptions to a collection of licensed electronic resources (albeit, not as comprehensive collections as academic libraries have). Identifying which public library electronic resources are actually relevant to Art+Feminism editing would likely require some time. Another thought: since JSOR temporary access may not be possible, perhaps another opportunity for collaboration with Wikipedia Library might be encouraging organizers to coordinate in advance with one or more "resource request" volunteers through WikiProject Resource Exchange?
  • Safe space, intersectionality, and notability issues: Thanks for reflecting on and being honest about the areas where you need more support and what you would like to improve upon. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to check out the 16 Inspire grantees/projects and see where there might be possibilities for learning and/or collaboration.

Looking forward to your future work. cheers -Thepwnco (talk) 20:11, 3 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Report accepted, with feedback[edit]

Hi Theredproject, OR drohowa, Failedprojects and Siankevans,

Thank you for submitting this thorough and engaging midpoint report. We’ve very much enjoyed reading through your materials and getting a sense of the impact you’ve had with this project. I’m accepting this report today and providing some comments below:

  • You’ve done a great job of curating the extensive scope of this project. Your list of products and outcomes is clear and easy to follow as it fans out into a wide array of products and outcomes. I hope you’re as proud of all you’ve accomplished as we are :)
  • The reach of your impact with this project is inspiring! Great to see this record of outcomes from the 70+(!) satellite events inspired by your work - a testament to the care you’ve taken to provide a coordinated and complete suite of tools for prospective ambassadors, organizers and participants. Your documentation of press coverage is a useful archive of the broader cultural conversation catalyzed by your project. It’s lovely to see how much care you put into shaping that conversation to raise good awareness about the gender gap on Wikipedia and how to change it.
  • The infrastructure and materials you’ve created so far are looking great - I really like the use of video on your new website too.
  • As you move towards a final report, just checking in with you to see how you’re feeling about some of the original targets you’d set for this IEG. You’d wanted 80 ambassadors, have 54 on your list now...thoughts on whether you'll hit the original target, or what you might adjust in future based on what you’ve learned about this so far? Of the over 70 events this year, were at least 30 satellite events organized without relying directly on you, or is there some other learning there related to overwhelm and/or handholding as well?
  • Your shift to focus on training videos instead of outreach materials makes sense. We appreciate that you're adapting your strategies as you learn what works and what needs more support, and it’s a great idea to redirect resources to build the capacity of your ambassadors given that attracting participants proved to be easier than expected. Are you collecting feedback from folks on materials like these videos (via survey or informally) so that you can ?
  • In the challenges section - we’re hearing you that you need more support in terms of handling harassment and safe space issues. Alex is continuing to work with James in the Community Advocacy team to see what else we can offer in terms of guidance and support for safe spaces at in-person events. This is super important, so thank you for continuing to keep it on our radar.
  • We also appreciate that you're looking at how to work better with Chapters and the community going forward. We'll continue to support you with connections and co-thinking where we can in that regard.
  • In terms of overwhelm, the idea of a mentorship model, and also being willing to set limits on the support you offer organizers both make good sense to explore. I can also see that having more folks involved in the organizing team would be useful, and this may be the right time to think about decentralizing to a regional level. Appreciate that you're thinking about intersectionality as an area of growth as well. And we’ll be happy to discuss tools like CRM or PM software further when you’re ready.
  • That said, more people and better tools/systems are all likely to help mitigate overwhelm, but there’s one more way to look at this issue that we’ll encourage you to also consider: what are some things you can continue to decide to deprioritize? Figuring out what support you won’t offer, materials you won’t perfect, or things you may decide to tackle next year or the year after but not now is usually the hardest part for any initiative, but it may be a challenge well worth considering here given the huge scope of the plusfeminism dream. The reason I bring this up is I’m seeing you listing both a lot of challenges, and a lot of future goals, and I want to figure out how we can help set you up for continued success in a way that leaves you with some energy left to enjoy it :)
  • We’d be happy to consider a renewal request along with your final report, so let’s keep discussing in future check-ins and look at possibilities to prioritize your goals. Would like to strategize expansion w/o overextension going forward.
  • Budget tracking: Please go ahead and update the “Actual Funds Spent” column in your Finances tab. You can use this column has a work in progress where you can state what costs have actually been for each item, and track any over or under-spends there as you go. We'll discuss the budget change requests further on our call today, and we can work with you to document and approve as needed.

Congratulations on your progress to date. Janice will be in touch with you soon to process your second disbursement of funds.

Cheers, Siko (WMF) (talk) 00:06, 28 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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