Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/GLAM-Edu projects in the Land of Valencia – Wikimedia Valencia.

Feedback and questions

Thank you for submitting this application. Thank you for your time, energy and effort. After the first review step, We have some remarks, recommandations and questions that we'd like to get more clarity on, please find them below :

• Why is this application separate from that by Wikimedia España - and could they be merged?
• Is Wikimedia Valencia recognised by Affcom, or do you have a plan to pursue such recognition?
• Your budget includes a WiR - could you clarify where they would be a resident at?
• You also ask for funds for a project manager, how would you advertise and fill this role if the grant is funded, making sure that conflicts of interest are avoided?
• Also, how have you decided on the compensation amount for these positions?
• Finally, you have no budget for equipment, is there any that would be necessary for this project?

Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 18:19, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Response

Hi Mike and all the committee. We also want to thank you for your time, energy and effort. I'll try to answer in the most understanding way:

Why is this application separate from that by Wikimedia España - and could they be merged?

1) This application, just as explained in both the proposal and the Theory of the change, has been designed keeping in mind the needs of the specific community in the Land of Valencia, a Catalan-speaking automous community in Spain. Besides of everything explained in the previous documents, we should keep in mind that we are a diverse group of people. Some have been aligned with WM-ES and are and will keep their interest in participating in activities made by WM-ES in other regions; while others have been aligned with Amical Wikimedia and are interested in Catalan-language activities, no matter if local or not. Some even can be members of both affiliates. But the key thing to understand our proposal is the fact people here have always been doing activities here without regarding which affiliation had their colleagues. We want to do things together and we appreciate that diversity. Our relationship with WM-ES (and Amical, Wikimujeres, Basque User Group and many other international affiliates) is fluid. In the particular case you ask for, WM-ES knows about our proposal, some of their members (including board members and chairs) supported it in 2021, and they keep supporting it (for instance, we can't name ourselves "Wikimedia Valencia" without their permission, because only chapters can "have the name of a given territory"). We are aligned with them, because we are aligned with the movement and their affiliates, and because we, or our members, are WM-ES in the region, but given the nature of the community in the Land of Valencia, everyone agreed that it was logical for us to have a proposal of our own, to make things more clear.

It was logical for us to have separate proposals for two reasons:

1- Not everyone in this proposal is a member of WM-ES, and to include our proposal with their general proposal could be seen as "WM-ES absorving the local community in Valencia". Since the very beggining of our activities, WM-ES respect towards our people, their relationship with Amical and our way of doing things in the local sphere has been more than great. Besides of that, this proposal is a continuation of one made in 2021, and not funded. So, it was logical to make it again in simillar terms (but improving the projects).

2- This proposal has been made thinking on Valencia, with a Theory of the change and a Communications strategy of our own. It would be a little bit akward to make a WM-ES proposal with a regional Theory of the change and a regional Communications strategy.

Could the proposals be merged? could, but then We should make a Theory of the change and a Communications Strategy for the whole of Spain, and involving people who are not members of WM-ES on it. It can be made, but it also involves some extra effort for a short timeline in some "not-so-productive" days of the year. I can and offer mylself to do it, if needed, but this is not a decision one person (the one who replies this comment) can take alone.

In a nutshell: The proposal is independent for the previously stated reasons, but the option of having WM-ES as a fiscal sponsor exists, and we had their ok since the very begining. Further changes should be agreed with the whole of WM-ES, but of course we are open to work with them. And I repeat our good will to make things happen.

Is Wikimedia Valencia recognised by Affcom, or do you have a plan to pursue such recognition?

2) As stated in previous texts, no. It's not and will not be. We are happy being part of our affiliates, and besides of that, there is a strong line of thinking in our community against User Groups. For them, UG have become a distorted figure, with people creating duplicities for personal interests rather than working for the movement as a whole. Because of that, creating a new affiliate just became a no-option for our group, its a red line for some of our people.

Also, it's not needed since we already have affiliates in the region to work as fiscal sponsors.

Your budget includes a WiR - could you clarify where they would be a resident at?

3) Checking again the text, it is a mistake. We (actually, I) copied the template from 2021 proposal and that was the name of the section (back then, WiR was more important in the project for us). In 2022 proposal, stipends are just budgeted for project coordination, not for WiR. (Also, in 2022 we plan to have more involvement with more museums. But we don't plan to directly fund WiR).

You also ask for funds for a project manager, how would you advertise and fill this role if the grant is funded, making sure that conflicts of interest are avoided?

4) Nobody in the group had a thought on that scenario, so we didin't planned anything at all. We will adapt to any recommendation and best practise to make things transparent and logical for everyone.

Also, how have you decided on the compensation amount for these positions?

5) Basically, by copying similar positions in similar organizations.

Finally, you have no budget for equipment, is there any that would be necessary for this project?

6) We don't plan to buy any new equipment. Our community will keep relying on their equipment or partner's one.

Thanks for your questions, and if you need more feedback on the local context, we can arange a call, if meaningful.--TaronjaSatsuma (talk) 21:01, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

Recommendation

Congratulations! We are happy to recommend your grant for approval, subject to some requested changes (described below), for the full amount of 44.533,20 EUR for the period 1 January 2022 until 31 December 2022.

The committee would like to thank you for proposing this application, and for the work you have been doing in the Valencia region over many years now.

In order for you to make the most of this grant, the committee recommends that you do the following:

1. We would like you to work with WMF staff and the NWE committee to identify ways to work closer with other Wikimedians in Spain - particularly Wikimedia España, and also Amical, with this work.
2. We would also like to have a clear explanation about how you will avoid paid editing during this work.
3. We recommend that you improve the organisational structure of Wikimedia Valencia:
   1. One way of doing this is formalising Wikimedia Valencia’s structure, for example, by going through AffCom's recognition process and forming a volunteer advisory board.
   2. Another option is coordinating much more with WMES and/or Amical - in particular we would like you to investigate whether they could be a fiscal sponsor for this grant. We would also like you to see if there are ways that resources can be shared (e.g., equipment/resources for events and other volunteer activities)
   3. It is important that there is sufficient sustainability and continuity planning with external partnerships that you form during this grant period, so that they can potentially be continued by other affiliates (e.g., WMES/Amical) if needed once this grant is over.
4. We would also like to see you work with WMF and/or WMES on recruitment procedures that appropriately manage any COI issues.

Thank you again for your proposal and for your involvement and we wish you all the possible successes for your work over the course of the year!

On behalf of the NWE regional committee — Mike Peel (talk) 17:16, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for the message @Mike Peel: and the NWE regional committee. The people in the Land of Valencia project are already aware of the news, and today I'll contact every relevant agent in order to fulfill the recommendations made. I'm also contacting my Grants Officer in order to fulfill the first and forth recommendation, waiting for both WMF and NWE committee to contact us and provide any information and clarification required.

I believe that I can provide a first answer to the paid editing question. The proposal focuses mainly in projects and events with Education insitutions and the Youth Information Institute. We do not plan to pay for anyone for creating articles there (even if, of course, articles will be written as a result of our programs). When it comes to GLAM projects, which have the biggest risk of paid-editing, right now I'm working with IVAM's reports and have some data: By the end of 2021 there are 83 pages related to the Museum in three different languages, being Catalan the one with most of the articles. About 60 different pages about the IVAM have been created in Catalan (during 2021), of those I've only created 7. Outside those categories, There is also a Category related to Josep Renau, with 7 articles started by me. Those were created during an Edit-a-thon, and I understand that during an edit-a-thon is logical to create articles on the topic the edit-a-thon was about. Some of those articles are translations from other languages.

According to Xtools, I created 268 articles in 2021, so I believe the numbers are clear. Of course, I can provide more detailed information once we meet with NWE committee and WMF-staff.--TaronjaSatsuma (talk) 07:28, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

Reports

• Reports: January, February , March.