Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia’s 2024 General Support

Proposal Feedback and Invite for Response

Thank you for submitting your application. After the review process please find the feedback - comments and questions below for your response;

• We see a need to review the application and provide more clarity and explanation of the programs and activities .

• Please share your partnerships plan - how will they approach the partnerships to support the work.

• Education program : we see your program aims to work with all ages - how will you do that?

• We are keen to learn how are you are going to prepare for the huge scope of the work + budget and also knowing that you are organizing the ESEAP conference.

• Please share the rationale for staff / personnel ;  how did you come up with the costs. We also see the budget and application has different personnel numbers.

• Would you share a brief status [ 2-3 paragraphs] report that shares on the progress of programs, finances and metrics.

• Please have a refer to Wikimedia Thailand on the timeline to support in creating your own and also we see an opportunity to speak to them to strength your work inspired by how they run their programs.

The overall strengths of the proposal	Recommendations and general feedback and questions	Responses by Applicant to the feedback and questions
The proposal is clearly targeted at linguistic inclusivity, reflected in the variety of different language planned events. A significant calendar of events is planned. (TB) This proposal is interesting because the Malaysian community is making an effort to reach out to indigenous communities. This is necessary to obtain authentic data, especially for WikiKamus content. In addition, the partnerships built with various institutions and communities such as Wikimedia Japan and Wikimedia Turkey are very important for the progress of the programmes to be implemented. (NF) The coworking with indigenous communities, Embassies, and communities from other countries (my pleasure finding Ja-Malaysia communications) seems to be the strength. (YS) Wikimedia Malaysia not only focus on their country but also do a partnership with some countries inside and outside ESEAP Region. (GS)	Parts of the application lack significant detail. There is an answer of "N/A" for staff budget changes, but the number of staff seems to have gone from 0 to 2. "Why does the project lead have 13 months of salary budgeted? Who is the second staff member, only one seems mentioned on the budget? How is there a cost ""per email"" (is this a gmail business account)? There are a significant number of events planned, it would be helpful to get a sample breakdown from one event." (TB) How do you select volunteers to go to Wikimania and other conferences? Will there be open recruitment or closed recruitment? Why is the staff salary only 6000 MR per month? Because based on this website https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/average-salary-in-malaysia/#:~:text=The%20average%20salary%20in%20Malaysia%20is%206%2C590%20MYR%20(Malaysian%20Ringgit,Singapore%2C%20and%20the%20United%20Kingdom  , the average salary in Malaysia is 6,590 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) per month or 1,485 US Dollars (according to the May 2023 exchange rate.) I suggest holding open recruitment for sending volunteers to international conferences in order to equalise capacity within the organisation. I questioned how the community strategies to see the impact of outreach events and how they keep new volunteers contributing to the wiki community. (NF) What are the FTEs (full-time equivalents) in Malaysia's laws? (Japanese laws require many kinds of fringe benefits for workers who work more than 20h/week. It's a high wall for us.) (YS) Please share more regarding the program and the people who run it? Connecting the program, timeline, and a smaller group of people will help us to clear vision of the planning. Eg: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Thailand/Calendar_2024  (GS) Can we please get a latest status report of the current 2023 grant (financial report + metrics)?  This proposal will be almost 4 times bigger than the previous year, can you please explain more about the team’s capacity in executing 2024 projects? There is a target for education projects for all ages (primary to tertiary institution), please elaborate in more details how it is going to be done. (KSH)

We highly recommend you get in touch with the regional program officer to support you in understanding the questions raised or if you find it useful to meet with the committee as well, please let them know and they can organize a conversation meeting.

Thank you, and we look forward to receiving your responses to support us in the next steps. On behalf of the ESEAP Regional Committee and Staff - VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 12:32, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

@VThamaini (WMF) Hello, thank you for your patience. Regarding the questions:

1. Number of staff

The number of staff is one. We plan to recruit a dedicated project lead responsible for initiating events. This individual will undertake various tasks, including drafting communication with partners, reaching out to them, coordinating event logistics, and more. This appointment is crucial, given our numerous upcoming events, as having someone focused on event planning and management is imperative for ensuring the grant's success.

2. Email cost

Yes, the email expense covers the Gmail Business account, which we have used for the past two years. If you have an alternative suggestion, please feel free to share it.

3. Sample breakdown of 1 event:

• Event name: Editathon
• Pre-event:

- Create concept note, budget and letter of collaboration of event and send them to partners

- Create a group of communications between partners and participants

- Order souvenirs for participants and partners

- Order catering for lunch for participants

- Book a venue

- Reimburse travels and stay for Wikimedia trainers

• While event:

-Introduce Wikimedia to participants

- Train participants to edit Wikimedia projects

- Give live feedback to participants on their articles or lemmas.

• Post-event:

- Send out survey to participants

- Check the articles made by participants and give feedback

- Monitor participants’ edits one week after the event.

- Send out certificates to participants.

- Send shoutout about any Wikimedia event and contest just in case any of them would be interested

4. How selection of scholars was made?

Scholars are chosen based on their demonstrated engagement through active edits, their comprehension of the Wikimedia movement, and their participation in the user group. We have applied this selection process for Wikimania 2023 in Singapore.

5. Amount of salary justification

The salary of the staff is inclusive of SOCSO and EPF contributions for the employee. We plan to pay the staff with a basic monthly salary of RM 5,000 with the remaining RM 1,000 for the contribution payments as well as any other administrative payments related to the staff’s salary that may arise. The Employees' Social Security Act 1969 requires employers and employees to make contributions based on specific percentages for the Employment Injury Scheme and the Invalidity Scheme insurances. The employer has to contribute about 1.75% based on the employee’s monthly salary, while the employee has to deduct about 0.5% from their monthly salary as contribution. The exact amount is determined by the contribution rate table provided by the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO). The Employment Insurance System Act 2017 also requires employers and employees to make contributions based on 0.4% of the employee’s assumed monthly salary. 0.2% will be paid by the employer while 0.2% will be deducted from the employee’s monthly salary. The Employees' Provident Fund Act 1991 requires employers and employees to make monthly contributions based on the monthly salary of the employee. The employer has to contribute 13% based on the employee’s monthly salary, while the employee has to deduct 11% from their monthly salary as contribution. As for why the monthly salary is significantly lower than the average monthly salary in Malaysia, we decided that we would like to make annual increments to the staff salary to encourage employee retention. The monthly salary itself of RM 5,000 is sufficient for employees residing in Kuala Lumpur as a single person is estimated to have monthly costs of RM 2,534 without rent, while the average rent in the Kuala Lumpur city centre for a one bedroom apartment is estimated to be around RM 2,390. If the basic monthly salary is deemed too low, we are open to increasing it based on the average monthly salary mentioned of RM 6,590.

6. Community strategies and its impact of outreach event and ways to keep retention.

We have formulated our strategy in advance of grant application, and we anticipate its finalisation upon grant approval to ensure alignment with the allocated budget. Our retention strategy is intricately linked to the recommendations outlined in the preliminary draft;

see the draft

7. FTE in Malaysia laws

Based on the amended Employment Act 1955 as of 1st August 2023, the maximum work hours per week may not exceed 45 hours. Any additional overtime only requires an overtime per hour pay of at least 1.5 times of the base salary per hour. For employees that are required to work on paid holidays, they are entitled to at least 2 times the base salary per hour and any overtime per hour pay of at least 3 times the base salary per hour. We plan to schedule the employee to work for 7 hours per day for a duration of 4 days per week with a total of 28 hours per week and 112 hours per month. The Full-Time-Equivalent would be 0.622 or about RM 44.65/hour.

8. Programme calendar

Please refer to the page.

9. Latest status report 2023 grant (financial/metrics)

• Finances: We have spent MYR 121,497.59 for all the programmes in 2023 as of 31 October 2023. We have the remaining MYR 34,426.98 left out of total MYR 155,924.57 (2023 budget: MYR 115099.69 + 2022 leftover due to long process of bank creation: MYR 40,824.88).
• Metrics: The metrics of the programmes done in 2023 can be found in the Outreach Dashboard. Based on the metrics, we exceeded the 200 participants and editors target. We also surpassed the number of organisers. To name a few, we have new partners from the EU Delegation to Malaysia, the Embassy of France in Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Terengganu State Forest Department, Dungun District Education Office and MyMP. We also surpassed the target number of uploads by 96.

10. Team capacity in executing 2024 projects

The size of the user group is growing and we have identified some new editors to be part of the team in helping to organise some of the events for 2024. The user group will guide the new users in organising these events especially at their own places like universities.

11. All ages education projects how?

The user group has worked and collaborated with many education institutions including schools, universities and district education offices. With the Sandakan Education Office under the Wikipedia Boarding School Programme, the schools involved are primary schools and secondary schools from 2022. We trained the teachers and students on the basic edits of Wiktionary and Wikimedia Commons. After the training, the teachers will monitor their edits in the school. The students will continue editing in their free time. We follow the rules and guidelines from the Education Office and schools.

Thank you for your support in the grant application process. Should you have any additional inquiries or require further information, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.WAqil (WMYS) (talk) 08:49, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

General Support Fund Approved at 266,719.00 MYR

Dear Wikimedia Malaysia,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The ESEAP Regional Committee and Staff have thoroughly reviewed, discussed and deliberated upon your application and made the decision to fund you at 266,719.00 MYR for the grant period 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024.

• The funded decision included costs related to 2 staff costs. We recognize the roles will be useful in supporting coordination and continuous engagement of the community you are building and partnerships emerging.
• We recommend that you review your education program to be more strategic, especially in thinking through the outcomes you hope to see in both the teachers and students in terms of cognitive and action-based changes.

We hope to continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Do set up a regular schedule to connect with your ESEAP Programme Officer based on your needs. The reporting requirements for the grant will shared in your grant agreement and on Fluxx. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.

Once again, Congratulations! We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on a new year of project implementation. VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 11:56, 15 December 2023 (UTC)