Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Cyprus User Group Annual Plan

Regional Committee feedback and questions

@AProdromou: Hello Anna and Sezis, and thanks for your General Support Fund proposal for the Wikimedia Community User Group Cyprus. The Regional Committee has completed an initial review of the proposal, and has the following feedback, questions, and comments to help support their review:

• The committee noted some strengths in Cyprus's initial proposal, including its prior engagement with broader movement entities such as the CEE Hub, its participation with regional events that has supported collaboration with other CEE communities, and its priorities and past experience focused on addressing gender-related biases and gaps on Wikimedia content (such as with this Rapid Fund proposal and report).
• Your user group also bring a lot of important skills in general outreach and communication, and these are likely to be good strengths in your organization when it comes to recruitment and building future partnerships.
• When it comes to General Support Fund proposals generally, the committee has typically supported proposals from User Groups and chapters that have an active and experienced editing community, even if that community is small. An important concern from the Regional Committee is that most of the current members of the User Group have minimal experience contributing to Wikimedia projects, and are not especially active. This is a concern because:
  • a lack of on-wiki experience limits your user group's general ability and capacity to advise partners on Wikipedia editing and interacting with Greek, Turkish, and other Wikimedia communities, as well as with leading workshops related to different on-wiki topics. It may be challenging for your user group to effectively advise newcomers and communities you work with on topics like editorial policies, community norms, more complex editing tasks or needs, or resolving on-wiki conflicts or disagreements.
  • your user group may need to need to largely rely on people outside your organization for training support. While it is common for User Groups to host occasional workshops led by experts in other organizations, relying on outside expertise too heavily is resource-intensive and is not a sustainable way to develop your programs.
  • historically, we have observed that providing new affiliates with a large amount of initial funding is not an effective way to initially develop an active and sustained volunteer community. Put another way, funding is not an effective vehicle to create an active Wikimedia community.

It is clear that one goal of the proposal is to attract new members into your user group, and some outreach efforts toward those goals is a sensible approach to achieve that goal. However, what will your user group be doing to build on-wiki skills and capacities within your organization for new and current members, and to support them to be active contributors?

• Related to the above point, the expected impact of your activities and work over the next year is relatively low compared to the budget overall, particularly in terms of programmatic participation. As a point of comparison, affiliates with the kind of annual budget you are requesting are typically able to engage with hundreds of editors, have a larger number of expected partnerships,
• Your User Group does not yet have its own bank account that can receive funds for the group, and has opted to seek a fiscal sponsorship for funds management, accounting, and possible reporting needs. Can you provide an update on whether you have selected a local organization or other Wikimedia movement organization to support this need?

Please let me know if you have any questions or needs for clarity around the committee's feedback. To support the Regional Committee's review, please respond to committee feedback by Thursday, November 21st. On behalf of the Regional Committee, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 16:30, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

thank you for your feedback

here are the answers for the questions posed

1.a lack of on-wiki experience limits your user group's general ability and capacity to advise partners on Wikipedia editing and interacting with Greek, Turkish, and other Wikimedia communities, as well as with leading workshops related to different on-wiki topics. It may be challenging for your user group to effectively advise newcomers and communities you work with on topics like editorial policies, community norms, more complex editing tasks or needs, or resolving on-wiki conflicts or disagreements.

This is not the actual case anymore. We have significantly enhanced our on-wiki knowledge and capabilities. However, our current challenge lies in the fact that our volunteers are extensively engaged in administrative tasks, proposal writing, funding applications, stakeholder engagement, and event management. This workload leaves them feeling overburdened and somewhat deflated, limiting their capacity to focus on wiki projects, which is our main objective. Therefore, the primary issue is not a lack of internal expertise but the limited time available for volunteers to fully commit to on-wiki projects due to the aforementioned administrative and event-related tasks. With staff support in place to handle these tasks, our volunteers will be better positioned to focus on skill-building and leading workshops, thus enhancing our long-term sustainability.

We appreciate and acknowledge your observation regarding the challenges of using funding as a means to develop an active volunteer community. However, we believe that our user group is not at a basic skill level but rather at an advanced stage of development. Our current strategy focuses on leveraging funding to create a supportive structure that alleviates the administrative burden on volunteers. This approach will empower our community to concentrate on high-impact activities, including editing, content creation, and direct community engagement, which are essential for attracting and sustaining active contributors. By building a robust structure, we aim to ensure that our outreach efforts effectively translate into increased participation and long-term volunteer retention.

To build on-wiki skills and capacities for new and current members and support them in becoming active contributors, we plan to implement several initiatives:

We will organize a series of structured training workshops tailored to various skill levels, ensuring that new members gain foundational editing knowledge while more experienced members can enhance their expertise.

We will develop a mentorship system where seasoned volunteers mentor new members, providing guidance on editing, community norms, and best practices.

Regular collaborative editing sessions and edit-a-thons will be held to create a supportive environment for skill-building, peer learning, and active contribution.

We will create comprehensive guides and resources that cover essential topics such as editorial policies, conflict resolution, and advanced editing techniques to support self-paced learning.

2.Related to the above point, the expected impact of your activities and work over the next year is relatively low compared to the budget overall, particularly in terms of programmatic participation. As a point of comparison, affiliates with the kind of annual budget you are requesting are typically able to engage with hundreds of editors, have a larger number of expected partnerships,

While we understand the concern regarding the expected impact relative to our requested budget, we would like to stress that we are confident in our ability to exceed the projected participation numbers. Our deliberate approach focuses on achievable and sustainable growth rather than overpromising. We are committed to maintaining quality and impact in our programs, prioritizing meaningful engagement that will build a strong, active community over the next year. With the appropriate support and resources, we anticipate that our outreach efforts will result in substantial and lasting community development.

3.Your User Group does not yet have its own bank account that can receive funds for the group, and has opted to seek a fiscal sponsorship for funds management, accounting, and possible reporting needs. Can you provide an update on whether you have selected a local organization or other Wikimedia movement organization to support this need?

The most recent conversation we had was with Wikimedia staff member Morgan, during which we agreed that the most effective path forward would involve identifying an organization already familiar with Wikimedia, last message sent on October 1st. We are still awaiting your assistance in connecting us with potential organizations that could serve as a fiscal sponsor. Once these connections are made, we will begin the evaluation process to identify the best fit for our group’s financial management, accounting, and reporting needs. OkutS (talk) 08:47, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 32,000 EUR

@AProdromou: Congratulations! Your General Support Fund proposal is partially approved in the amount of 32,000 EUR with a grant term starting 1 January 2025 and ending 31 December 2025.

The committee is pleased to support Wikimedia Cyprus User Group as a new grantee of the General Support Fund. The committee appreciated learning more about your organization’s past work, challenges with bringing communities across Cyprus together, engagement with broader movement entities, and ideas your organization has to grow its volunteers and members. Your initial organizational goals around recruitment and developing educational programs are clear.

However, the committee was not willing to fully fund the proposal due to the following concerns:

• Certain activities and goals were not sufficiently detailed, such as encouraging students, educators, and women to edit and contribute. How would this work be done? What kind of participation/editing is expected based on your engagement? Because the substance of these activities and outcomes was unclear, it was difficult to assess whether they would be successful.
• The committee disagrees that your organization collectively has adequate on-wiki experience in general based on its current membership. Areas of concern about your experience include:
  • relatively low edit counts (less than 1000) compared to other newer User Groups applying for General Support Funding,
  • minimal engagement with other Wikimedians in discussion spaces,
  • edits mainly on Greek language Wikimedia projects but not on Turkish language Wikimedia projects, and
  • edits primarily confined to Wikipedia projects but not other Wikimedia projects.

These concerns are important because we expect affiliates to have considerable experience in the Wikimedia projects they want to support. They should be able to effectively guide and advise newcomers to those projects and communities in a holistic way. These skills do not only relate to article creation and improvement, but also understanding about editorial and behavioral policies, culture, and norms of that Wikimedia community as well. For example, if a new editor at one of your events encounters some conflict on-wiki (e.g. an edit is reverted, an article is deleted, they become involved in a content dispute), is your User Group prepared to advise them on how to productively engage with that conflict? If not, this can create an overall negative experience for that participant regarding their perception and attitude towards your organization and the Wikimedia movement as a whole.

• Some expenses are not clearly justified in the proposal. For example, while it is clear that you want to build a website, the proposal does not describe what outcomes are expected from building a new website, or what needs it is addressing.
• For this year, the committee encourages your user group to focus on:
  • significantly improving your on-wiki experience within your organization,
  • volunteer recruitment/retention,
  • developing a more defined strategy around what future programs you want to run and why they are important for your communities, and
  • to a lesser degree, exploring possible educational partnerships on a limited scale.

This means that the committee is not expecting large content or participation-related outcomes in your general work in 2025. If these requests are met, we ask that your organizational focus shift more toward external programs for your next General Support Fund proposal.

We look forward to Wikimedia Cyprus User Group’s work and achievements over the next year. On behalf of the Regional Committee, MikyM (talk) 21:51, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback. Much appreciated. 212.76.253.94 07:38, 12 December 2024 (UTC)