Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Administrative and technical resources for Bangladeshi Wikimedia community (ID: 22396908)

Review feedback

Hello Wikitanvir, thanks for submitting this grant request. We understand the need for resources to support different administrative and technical costs for Wikimedia Bangladesh. We also acknowledge that it is important for the Executive Committee members to have an in-person meeting.

After reviewing the grant proposal, we have a few comments and questions. Please add the requested information directly to your application on Fluxx.

• Please note that as we agreed, this grant proposal will be credited to Wikimedia Bangladesh.
• You mentioned different technical support needed for your websites. Would you please list these websites or web applications in your response to question 7?
• There is also a need for a Zoom pro subscription. Would you provide more details about how often you use it for Wikimedia activities? How did you use it last year? (question 7)
• Your plan is to organize at least one in-person gathering for the Executive Committee members. We need more details about this activity. Why do you want to organize this? What will be discussed and included in the agenda? Why is it important to meet in person? What will be the outcome of this meeting? (question 7)

We are sending this application back to you for review. You will receive an automated email with instructions. Please review your application, provide responses on Fluxx and re-submit it by 3 December 2023. Best regards, --DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 16:12, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

Dear Davit,

Thank you for your questions. As discussed and agreed, it is okay to credit the proposal to Wikimedia Bangladesh.

We have the following technical services running.

Websites

- wikimedia.org.bd

- wikibarta.wikimedia.org.bd

- internal.wikimedia.org.bd

- survey.wikimedia.org.bd (under development)

Parked Domain custodian

- wikipedia.org.bd

- wikiloves.org

- bnwikipedia.org

- উইকিপিডিয়া.বাংলা

- উইকি.বাংলা

Web Services

- Cloudflare DNS firewall

- Akeeba Backup software

- Cleantalk Antispam protection

- Email service for EC members, various committees, and PR communications

We use our Zoom subscription to arrange online meetups and workshops which require several features that are available to paid customers only. We also use it to organize our monthly Executive Committee meetings and any other additional meetings we may need from time to time. The service is used not only to support Wikimedia Bangladesh activities but also activities of our regional communities and the other volunteers in the region as a whole. As an example, our Mymensigh Wikimedia Community held their online meetup last October through our Zoom platform (see here). We also plan to create a mechanism where other interested volunteers in the region can request access to this resource to arrange their Wikimedia activities.

About your last question, let me start by clarifying a miswording at my end. This is not a meetup but an Executive Committee meeting (EC meeting). We are required by our bylaws to hold at least 4 EC meetings (one for each quarter of the year). We’ve been holding these meetings mostly online which last around 1 to 2 hours.

We want to increase the outcome of these meetings by holding an in-person meeting to increase interaction and collaboration between our EC members. Several important issues need to be discussed in length which require our board members to sit together to discuss through multiple sessions. These topics include (but are not limited to):

- Strategic and legislative changes in the organization

- How to adapt to the legal challenges (issuance of the new Cyber Security Act, etc.) and the human rights situation in the region to ensure the safety of the volunteers

- Discussing current governance mechanism—what works and doesn’t and why, how to arrange governance talks in the community to ensure better governance

- Review our past activities and plan future activities

- Discussing partnership opportunities with other organizations and GLAM

We hope to achieve the following from the meeting:

- Workable approach to adapt to the changes in the future while ensuring continuous growth of the community and the chapter in a sustainable way

- Arranging well-planned and more organized programs and initiatives

- Establish good precedence for the future of the EC members

I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if you have any more questions. — T. 12:35, 3 December 2023 (UTC)