Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia CEE Spring 2022
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Questions from CEE/CA Regional Committee[edit]
@Kiril Simeonovski: Thanks for your proposal to support the CEE Spring campaign for 2022. The Regional Committee has initially reviewed the proposal, and had some feedback and questions for your review:
- Thanks for providing an explanation around the rationale for a lower requested budget this year compared to the previous budget for the 2021 campaign, and that some affiliates are supporting campaign activities using independent funding. We noted that in 2021 (report) and 2019 (report), there was some underspend in your final reporting. Were these underspends caused primarily by this factor, or were other factors involved (such as COVID-19-related challenges)? If so, have these factors been considered in the proposed budget?
- In the proposal, you’ve noted that This year’s contest will try to strengthen the network of the CEE communities but also enlarge it by integrating new underrepresented groups and also make connections with communities from other regions. It’s great that your team is prioritizing this kind of growth for this important campaign. Can you describe what activities or tasks the central organizing team will do to connect with these underrepresented groups? Additionally, are there specific communities you feel well-placed to connect with along the qualities you described in the proposal? (specifically: Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language)
- In terms of thinking about the CEE Spring campaign in the future, one goal you have described is that you will use certain metrics around participation, content, and topical coverage to determine future priorities and how best to provide support. Can you describe how this evaluation process will work? Will you be doing any specific outreach or consultation with underrepresented or underserved CEE communities to assess priorities or needs? If so, would it be supportive to request additional resourcing or funding to support this work?
- Could you provide a brief timeline of major activities or milestones related to the campaign within the funding period (18 May 2022 to 31 January 2023)?
- Aside from integrating the campaign with the CEE Hub, are there any other longer-term goals or aspirations you have for the CEE Spring campaign?
Please let us know if you need any clarifications around the questions above. Your responses are requested by 2 May 2022 to help support a formal decision from the Regional Committee. Thanks again for your hard work on the proposal, and we look forward to your responses. On behalf of the Regional Committee, MikyM (talk) 19:04, 20 April 2022 (UTC)
- @MikyM: Thanks for the questions. My answers sorted out in corresponding order are given in turn.
- There are two main reasons for the underspends. Firstly, the average prize fund per participating community is lower than the amount of €400, which we project as a ceiling each year, because local coordinators have freedom to budget their prize funds up to this amount and many manage to organise the contest locally with substantially fewer funds. Secondly, we never have perfect information about how many communities can afford themselves to cover the prize funds, so we always need to budget for more communities than the actual number of those who need funding from the grant.
- The members of the international team regularly use the CEE groups on the social media to reach out to people from different CEE communities, to introduce members from underrepresented communities to the network, to announce news regarding the contest, as well as to call for action. Communities who wish to participate in the contest can focus on countries (e.g. Albania), regions (e.g. Republic of Srpska), peoples (e.g. Roma people) and languages (e.g. Esperanto). The first step to get underrepresented groups involved in the contest is by preparing article lists, whereas the second step is to find interested people who can set up the contest locally. In case when an underrepresented group has no community, the members of the international team take the responsibility to prepare article lists for them. Some specific communities which we have created article lists for but we are unable to reach out to include the Roma and Sorbian communities.
- There is a standardised set of metrics which are used to evaluate the success of the contest each year, such as number of total articles, number of articles per wiki, number of articles per list, number of articles about women, number of total participants, number of female participants, number of new editors etc. Given that this year's contest has a sub-contest related to human rights, which is also part of the WikiForHumanRights campaign, we have introduced the number of articles about human rights as a new metric. With regards to the consultation with communities on their priorities and needs, this has already been done as part of the CEE Hub Research. We intend to support this work in the future through the Wikimedia CEE Hub.
- The timeline of activities included in this project is as follows: evaluation of articles and announcing the winners at local level (June–July 2022), evaluation and finalising the results from the contest (July–October 2022), reimbursing expenses and paying for prizes at local level (August–November 2022), discussing the future of the contest at Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2022 (October 2022), and preparing the final report for the project (December 2022 – January 2023).
- The primary long-term goal is to expand the contest to the Wikimedia projects other than Wikipedia. There are participating communities which have valued contributions to Wikidata in the past. In addition, we acknowledge that Wikivoyage can be a potential project which could particularly benefit from the contest.
- You are welcome with any additional questions or need for further clarification. Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 19:52, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
Timeline update for funding decision announcements[edit]
@Kiril Simeonovski: Due to an unexpected medical issue I experienced earlier in April, I unfortunately was not able to interact with the Regional Committee or generally work during much of April last month. Due to this absence, we were unfortunately not able to provide committee feedback in a manner consistent with our original schedule. Consequently, we will be adjusting the date for announcing a funding decision for your proposal by one week from May 18th to May 25th. This change will help support the time needed for you to review and respond to committee feedback, as well as for the Regional Committee to finalize a funding decision. Please let me know if you have any questions or need clarification over this change in the schedule. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:43, 3 May 2022 (UTC)
- @I JethroBT (WMF): It does not change much if the decision is made a week later and whether the grant period starts on 18 May or 25 May. I hope you are better now and wish you good health. Best.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 08:53, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 8800 EUR[edit]
@Kiril Simeonovski: Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 8800 EUR with a grant term starting 6 June 2022 and ending 31 January 2023. (Some adjustments to the proposed starting date needed to be made in order to support making a grant agreement.)
The CEE Spring User Group’s activities have reliable impact in regional participation and content creation in over 30+ language communities in the CEE region through its annual campaign. The campaign is also incorporated as a part of many affiliates’ annual activities, demonstrating the campaign’s impact in cohesion in the region. The Regional Committee also appreciates that you have closely monitored their budgeting needs based on local organizers’ ability to independently resources these events. In fact, the budgetary need this year is smaller than the previous year. Finally, your organization is supported by experienced volunteers in supporting international activities as well as helping local organizers prepare and coordinate local events.
The Regional Committee also appreciates the resourcing provided to local communities around the thematic areas focused on women as well as on human rights topics. The committee is also willing to provide optional, additional funding to support separate international contests and associated prizes for these thematic topics. However, you are welcome to decline this recommendation, as the committee is not certain about the exact capacity needs that may be required around holding additional international contests. Your program officer will follow up with you to discuss this possibility.
For its next application, the committee requests that the user group to define a formal, long-term strategic plan for its organization and campaign. As the campaign has been running for several years, we would like to understand better what priorities your user group has for the campaign (or other activities), and in what ways you would like to improve or grow or change the campaign and your organization. We are glad to see some initial thinking on this scale, such as expanding the contest to other Wikimedia projects, and potentially integrating the campaign with a Regional Hub for the CEE region. Over the next year, both the committee and your program officer would be happy to help you prepare, provide feedback, or discuss ideas for CEE Spring User Group’s strategic plan for its next General Support Fund application. Importantly, a strategic plan is also necessary for the user group to become eligible for multiyear funding, and the Regional Committee agrees that the campaign would be well-suited for multiyear funding with an established strategic plan.
Finally, the committee is also wanting to understand more about the timing of your application given the campaign schedule. Because some planning around the campaign has already taken place, the committee would like to understand better whether an application during the August/September period would make more sense in future years (not for CEE Spring 2023, but for subsequent campaigns) to support any planning activities for the campaign.
The committee looks forward to working together with you in your future work in the Wikimedia movement. On behalf of the committee, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 02:22, 27 May 2022 (UTC)