Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia’s 2023 General Support

Follow-up Questions from ESEAP Funds Committee

Dear Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia,

Thank you for providing your written responses to additional questions from the ESEAP Funds Committee. See PDF document for more details. Thank you also for joining us on the call with the Committee on 3 December 2022. Your presence and participation was very well appreciated. Thank you.

Regards, Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 03:43, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of MYR 118,520

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of MYR 118,520 with a grant term starting 1 January 2023 and ending 31 December 2023. See also note below.

The changes we see

In the last 12 months, we have observed that

• you have successfully opened a corporate account with a local bank for the User Group
• made inroads in building some collaborations with education sector partners; and
• Your focus on using smaller language and wiki projects to engage indigenous communities to contribute is gaining traction

The changes we hope to see

• The ESEAP Funds Committee and ESEAP Programme Officer is of the view that you may require more support in managing new freelance resources (i.e. graphic designer) and exploring different methods and tools to document and measure changes, especially in identifying and answering your learning questions.
• We hope through a full year of activities planned for next year, you will be able to build up a core group of office holders and community organisers and improve your budget planning and utilisation rates

For more details, refer to the summary table below.

Next steps:

• Let’s 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 can be found here and templates are available here. Timelines for reporting can be found in your grant agreement or 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.

Categories from Proposal Review Framework	General Observations about Application	Suggestions and Recommendations from ESEAP Funds Committee and Programme Officer
General Clarity (e.g. vision, change, strategy, learnings)	(KSH) The vision is very broad and hard to be achieved within a year period (especially with their limitation of time and human resources). Would be better if the team can go back and decide on a few prioritised goals and activities. E.g. building community in city X, Y, Z, rather than all big cities in Malaysia. (NF) This proposal explains the vision and mission clearly. However, I see that the focus is too much, namely in terms of online and offline activities when viewed from the availability of human resources. (EW) The Malaysian Wikimedia User Group as they mentioned in the proposed proposal has a very small (2-3) manpower, but relatively speaking, the proposed proposal has quite a lot of projects, which is compelling There are legitimate concerns that the workload of the currently proposed proposal will result in a hit to viability.	(KSH) They have identified one of the major risks but there are no mitigation strategies defined. Two active members need to travel >2 hours to reach the capital where they mainly plan the activities. They might one to consider hiring a community development staff (intern/part-time/full-time) in capital. Then these other two regional members can plan local activities in their region. The User Group mentioned focusing on local aboriginal languages - where is it? Which language? Sometimes these languages are not spoken in the capital. Might be worth to speak with Wikimedia Indonesia (due to similarities in language) if one of their experiences staff can be a "visiting staff" for few months and help in building partnership and organising community events
Impact potential and strategic alignment(e.g. strategy, activities alignment with knowledge equity, movement strategy, welcoming underrepresented communities, community support)	(NF) This proposal wants to reach diversity in Malaysia starting from geography, tribe or ethnicity, and language. That's very interesting because Malaysia is a multicultural country. (KSH) Need more clarification on how they are going to retain newcomers apart from frequent meet ups. They mentioned training for newcomers - what kind of training? Who's going to train these people? (EW) The proposed proposal needs to add a more detailed explanation on how to retain and enable new players to continue to grow. (NF) They plan to make partnerships with organisations and other education institutions. But, there is no clear partnership plan for each party. Is it an internship opportunity? Is it conducting workshops?	(NF) I think this proposal should put "gender" as well as priority since they plan to conduct WikiGap. I have never met any woman Wikimedian from Malaysia.
Organisational capacity and budget(e.g. budget, learnings, strategies for engagement)	(KSH) One of the biggest component in their budget is Wikimania scholarship: What is the criteria of selecting a scholarship recipient? Does the applicant have a capacity to manage the entire pre-selection and post-Wikimania monitoring? What do they want to achieve by giving 25 scholarships? What do they expect from the recipients after attending Wikimania?	This question was partially explored during the application process and can be looked into further during the course of the grant implementation (JC) 71% of your budget is directed towards events and travel. You are budgeting for 20 full scholarships and 5 partial scholarships for Wikimania Singapore. Could you provide more details about the eligibility criteria, selection process that you have in mind? Does the User Group have experience in setting up a travel scholarship application, review and appeal process that is transparent, fair and equitable? Say more? If not, what do you need to learn from other affiliates? What support will you require?
Learning and evaluation(e.g. learnings, metrics)	(EW) The following metrics are critical to the applicant's proposed proposal, but are not currently being used by the applicant, nor are suitable alternatives proposed: 1. Number of organisers who continue to participate/retain after the event 2. Number of strategic partnerships contributing to long-term growth, diversity and sustainability 3. Participant feedback on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors	This question was partially explored during the application process and can be looked into further during the course of the grant implementation (JC) Beyond the core metrics, The User Group can consider including quantitative and qualitative measures on partnerships, training outcomes and social media engagement. This may be useful in helping understand ways to engage and retain partners and participants.
Others	(NF) How will you recruit the designer? Is the designer also a Wikimedian? Do you have any accountant management system to track the funding? How is the leadership framework in your user group? How do you manage the roles since all of you have full time jobs?	This question was partially explored during the application process and can be looked into further during the course of the grant implementation (JC) There can be more clarity about how the graphic designer will contribute to higher social media engagement and how do you decide if the increased engagement is a result of the more visually appealing content. Useful supporting materials could include: terms of reference, sourcing process, sample social media posts that you are looking to produce, summary of social media post schedule, workflow of content creation to design, review and post (and frequency). How would you adjust your proposal to take the above into account? How would you measure change?
Categories from Proposal Review Framework	General Observations about Application	Suggestions and Recommendations from ESEAP Funds Committee and Programme Officer

Note: Budget line items that were reduced - contingency, graphic designer fees (halved), Wikimania travel scholarships (halved). You can work with the ESEAP Programme Officer to reallocate your approved budget thereafter. JChen (WMF) (talk) 09:32, 8 December 2022 (UTC)