Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska/One-Year General Support Grant/2023-2024

Regional Committee feedback and questions

Hello Wikimedia Republc of Srpska,

(Pinging Bojana Wiki PG)

Thanks for your proposal supporting the Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska's annual activities projects over the next year. The CEE/Central Asia Regional Committee has initially reviewed the proposal, and wanted to offer some initial feedback and questions for your review:

• An important strength in this proposal is an intentional change in how you establish and maintain relationships with GLAM institutions. While sometimes these relationships are initiated by one person with an incidental connection, there are risks of these partnerships ending and work being lost when the relationship is only held by one person. Your efforts to support broader relationships with partner organizations with multiple contacts will help sustain the work you do together, and will make changes in staffing and other circumstances less disruptive for your work and goals.

• In terms of your annual conference, the committee wanted to understand if you have considered inviting Serbian-language communities in other Balkan countries outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Are you engaged with many Serbian language communities outside of Republika, and if so, would it be beneficial to consider outreach to these communities for your annual meeting?

• The committee appreciates your explanation regarding compensation for general labor costs across your programs, as well as for the Administration and Logistics Manager. Because this is a unique approach to supporting labor costs in affiliate work, how is the workforce generally distributed amongst active members involved in these activities? For example, are direct and indirect work activities typically done by one member, or multiple members?

In terms of the schedule for our review process, please complete your review and responses to committee feedback by May 8th. After this time, the Regional Committee will begin a final review of the proposal to make a formal decision. Thanks again for your work on the proposal and supporting our review.

On behalf of the Regional Committee, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 04:06, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Responses

Dear Regional Committee Members,

Thank you for reviewing our proposal, for the comments and the questions. Please find our answers below.

• We are aware of the risk to future work of relying on individuals from GLAM institutions. In addition to expanding the network of associates and including new institutions in cooperation, we strive to maintain cooperation with old partners with the quality provided. Our experience so far has been positive. So far, we have not had a situation of refusal to re-collaborate in the GLAM sphere. Institutions and organizations were happy to respond to official invitations for cooperation independently of the individuals who are our collaborators. It often happens that we are contacted by an institution that is interested in a certain project and participation in it, even though the project has not yet been announced on our means of information and media (eg #1ref#lib, Wiki ambassador). We believe that institutions and organizations recognize our activities as an opportunity to improve their own work, and we make efforts to keep it that way.

• Our previous practice regarding the annual conference was to invite, in addition to people from Republic of Srpska and Serbia, fellow editors of bs. Wikipedia from the Federation of BiH through a public invitation to the media (our mailing list includes all media in BiH, regardless of the division into entities) and calls on Wikipedia Community portal. Unfortunately, it did not happen that we had applications from FBiH, while we had participants from Serbia and Montenegro. It would be very useful and desirable to organize an event in which we would have participants from other countries, as suggested. Until now, we have organized and planned the event in a narrow circle, inviting only guests from neighboring countries due to budget constraints.

• The budget is divided equally among the number of members who are involved and who work for a specific project. For example, 5 people will work on the Wiki Ambassador project, who will have the same scope of work and the same number of hours of direct and indirect work, so the total amount will be divided by 5. Administrative and logistical tasks will be performed by one person. --Bojana Wiki PG (talk) 18:01, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 47,162.48 EUR

@Bojana Wiki PG: Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 47,162.48 EUR with a grant term starting 1 July 2023 and ending 30 June 2024.

The committee supports full funding for Wikimedia Republic of Srpska User Group for the next year. Your organization has many important strengths that supported the committee’s decision, including: the quality of your organizational partners supporting academic and broader educational programs, providing good clarity in more immediate goals for your organization, such as training members for project-specific tasks, and connecting them to longer-term milestones you want to reach, such as formally registering your organization and preparing to hire employees. It was also helpful to understand more about your productive efforts in international outreach with neighboring countries. The committee understands there may be limitations here in supporting other Serbian-language communities. Your organization’s approach and practices around compensation for various project and organizational tasks is also important to learn about, as it is a somewhat unique approach among movement affiliates. We hope this funding provides adequate support for organizers and members contributing to your organization’s projects this year.

One important change in the General Support Fund is that a written midpoint report is no longer required for the General Support Fund. We will continue to have a midpoint conversation to meet and generally reflect on your progress, needs, and updates on your ongoing and future movement work.

In terms of next steps: You will be contacted to sign a grant agreement. If you want to discuss the funding decision or have questions during the funding period, you are welcome to contact your regional program officer.

Thanks again for your hard work preparing the proposal and supporting our review process for the General Support Fund. We look forward to your work this year!

On behalf of the Regional Committee, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 05:44, 29 May 2023 (UTC)