Grants talk:Project/MSIG/Wikimedia Poland/Peer support for administrators

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the cure for burnout is not “self-care”; it is all of us caring for one another[edit]

To follow up on this quote, I do not see in 'Solutions' a proposition to facilitate care outside of admin circle *(which is often already troubling as potential clique forming group in medium and small Wiki projects) or to address needs of people who are often victims of sub-ideal work of admins *(please note there are no innocent participants in long and escalated conflicts, including passive bystanders).

If there is no 'reconciliation' and meeting-each-other protocol as part of proposal IMHO this is only going to increase the gap and polarize situations between frustrated non-admins and (future) less-frustrated admins. --Zblace (talk) 04:22, 29 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for reading through the proposal and providing feedback! I strongly agree (a someone with longtime history as Wikipedia editor and community member and a longtime community supporter) that we should engage in preventing burnout and supporting all the community (admin or non-admin, newbies and longtime editors). And only by doing that - promoting a culture of kindness and mutual support. But I feel like this should be done by different programs and tools for different community groups. This one is tailored specifically to address admin burnout. Burnout often comes with such symptoms as depersonalization, lower empathy, cynicism - by preventing those, the program will also support healthy and supportive realtionships between admins and non-admins.
It is important to note that it is designed for a community where there is no longtime conflict between admins and non-admins. In such situations probably other means would be better (mediation program maybe?). And because of that - there is no need of reconcialiation. But definitely this program could prevent community tensions and challenging situations escalating into conflicts.
I hope it helped to clear things up, but please let me know if there is something I missed and which needs answering. I will be happy to have this conversation and include any feedback. Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska (WMPL) (talk) 15:51, 18 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Overall Positive Feedback[edit]

This project proposes to pioneer a peer support group model supporting one of the most-targeted groups of volunteers on our projects: administrators. The proposal has a clear impact potential for advancing the movement strategy initiative it targets - Safety and Inclusion - as it envisions a pathway for both on- and offline contributors to have access to readily available resources mitigating harm caused by the Wikimedia projects, including psychological support.


This is a strong, logical, well-thought and community-driven project plan as it aims to serves a project community in a very direct manner. YPam (WMF) (talk) 10:59, 18 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, it is so great to read this! Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska (WMPL) (talk) 09:18, 19 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback for Improvement[edit]

The application highlights the expected outcomes of the project as detailed in the Project Activities section, however the details of how those results will be measured is not clear. Please consider providing more clarity regarding those. YPam (WMF) (talk) 11:01, 18 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Yop, thank you for the feedback! I've added an information about how the changes would be measured, let me know if that is OK, or should I add more information about it or any other ways of measurement. Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska (WMPL) (talk) 09:10, 19 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Request for an extension of the deadline for the implementation of the grant[edit]

Dear all,

as the Wikimedia Polska team, we would like to ask for an extension of the deadline for the implementation of the grant by 3 months (that is until June 30).

Due to personnel changes in the Wikimedia Polska team, the composition of the team responsible for the project has changed. The current composition of the team is as follows:


Work on the grant has been ongoing since its implementation began and despite staff changes in the team, they have not been stopped for a moment. These changes, and in particular the lack of a person in the staff team who is part of the administrators community and responsible for facilitating the peer support group, made the process of communication with administrators longer. Due to this, the tasks we perform take more time than we originally assumed.

Last year, two on-line meetings of administrators were held, carried out as part of the grant. The next on-line meeting with the participation of an external expert is scheduled for January 18. At the end of last year, administrators commented on the organization of the Admin Camp in a survey. Based on their answers regarding content and training issues as well as location preferences and specific needs related to the accessibility of the event, we are now organizing the Camp. The first such meeting of the administrators' peer support group in Poland will take place on the last weekend of February or the first weekend of March.

We recommend extending the deadline for the implementation of the grant, taking into account the fact that we are acting strongly and do not extend the implementation of what is already planned until the end of March (i.e. two more on-line integration and training meetings and Admin Camp live), but we give ourselves more time to implement the next things we wanted to do (e.g. a integration meeting in April, a meeting with an expert in May, the last meeting summarizing the grant from the admins in June).

Thanks to this, the project will gain extra quality. Administrators will gain more opportunities to integrate and acquire competences, while respecting their time and assuming that we hold remote meetings no more than once a month. Thanks to the extension of the deadline for the implementation of the grant and the organization of more meetings the substantive report on the implementation of the grant will also include more robust content.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Poland team,

Paulina Studniczka (WMPL) (talk) 14:28, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello @Paulina Studniczka (WMPL)
Thank you for the update on the personnel changes within the Wikimedia Polska team. Due the importance, potential impact and communities’ uptake and interest in this project, it is good to know that implementation was not stalled.
The delays you are experiencing are reasonable and understandable. The team’s request for a 3 month project timelines extension to the 30th of June 2023, is approved.
We look forward to meeting the new members of the team and please let the MSG team know if there is any further support that you all may need. Best, YPam (WMF) (talk) 19:10, 10 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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