Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Odia Wikimedians User Group/Odia Wikipedia's 16th anniversary

Comments from I JethroBT (WMF)

Hi Guguly18, and thanks for your request to for a capacity building workshop alongside a celebration of Odia Wikipedia's anniversary. Congratulations on 16 years of important volunteer work! I am very sorry that it has taken some time for us to review your proposal. This delay was in part due to larger-than-expected volume of Rapid Grant requests we have been receiving. Here are my comments and questions:

• Can you describe in a little more detail what aspects of capacity building or skills you will be teaching about and developing at this anniversary event?

We would facilitate both peer learning by 1:1 mentoring, and focused sessions (like sessions on issues like improving bettering the quality of citations by looking through more authentic sources, improving articles with no images, maintaining quality while translating from English Wikipedia, and following up with new editors of an edit-a-thon).

• Thanks for taking the time to secure grant funding from CIS-A2K to help offset some of the travel costs for the event.
• Concerning the budget, the line item specifically for t-shirts will need to be modified. In the eligibility criteria, Rapid Grants cannot fund more expensive merchandise (like T-shirts) for all participants at an event. The stickers are fine, and we can fund a small number of T-shirts for this event, limited to volunteers who make substantial contributions to organizing or leading the event. In this case, if you have 5 experienced editors who are formally leading talks or workshops, and 1-2 people who are helping plan and organize the event itself, we could accommodate a request for seven (7) T-shirts. Based on these limitations, please update your budget when you are able.

Please respond to these questions above when you're able-- I'll be monitoring this page carefully, so I will follow-up quickly once I hear back from you. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:05, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Frankly speaking, production of tshirts are extremely cheap in India. For a comparison sake, when a t-shirt on Wikimedia Shop is priced for $20-25, it is possible to get one produced in India for $4. Though we proposed for $187.5 to be on a safer side for all our production, the actual price would come down. Price per item is cheaper in bulk production than it is for small scale production. For instance the same t-shirt might cost $5-6/piece when the total number is less than 10, when it would be cheaper when we produce 20 pieces or so. There would be a difference of $50 or so if we reduce the number of t-shirts. Do you think it would be make more sense that way? We could produce 7 t-shirts the way you have suggested though.

Hi I JethroBT (WMF), I have addressed above the two main questions that you asked on behalf of the community (though anyone is most welcome to add anything more/differ). Do let us know if you have any further questions. --Subhashish Panigrahi (talk) 02:24, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

@Gugly18: Thanks for your responses to my questions. You make a good point that there are differences, sometimes substantial, in terms of cost of production for things like merchandise and equipment. However, these differences are also one reason we have this policy limiting what kind of swag or merchandise can be funded through Rapid Grants. Many applicants in other countries cannot acquire apparel like t-shirts for all event participants simply because the cost is too great. Furthermore, contributing to Wikimedia projects is intended to be a volunteer activity. Having swag at events to give to participants is sensible of course, but there are limits in place so that participants do not have the expectation that contributing to Wikimedia projects means they will be rewarded materially. For now, please revise the budget on the proposal page for seven t-shirts. Once that is done, I can approve your proposal. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:46, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF): edited based on your suggestions. This is Subhashish btw. :) --Subhashish Panigrahi (talk) 03:22, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

@Psubhashish: My apologies Subhashish-- thanks for your revisions. The only remaining concern I have is a discrepancy between the requested amount in INR and USD in terms of the exchange rate. The budget shows that 1,795 USD is roughly equivalent to 130,000 INR. We normally use OANDA currency converter, which shows that $1,795 is actually closer to 120,900 INR, a difference of about 161.00 USD (or about 10,900 INR). I understand there are bank fees when funds are transferred, but these are accounted for in the budget already. Is there some other reason for this discrepancy? Once this remaining matter is resolved, I will approve this request. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 15:44, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Thanks @I JethroBT (WMF): for the flag. I have corrected. You can also check the spreadsheet here. --Subhashish Panigrahi (talk) 02:52, 2 June 2018 (UTC)

Regd.: Purchasing Equipment for Individual Rapid Grant (Time Intensive)

@@I JethroBT (WMF): @WJifar (WMF): Though we had estimated that 7 of our active community members will be traveling for the upcoming anniversary of Odia Wikipedia, only 3-4 will actually be traveling. The rest dropped out for various personal reasons. This leads to a surplus of about 34,000 INR / $492 or even more.

We were wondering if we could actually buy a projector for which we end up paying about 1600 INR / $23 every time we organize an event. We generally have at least one monthly meetup, and regular outreach for which we need a projector.

From a quick Amazon search it seems like we can get a decent projector in about 33,000 INR ($481). Please do let us know if we could purchase one in the surplus amount that we are hoping to to save To the expenses.

This, and any such equipment, would be managed by the entire community, and would be used during our community events. So, the equipment will rotate depending on the requirement.

In each event that we have done so far, we have spent significant amount of money on renting equipment. We are trying to reduce such costs for this time and many events to come. However, our focus is to buy the ones that are used a lot and are not too expensive whereas we will continue to rent expensive equipment like AV systems

Please refer Equipment Page for our user group.

Thanks --Diptiman Panigrahi

Hello Diptiman Panigrahi, I just tried to follow the link for Equipment page and it doesn't seem to lead anywhere. Can you please fix it and share a new link? Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 08:21, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Hello WJifar (WMF), Apologies! I have fixed that. Please check now. Please refer Equipment Page for our user group, Regards Diptiman Panigrahi (talk) 14:00, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Approval of alternate use of funds

Hello Diptiman Panigrahi, thank you for submitting a request to purchase a projector for your group. I am approving the use of the funds for this purpose. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 20:54, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Report

Hi WJifar (WMF) and I JethroBT (WMF), just to inform you that we're updating the overall report here at the moment and will soon update the financial report for WMF purposes. --Subhashish Panigrahi (talk) 10:39, 10 August 2018 (UTC)