Grants talk:Project/Rapid/UG GLAM Macedonia/Wiki conference for teachers

Hello, Zana!

Thank you for your Rapid Grant application. This seems like an exciting opportunity to support teachers in Macedonia who are interested in learning more about Wikipedia and the classroom. Thank you for doing significant groundwork before submitting this request, including putting together a team of organizers and speakers and beginning to promote the event among the community of educators you are working with in Macedonia. It sounds like you have also secured some good in-kind support, including a discount for the venue and a professional photographer who will volunteer to help document the event.

We have two questions about your plans.

1. Your group has helped organize several workshops at schools in the past. What benefits did you see from these past meetings, and what lessons have you learned at these workshops that you have applied to planning this event?
2. How do you plan to assess whether or not teachers have gained the skills and knowledge that you would like them to gain through their participation? For example, do you plan to survey meeting participants before and after the event?

We also have a few detailed questions about your budget, just to be sure that we understand the costs before we make a decision.

1. At how many events do you expect to be able to re-use the roll up banner this year?
2. Where is your guest speaker traveling from? Please break down the EUR 250 for transportation, accommodation, and meals so we can better understand these travel expenses.
3. Please provide a breakdown of the EUR 185 in printing costs by item and number of each item you plan to purchase or produce.
4. What does the 100 EUR "promotion" cost consist of?

Thank you for your responses! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 18:46, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi Winifred, and thank you for the questions. I am sorry I didn't explain some unclear spots in the budget and our plans, and I am happy to do it now.

1. The participants at the workshops (hands-on) were students, who were free from school on the day of workshops. We found out that the teachers were very friendly and kind about the events, and I think that was a start point for us to do the research on the question: will the teachers like to learn more about Wikipedia and how to use Wikipedia at classroom?

2. About the second question, we plan to survey after the event with questions as: Do the teachers find the conference useful and which part? Do they learn something new, and what is it they learned? Do they have more clear picture about Wikipedia and how to use Wikipedia in the classroom? etc.

The answers about the budget:

1. The roll up banner will serve not just on the conference and not just this year, but in the next years on many occasions, because we want it to be for all purposes. The image on the roll up banner will be the logo of the User Group, name of the user group and logos of all Wikimedia projects. We were asked to use our roll up banner on the celebration of Wikipedia 16 event and again when we were guests in the Karpoš Municipality. But we didn't have one. After the conference, we will be able to use the roll up banner for every event we will be invited to.
2. Our guest speaker is Bojana Wiki PG, teacher from Višegrad. The amount is 310 euros: round airplane ticket Sarajevo-Skopje = 250 euros, two nights in hostel in Skopje (2 x 15 euros) = 30 euros, and for meals two days in Skopje (2 x 15 euros) = 30 euros.
3. Printed materials are: booklets How to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool, for teachers only (70 x 0.514 = 36€), program sheets, for teachers only (70 x 0.314 = 22€), certificates for participants/teachers and for the speakers (75 x 0.25 = 19€), stickers with logo, for all (100 x 0.45 = 45€), set of notebook and pen, for teachers only (70 x 0.71 = 50€), name tags only for speakers and organizers-volunteers (10 x 0.5 = 5€), one pack of transparent files (100 x 0.08 = 8€), altogether = 185€.
4. Promotion costs of 100 euros are the costs for volunteers who will visit schools in the period of 20 March till 19 April. That is the official sum paid to the volunteer person in Macedonia for their expenses in the course of one month activities. I have to point to the fact that we are not paying media promotion, as the media in this time are very friendly with GLAM Macedonia activities.

Regards, Violetova (talk) 20:19, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for these clear answers, Zana! One last question. Can you tell me more about why you want to fly Bojana in from Sarejevo as a guest speaker? We appreciate your frugal travel budgeting, but at EUR 310, her participation is a significant portion of your overall expenses. Therefore, it would be useful to better understand the value of her contributions to the event before making a final decision. Thank you, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 00:12, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi Winifred, here is our way of thinking about the guest speaker: why we need one, and why we choose Bojana:

We thought that if we have a guest speaker from abroad, the conference will obtain more significance. Bojana's theme is: "Wikipedia and education aims". She knows the theme, she spoke about Wikipedia and education aims many times in her country. There are other Wikipedians from neighborhood countries who know the theme also, but we choose Bojana, because of the language issue: we will not need translator for Serbian language, in contrast to English speaker. We are aware that guest speaker's expenses are significant part in the budget, that's why we keep it frugal. -Violetova (talk) 10:16, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Decision: Approved up to EUR 696

Thank you for your prompt responses, Violetova. We appreciate the ground work that you have done to get ready for this event, and to make connections with the schools and teachers involved. It seems like you have the experience and expertise to make this work. It is good to know that you plan to survey the event participants, to better understand whether or not your event is meeting its goals.

We will fund the direct expenses associated with the event, including venue rental, food, travel costs for volunteers, refreshments, and printed materials, and also the vinyl banner that you will be able to use at many events throughout the year. We will not fund international travel for a guest speaker to attend this local event (EUR 310), or the 100 EUR promotional cost to pay volunteers for their time organizing this event. It would be very unusual for us to fund either type of expense (international travel, or stipends) for an event like this.

This is a total grant of EUR 696. Janice and Morgan will be in touch with you to arrange the details. Best wishes for a successful grant! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 16:57, 10 February 2017 (UTC)