Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Wikipedia Connection/Semester Funding for Workshops and Events in Spring 2017
Hello, Kevin:
Thank you for submitting this Rapid Grant application! It sounds like there are a lot of exciting opportunities coming up for your group in the next semester, and it is good to see this model of a university group that feeds into a regional user group continuing to develop. It's also good to see your collaborations with other organizations on campus, in addition to promoting the more formal engagement with Wikipedia in the classroom. It's great that the school is pitching in for some of your expenses.
We had just two questions for you after reviewing this request:
- Can you please indicate the number of participants you are planning will attend each event listed in your budget? The idea is to get a clear idea of costs per participants before we approve the request.
- You mention that one of your goals is to improve "our existing editors' skillset'. Would you please tell us more about the specific skills you plan to improve? This is an interesting area of your work we would like to know more about.
Cheers, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 18:19, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
- @Wolliff (WMF): Thank you for the feedback! I have added estimated participation counts for our events based on the attendance counts of our previous events (link).
- Re. skillsets: Through our weekly workshops and edit-a-thons over the last year, our core member group of ~10 individuals has learned how to contribute to Wikipedia; topics we've covered are Wikipedia's policy, style, how to properly source, how to determine notability, photo uploads, copyright, and more. Currently, Addis Wang and myself are the only members who have editing experience prior to creating/joining Wikipedia Connection. Unfortunately Addis has already graduated and I am graduating this semester - this means that after this semester, all of our members will have learned how to edit Wikipedia through the club. This is an exciting and important time as our club's leadership after this semester will have been entirely trained through Wikipedia Connection. This is a vital semester in terms of training, and the skills we will be focusing on improving this semester are:
- Continuing to improve general editing skills, which is done through short presentations at our workshops, as well as through practice (having our members work on articles and ask questions as they go).
- Improving younger members' leadership skills as they prepare to take over the management of the club. This will be done by having newer members eased into presenting and hosting at our events this semester, as well as by creating a comprehensive guide on running the organization (how to run edit-a-thons, resources to utilize within the university and Wikimedia community, etc.). Once completed, we hope to take our guide and generalize it for all Wikipedia student organizations to hopefully help current and future student organizations around the world.
- If you have any suggestions as we transition leadership roles, we're always appreciative to hear them. Let me know if I can clarify or expand on anything else! ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 18:50, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks for the clear response, Kevin. With that information about participant count, I am ready to approve this grant in the amount requested of US$1,170. Do you want to set up a call to talk more about your challenges with growing your next generation of leaders? It's certainly a challenge that all groups face, which is not unique to student groups but may be especially challenging in a context where turnover happens so fast. Even the largest and most sophisticated Wikimedia Chapters, not to mention the Wikimedia Foundation itself, have challenges creating an effective leadership pipeline to sustain their organizations over time! So I can't promise any definitive answers, but I'd be interested to know more and connect you with others in the movement who have thought about this problem too. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 00:19, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
- @Wolliff (WMF): Thank you very much! I have responded to your email regarding a time to chat - much appreciated. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 07:21, 11 February 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks for the clear response, Kevin. With that information about participant count, I am ready to approve this grant in the amount requested of US$1,170. Do you want to set up a call to talk more about your challenges with growing your next generation of leaders? It's certainly a challenge that all groups face, which is not unique to student groups but may be especially challenging in a context where turnover happens so fast. Even the largest and most sophisticated Wikimedia Chapters, not to mention the Wikimedia Foundation itself, have challenges creating an effective leadership pipeline to sustain their organizations over time! So I can't promise any definitive answers, but I'd be interested to know more and connect you with others in the movement who have thought about this problem too. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 00:19, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
Hi @Wolliff (WMF): hope you're well! I was wondering if we could get a couple Wikipedia language water bottles (one blue, one white) for our Wikipedia Takes Columbus photo scavenger hunt? We'd like to have a couple incentives for the following:
- Prize for whoever takes the photos of the most unillustrated Ohio State campus buildings
- Prize for whoever illustrates the most Wikipedia articles with their uploaded images
Thank you! ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 16:00, 11 April 2017 (UTC)