Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Espana/2016/H1

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Eligibility discussion[edit]

After the applicant submits an eligibility form, Wikimedia Foundation will contact the applicant and evaluate eligibility.

Eligibility[edit]

Hello, Wikimedia Espana colleagues:


Thank you for submitting your eligibility form on October 13. After reviewing your past grants we've determined that you are eligible to apply for a Simple Process Annual Plan Grant. We are impressed with the momentum you are gaining with your project work and with what you have achieved as an all-volunteer organization. As you consider bringing on paid staff and increasing your budget, we encourage you to take a measured approach to growth so that you can make sure results and volunteer engagement are growing at the same pace as your staff and budget. We support the approach of requesting a 6-month grant at this stage, so that you can learn and reflect on your experiences with deepening your program work and bringing on paid staff before making plans for your entire year. We understand that activities (and corresponding budget) are not weighted equally throughout the course of the year, and so we will work with you to understand your 6-month budget in your own context.


Here is some of the work we looked at while evaluating your eligibility for a Simple Annual Plan Grant.

Wikimedia Espana received its first WMF grant in 2012-13 for a Galipedia celebration, and received [[Grants:PEG/WM_ES/CUSL8|another small grant in 2013-14 to participate in a university free software contest.

Wikimedia Espana has been running the Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest in Spain for 5 years now, with strong results. You have used grant funding to support some of this work.


In 2015, you expanded your funded work to include Wiki Loves Earth and a pilot program for your GLAM work focusing on Madrid. Besides these funded activities, you have been engaging with university partners around Spain to conduct workshops and have been exploring doing an education program in Spain.

Wikimedia Espana has gotten strong results from its photo contests in the past, and especially through an article drive attached to the 2014 contest where more than 2,000 articles were created or improved through your work. Given this growing expertise, WMF has been encouraging WMES to deepen its work in this area by increasing its targets and outcomes for the use of media created through its contests and developing better systems for tracking global metrics around new users participating. GLAM work is a new area for Wikimedia Espana, and while we see this as a high potential area, we have not yet had time to evaluate the results of the pilot.


Wikimedia Espana has seen its activities increase rapidly over the past several years, and we see that Wikimedia Espana's current leadership is active and dedicated. While Wikimedia Espana is engaging a freelance consultant as part of its GLAM pilot work, bringing on ongoing paid staff will also be a new challenge for the organization. As Wikimedia Espana is considering transitioning from being an all-volunteer organization to one with paid staff, we will want to see Wikimedia Espana following more good practices as it grows, and in particular, following good practices in preparation for bringing on staff. We'll look at this together more closely as part of this application.

Best regards, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:35, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for completing this proposal form.[edit]

Thank you for completing this proposal form, B25es. We look forward to reviewing it in the coming weeks. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 03:45, 2 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Please send your global metrics targets.[edit]

Hello, Wikimedia Espana colleagues: Please send us your global metrics targets for each program so we can begin reviewing your application. You can use the buttons in your proposal to access the google form we set up for this, or go to this link: https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/forms/d/1cUYAdidOrEZV5ODIiUAu5f57aB8Sr-85xR8JzkeMATs/viewform. If you prefer you can also make a wikitable here on the discussion page or as part of your proposal form, or send your metrics to me by Email so I can compile them. Thank you! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 02:26, 7 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, B25es! Thanks for submitting them. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 22:44, 10 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Application discussion[edit]

During the month of November, committee members, other community members, and Wikimedia Foundation, may ask questions or offer suggestions.

From the committee[edit]

Alleycat80[edit]

Hi, this is Ido / Alleycat80 here, from the Simple APG Review Committee. I'm a board member from WMIL, and a fellow (APG) grantee for some years now. I have a question regarding your staffing plan: in your proposal you're listing one staff member required (GLAM P.M.), and in your more detailed plan you describe two positions, one is administrative. Can you explain the difference? Is the administrative position planned in the case of additional budgeting? Cheers, Alleycat80 (talk) 10:08, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's a mistake. The original proposal was two employees, but after talking with Winifred we decided apply only one. Thanks for show us this mistake, we have to update it. Sorry. --Millars (talk) 16:49, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm thinking that Spain is a key country in many ways: size, connection to Europe and cultural connection to Latin America. Please get yourself organized to take advantage of these opportunities! It may take awhile, but ultimately I think it will be important. Smallbones (talk) 21:17, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
One employee will be good, but you must think about how the staffer will work with and integrate with the community. Smallbones (talk) 21:19, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you Smallbones. We are part of Iberocoop (Spanish and Portuguese language affiliates and Italy) and we have good relations with all of them. We are thinking about organizing Iberoconf 2016 in Spain (We decided not to organize a conference in 2015) and we have also good relationships with Portugal (we helped them and we want) and with other European chapters and from other continents. About the second part, of course, the employee must not do everything and he/she will have to work with and for the community (a very diverse community as we answered in other section). --Millars (talk) 23:41, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A note about staff member responsibilities: with regard to your program manager, a friendly advice from past experience. You mention that you want the staff member to do GLAM, Education, Event organizing, and still have some time for office hours and handling the community. It seems to me that you have high expectations from this individual - and while I do think that your first hire should be a "top player", I think your expectations are a bit too high. I would encourage you to only have her/him focus on "glam and events" or "glam and education", and rely on volunteer advice/help on other areas. In other words, I think you should manage your expectations from only one staff member, or you end up risking burnout or low motivation in the longer term. Alleycat80 (talk) 22:36, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot for this advice. The idea is not that this employee will do everything, but helped the board and taskforces to get the goals. Also because volunteers can not be in a meeting, or give a training session on Wednesday for instance. He/she must work very close to the board members and other volunteers. This will be a new challenge for us, but this grant provided us a bit experience and we have new members in the board used to coordinate and organize teams. --Millars (talk) 23:41, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

FloNight[edit]

Hi, I've enjoyed learning more about your projects. I especially like the way that you sent people to cover live events.

From looking at your budget and plan, I'm not clear on the amount and type of funding that you are getting from other sources. This information is useful to understand the complete cost of projects. And also it is good to understand the amount of support (funds and resources) that is coming in from partner organizations. It would be great it you could give a break down of the amount of money and in kind donations from outside sources and link them to projects or events if appropriate.

Overall, you have done a good job of adding metrics that should have good impact. But in the past GLAMing_Madrid grant you mentioned it, I noticed that you didn't mention any measures or strategy related to recruiting more non-males or creating content that would reduce gender bias. Is this still a focus? And are you planning to collaborate with Wikimujeres, the new user group working in the Spanish language?

Thank you for your work on the Simple application. I know that it takes a great deal of time and appreciate you all being responsive to the questions and also making improvements. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 18:15, 5 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I found the metric for March Women's Month on this page. :-)Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk)
  • GLAMing Madrid is having now an 80% women participation. By what museums first told us we could expect, we thought that 25% would be a success, as they didn't see many women taking part. They were wrong. On average, participants in WMES activities are 62% female. We find that we are managing the subject better than museums and other cultural institutions.
    We are willing to collaborate with every group in the Movement, as we already do with Iberocoop members and Amical. We are also proactive in contacting with groups combating gender gap. For instance, we are organizing our part in Arts+Feminism. And we have already taken part on an activity with Wikimujeres in Zaragoza.
See us together in Zaragoza!


We are a very diverse organization. In fact we have a Vocalía (section within de Board) devoted to diversity. As for gender gap, we have had activities in Valladolid, Valencia, Madrid, Vitoria, Pamplona, Logroño (not yet)... B25es (talk) 18:17, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

So, we were at 9 edit-a-thons about women. We also took part of a writing contest organized by Iberocoop in Spainsh, Italian and Portuguese about women of countries where these languages are spoken.
We want to keep working on it, and the new board of WMES has a committee of diversity to work on it. This committee plans to organize or collaborate in different actions to reduce this gap on Wikimedia projects. We don't list the activities planned because they can change, but we think that they will be in the same way that in last year (more edit-a-thons, talks, workshops and contests).
Tomorrow we will start a wrinting contest related to Glamming Madrid and there will be a prize for articles about women in the 19th century, and we are planning new edit-a-thons in different cities for 2016.
About the collaboration with Wikimujeres, we are open to collaborate with all wikimedia groups, in Spanish or in other languages. We have collaborated with Amical Wikimedia, with groups of Iberocoop and also other chapters and groups. The last edit-a-thon organized in Spain was in Zaragoza about Aragonese women, and WMES was a part of the organizers. Wikimujeres attended the event.
    • The first question is more complicated because it's quite difficult to calculate all donnations from other partners (usually not money but spaces, logistic, travels, etc.). In the last year members of WMES paid a lot of the costs of the events organized by the association (8,000 - 10,000 €) and we think it would be fair that people that already spend time and effort don't have to put also such amount of money. Some examples of donations by partners in 2015:
      • Wiki Loves Monuments 2014 awards ceremony, Paradores (a partner of the contest) put the place, in a Parador, a luxury hotel in Alcalá de Henares.
      • WikinformaticA contest. Zaragoza University put the place for the ceremony and prizes.
      • es:Wikipedia:Encuentros/Editatón Europeana Fashion, Europeana Fashion paid the food and drinks, DIMAD provide the place, and Museo del Traje logistic and bibliography.
      • Grants:PEG/WM ES/Wiki Loves Earth Spain and Portugal 2015, at the end, Paradores and Wild Watching Spain provide prizes.
      • In many cases, partners provided the place where the event was celebrated, like training sessions at Reina Sofia Library of Valladolid University, Jaume I University, Cadiz University, Museo Patio Herreriano, Barcelona University, etc.
      • ca:Viquipèdia:Viquimarató dones 2015. AMPA IES Juan de Garay provided the place and also the lunch and gifts for the people who attended.
      • es:Wikipedia:Encuentros/Editatón por la visibilidad de las científicas en Wikipedia. L'Oreal Foundation paid travels for two volunteers and hotel for one of them, and also lunch for everybody, also drinks and snacks during the event. Residencia de estudiantes provided the library to host the event.
      • For WLM 2015, Mensa España was a partner and put 600 €.
      • For Wikimedia Conferences in Madrid, Colegio Isabel la Católica provided the place.
      • Fundación San Millán paid the travel and hotel to attend the seminar.
      • For the edit-a-thon in Zaragoza, the partners paid for the travels of two volunteers and snacks and drinks and also provided the place.
These are some examples, and as I said, it quite difficult to calculate the total amount of money that all this is. Places for edit-a-thons were provided for free and in case we had to pay for them it would have been a lot of money. I don't know if the question is answered with that. If not or if you want to know more information, please, let us know. Thanks. --Millars (talk) 19:59, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Millars, your answer is exactly the information I am looking for, and really helpful. In the past you had no strong reason to capture more detailed information. But going forward, when you are planning events and projects, if in the planning stage and reporting stage you include in kind donations and monetary donations provided by other organizations or people, it will help you with future planning. By evaluating the full cost of an event, you can more accurately explain the impact of volunteer and staff time. For example, even though an institution is providing the space, snacks, wifi, and publicity for an event, and the volunteers from the organization and the community are doing the content creation, the Wikimedia Espana staff might still be doing a good bit of support for the activity to make sure the in kind donated resources are used effectively and reflect the mission and values of Wikimedia Espana. This is very important use of staff time and I think we were missing it in your current budget. This is not something that you need to immediately fix to get this plan approved. But going forward make a more detailed and complete accounting of the costs even if you are not paying for it directly.

I like the types of projects you are doing and think that it is fantastic that you have been successful in getting financial support for these projects from outside organizations. You all seems well positioned to expand your reach into different communities. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 20:27, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Syndey, your comments and suggestions are very useful and I apreciate them. For this 2016 we'll include all this. In 2015 we imrpoved our internal organization, reports, etc. but not enough. --Millars (talk) 21:28, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
One follow up question: If I understand you correctly, you are saying that in the past approximately 8,000 - 10,000 € is being paid for out of the pockets of active community members to do some local projects in Spain. In the past, did a group decide to do the activity and then pitch in money to make it happen, or were these independent projects that folks did on their own? Are any of these past projects currently listed in the annual plan to do again? Are there any priority areas where there has been good results? Again, thank you for your answers. They are really helpful. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 21:21, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
They were mainly transport costs. WMES runs activities in many regions and provinces and we have to move people in many cases. For example, when I go to a high school to do a talk or a workshop, this school does not have budget for paying my travel, or it's a low cost travel, but I have to pay the gas. The same with volunteers and trainers in edit-a-thons, etc. The same when a photographer covers an event, he paid for the expenses (transport, food, etc.). This is included in the budget for 2016. --Millars (talk) 21:28, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 21:32, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

From other community members[edit]

I wonder if you could share som information with us related to your volunteer community and editor community on the Wikimeda projects? How many volunteers are engaged in the activities of WMES, besides the members of the Board, and are all of these editors? How does your editor comminity function, are they a constructive communtity and do they see WMES as a valuable supporter to their work?Anders Wennersten (talk) 13:13, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • WMES and Wikipedia in Spanish are quite different things. Spanish is a global language and many chapters and user groups have Spanish as their working language. On the other hand WMES is devoted to all languages in Spain, so we support activities in Catalan, Aragonese, Galician, Asturian, etc. We are proactive on contacting other Wikimedia groups with which we share a language, for instance with other Iberocoop members (for Spanish) and with Amical (for Catalan).
    Almost all Board members are editors in some project, maybe all of us are but I'll stay on the safe side at that point. In addition we have editors in Wikipedias (es:, ca:, gl: and others) in Commons, in Wikidata, in Wikivoyage and in Wikisource, as far as I remember.
    Many activities are proposed by people from outside de Board, even from outside WMES itself. In fact we are working on improving our proposal-to-execution process as we are recieving an increasing number of activity proposals.
    Evaluating the Spanish-language editor community is as complex as evaluating Wikimedia editor community as a whole. There are conflicts and there are helping hands. We are willing to help and people is responding to our demands of help too. We are trying to focus on providing resources and the results are quite satisfactory. For instance, we asked people to provide pictures from localities that didn't have one in Commons and we have photos from almost 400 places (even without offering any prize) and they're used. B25es (talk) 18:31, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
More comments:
  • The volunteer community and editor comunity on the Wikimedia projects: the volunteer community for Wikimedia Spain is mainly members of the association, but also some people that helped us organizing events, as speakers, photographers, etc. The editor community is (or should be) actually at least eight different languages communities (es, ca, gl, eu, an, ast, oc, ext) and different projects (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, etc.), so it is so difficult to explain how the community is. It's true that Wikimedia Spain has work mainly with Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, and a little on Wikidata. And we organized and worked mainly on Spanish, Catalan, Asturian and Galician, but also other languages (almost all activities are open to everylanguage, and also contests).
  • The new board has 13 members, and in 2015 about 50 members have been involved in organizing activities (as speakers, trainers, photographers, and other roles off or on-line), besides, about 20 volunteers not belonging to WMES helped us in these activities. Almost all of active members are editors, but not all of them (Maybe about 90%).
  • I'm sorry but I don't understand well your last question. Could you remake it? Thanks.
--Millars (talk) 23:31, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

From Wikimedia Foundation[edit]

A few initial clarifications about your programs[edit]

Hello, Wikimedia Espana colleagues:

We appreciate your focused plan. Before the committee begins discussing your proposal, we need a few clarifications

  1. Thank you for providing objectives for each of your programs. The objectives here are not measurable or time-related, however. Would you please revise your objectives for each program to make them measurable and time-related? Having measurable objectives is very important for our understanding of what you plan to achieve.
  2. Would you please add a little more background (one or two sentences) explaining how the activities listed for each of your programs are linked by similar objectives or approaches? This might make the big idea behind each of your programs more clear.

More comments to come from the committee next week, so it would be good to address these clarifications as soon as possible.

Thank you! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 23:21, 14 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Some clarifications[edit]

Would you please revise your objectives for each program to make them measurable and time-related?[edit]
  • Activities in our program are to be developed during the first semester of 2016. An exception is made for Wiki Loves Folk, which will run in November and December but requires promoting and monitoring during all the year as activities involved take place each month.
  • As explained, Wiki Loves Folk will run in November and December. The reason is that we need to include as many festivals as possible and we also need time to process the contest.
    Places of the Spanish Civil War will take place in April. It is a month with good weather, and includes the anniversaries of the beginning of the Spanish Second Republic —which was overthrown by the War— on April 14th, and of the end of the War, on April 1st.
  • Wiki Loves Monuments is not included in our proposal as it will take place in September.
  • Quantities
Wiki Loves Folk Places of the Spanish Civil War
Active editors involved 160 40
New editors 40 10
Total people involved 200 50
Images uploaded 1,600 1,000
(Unique) images used in articles[1] 400 250
New and improved articles[2] 200 280
Bytes added (net)[3] 200,000 280,000
Wiki Takes Llíria[4] Wiki Takes Riba-roja[4] Wiki Takes Cartagena[5] Wiki Takes Ágreda and Soria[6]
Active editors involved 9 9 9 3
New editors 1 1 1 17
Total people involved 10 10 10 20
Images uploaded 500 500 400 100
(Unique) images used in articles 50 50 40 30
New and improved articles 15 15 15 20
Bytes added (net) 15,000 15,000 15,000 50,000
Mother Language Day Women's Month Book Day Museums Day Cultural Diversity Day
Date[7] February 21st March April 23rd May 18th May 21st
Active editors involved 19 16 Unknown 18 18
New editors 1 4 Unknown 2 2
Total people involved 10 20 Unknown 20 20
Images uploaded 0 0 0 30 0
(Unique) images used in articles 0 0 0 0 0
New and improved articles 400 150 Unknown 25 150
Bytes added (net) 400,000 150,000 Unknown 25,000 150,000
Comments Objective: editing articles in all languages spoken in Spain. We'll take 50 articles in each language that are not present in other language versions. We will focus in Spanish, Catalan, Asturian and Galician, with Aragones and Extremaduran as possible and Basque and Occitan as difficult. It will be on line, so a low proportion of new editors is expected. It includes participating in Art+Feminism and other activities. It will focus on Wikiquote, a not very well known project, so there are no previous experiences to take numbers from. Books written by women or other under-represented collectives will be encouraged, but this is not a gender-centered activity. This activity improves our relationship with GLAM institutions. An online activity. We expect collaboration from other Iberocoop chapters, as it will be centered on cultural diversity in Latin America and the Philippines.

Numbers for event coverage are a bit random. One of our biggest contributors will live in Germany next year, and events do not follow a regular schedule. Anyway, we think that 5 events will be covered, producing 150 photos.

More background (one or two sentences) explaining how the activities listed for each of your programs are linked by similar objectives or approaches[edit]
  • Photography contests are being redesigned, so that they specially focus on entities that have gone unpictured[8] until now.
    In the same way, Wiki Takes will focus on presenting places out of the beaten track.
  • The same rule applies to edit-a-thons, where items that are not present in Wikipedia are selected to be edited. That helps to reduce gender gap, but also other diversity gaps, in contents.
  • We are trying to reach as many goals as possible with every single event: a GLAM activity that produces pictures or other multimedia material can also show how Wikimedia works, and can also induce people to edit. That's why we have parallel activities within our Annual Assembly and why it is held on a different place every year.
  • We want to build a decentralized structure, providing local groups with the means to organize activities with the support of the national organization (Wikimedia Spain), rather than having the latter looking for local helpers for its activities.

Thank you![edit]

@B25es: Wow! Great job on this in such a short period of time. This information will be so helpful to the committee. My thanks to the WMES team. Do I have your permission to move this information directly into your application form, or would you like to do so? I think it's appropriate to include it there. Thanks! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 18:14, 17 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@B25es: Hello, WMES team! I've set up a gdoc to work on your objectives a bit more, since I think it will be easier to work together on this using the comments feature in google docs rather than working here on the wiki. Please take a look at my suggestions for how you can make your objectives more specfic and measurable. Finally, can you clarify if your global metrics targets listed on the application are for 6 months or 12 months? Thank you!Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 23:27, 20 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, User:B25es and WMES team. I went ahead and moved your revised objectives from the google doc where we've been working directly into your application form, so you can edit them there. Cheers! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 00:53, 30 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Notes[edit]
  1. In both cases, it is a new area, and there are few pictures; some items have none. So a high usage rate is expected.
  2. We base these estimates on data from the "Festivals in Extremadura" category and the "Municipalities without photograph" project.
  3. While some articles will be larger or smaller, we have used an estimate of 1,000 bytes per article.
  4. a b Llíria and Riba-roja de Túria are based on WT Ayora experience.
  5. We are being cautious as it's our first time with a big city.
  6. Soria & Ágreda have a different approach. Based on WLM success in this part of the country, we will try to get quality pictures from a whole province, using Ágreda as a showcase.
  7. Some dates could change slightly.
  8. We have found two facts. One is that traditional WLM tend to produce many pictures of the same monuments once and again. The second is that some places are never present in Commons; for instance, one fifth of all Spanish municipalities.


Budget questions[edit]

Hello, Wikimedia Espana team. Can you please provide us with some more details about your budget? We know this is your first time submitting an annual plan, and that getting the right level of detail is challenging. I think in this case a bit more detail would have been good. I've asked some specific questions below, so I can better understand your expenses. I liked the way you clearly divided your budget into two 6 month periods, though. That was easy to understand.

  • We see that you are awarding gifts to jury members at 150 EUR each. Can you explain this practice? Are these cash awards? Why are such expensive gifts needed?
    • That amount is used to give to every jury members (all of them, usually 5 or 6 persons) a gift for the time they dedicated to their duties. Please, bear in mind that the jury members are usually professional people not involved in the movement, in some cases, like in the jury of Wiki Loves Earth, well known photography professionals at national or even international level. If there is something left, we also give a gift of 5 to 10 euro to those pre-jury members who review thousands of pictures to pass the top dozens of them to be rated by the professional jury. B25es (talk) 15:47, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      • Thanks for this explanation. Can you please clarify if this is a cash amount or a gift, and if a gift, what is the gift? Even considering that you are bringing in people from outside the movement, 150 EUR seems very expensive. Would the jury members decline to participate if not offered such a costly gift? Thanks! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
        • Gifts and prizes are never in cash. Having a jury of expert members -professional photographers and/or people with an in depth knowledge of the theme treated- is always a problem, they don't volunteer so easily. B25es (talk) 16:12, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hello. As B25es said, it is not 150 for each jury member, but all of them, so for a jury of 5 members, it is a gift that costs 30 € (I think it is fair for a professional or a volunteer jury member). In 2014 it was a book and it costed 12.5 €, for WLE the gift costed 40 € and for WLM 30 €. Never in cash, usually books or gift cards. --Millars (talk) 12:01, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ohhhhh. That's more like it :) Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Can you give us a clearer breakdown of the prizes awarded for WLX? Are these cash prizes? How much is awarded at each level (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd)?
    • Prizes vary from one edition to another. WLM 15 for instance has a prize for never pictured in Commons municipality and never pictured in Commons monument, plus eight other prizes.
      In WLE 15 the rough valuation of prizes was 1st prize: €300; 2nd-3rd prize: €200; 4rd-5th prize: €100; uploader of most different natural sites pictures (uploader #1): €200; 6th-10th: €60. We were exceptionally generous with them. B25es (talk) 16:12, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      In contrast with expert juries, I think (my opinion) that many contestants would take part just for the fun. So contests with less prizes and less expensive ones can work. Whether they will atract the same high quality participants is to be seen. This is my opinion. B25es (talk) 16:57, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
As B25es said, awards vary from one year to another and also among contests, but prizes are never in cash.
  • WLM 2015: Prizes were External Hard Disk Drive (from 114 € to 80 €) and a book about Wikipedia (12.5 €).
  • WLE 2015: Listed above. There were more prizes because it was a contest for two countries and we expected less participation in this contest than in WLM. 1st prize (300 €).
  • WLM 2014: External HDD (from 111 to 55 €) and the first prizes were provided by a sponsor (a week-end in a Parador, a luxury hotel). (1st prize valued in 250 €).
  • WLM 2013: Prizes Tablet Nexus 7 32 GB Wiki and External HDD. 1st prize was a Tablet Nexus 7 32 GB Wiki (250 €).
  • WLM 2012 (granted by WMNL and WMES): 1st prize (Nexus 7 tablet 16 GB Wifi 208,99 €), 2nd prize (Seagate STBV3000200 Expansion Desktop 123,63 €).
  • WLM 2011. I can not find data in our wiki (it was our firts year as organization and I don't know who has the recipts) but I remember that it was similar to 2012.
--Millars (talk) 12:01, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
These are useful details. I better understand your usual practices around prizes now. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Can you explain the amount allocated to Challenges? How many Challenges does this cover and how many prizes will be awarded? Can you explain your comment, "Previous negative experiences are taken into account."?
    • Our prevision was eleven prizes. Ten where for all languages and one for languages in Spain. My very negative experience is that prizes were in fact never delivered. It was due to several different factors in both WMES and WMF. So I learned that I can only give what I already have.
      Worst of all was the lose of contestants' confidence. That's why for my next contest I want to have the prizes on my hands before I promise anything. B25es (talk) 20:09, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      Thanks for clarifying that. That's a good lesson learned. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • How many events are included in the "Event covering" line item?
    • We have made an estimate of five, but it can vary substantially. For instance, this month we will cover a car rally in Galicia that was not in our original plans but it happens that we can cover it. On the other hand we couldn't cover the inauguration of a sport complex in Castelló because dates were changed and it was impossible. We try to cover some major sports (football and basketball, one match of each) but we are more focused in not so popular sports such as track and field, handball or volleyball. It is important because organizers tend to refuse access to people that cannot show at least some activity related to sport photography.
      Film and music festivals are somewhat easier to manage; the difficulty in those cases is who is going to be there and that events are more unpredictable than sport's.B25es (talk) 17:44, 1 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      Thanks! That averages about 200 EUR per event (approximately). So what costs are included here? Are these accreditation fees or travel costs? Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      • Travel costs are important. We once had a photographer in Qatar for a handball competition (somebody else paid hotel, airfare, etc, fortunatelly). But that's exceptional. We usualy have to pay for somebody with good photographic skills to go to another city where things are happening. B25es (talk) 16:12, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
        OK. Thanks! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
        • Our previous experience says that we can not say in advance which and how many events we will cover, but we can estimate an amount. Here (commons:Category:Events covered by Wikimedia España by year) you have a Commons category with the events covered by WMES in the last 5 years. The amount in 2014 and 2015 was the same (19). Which events depends not only of WMES but also of the partner (they must let us enter and take pictures, and that not always happened). 5 events / 6 month is the minimum but we wanted to cover more, so, we apply for a amount that let us cover more events if necessary. In some cases a member discover that there will be a concert or a soprt event, and the transport should be paid. Till now we paid all of this. The 200 € (we think that for an event we usually spend less) are for travel costs and in some cases accommodation (for events of more than one day) and for food (in many cases the photographer have to have dinner or luch). --Millars (talk) 12:01, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
          Useful to know. Thanks. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • How many meetings are included in the "Meetings with local wikimedians" line item?
    • One every two months. B25es (talk) 17:44, 1 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      That's about 6 in a year, averaging 170 EUR per event. Will these costs go to cover travel expenses for staff, or are they for catering, etc, at the meeting location?
      • Catering and meeting location. We try to find places for free, but it is not always possible. The sort of places we use can cost around 200 to 300 euros a day. Most times, as I said, we don't have to pay. In other cases amounts charged are below market rate (for instance, paying 20 euros for a small meeting room for a day, or 50 EUR for one classroom one morning with projector and wifi included). So 170 EUR is a good average.
        In adition, we have to print sings, leaflets, etc. B25es (talk) 16:12, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
        Thanks! About how many people do you expect to attend each meeting? Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It depends on the city. It could be from 5 to 10 people in average, but we hope that they could be more. --Millars (talk) 20:02, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • What is "Support to events by third parties"?
    • In some cases we participate in activities that we have not organized ourselves. Some of this third parties are very relevant, like Instituto Cervantes or Biblioteca Nacional de España. We provide the Wikimedian expertise to their activities. B25es (talk) 17:51, 1 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      We also support activities that give us visibility for a low cost. One of them is CUSL (University Free Software Contest) which is run by Universidad de Cádiz but is well known in both universities and free-software groups. For some 200 EUR we have plenty of opportunities to interact a lot of people. B25es (talk) 18:34, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      Thanks. Can you explain what the costs are for participating in these events? Are these registration fees? Travel costs? Contributions to the third parties?Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
In general is for travel costs, but we don't renounce to pay for enter to a very interesting meeting or event (but till now we never paid for that). --Millars (talk) 12:01, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Got it. Thanks! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Talks and workshops" - how many events? Are these travel costs?
Maybe is a problem with the language. Not merchandising as t-shirts or mugs, but leaflets, foulders, documentation, etc. In 2015 WMES gave (not finished) almost 60 talks and workshops. Only buses and trains, or coffes for speakers... --Millars (talk) 12:01, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I see. Basically, costs for printing :) Do you have an idea of how much you will spend on printing in total, across all your activities? Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I think that actualy most expenses are for travels (short, but travels). For instance, a subway ticket, car park ticket, bus, trains, etc. We consider that it should be fair that the speaker who spend time and effort doesn't put also the money, like it has been till now. --Millars (talk) 22:47, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Meetings with partners" - how many meetings? Are these travel costs?
  • What costs are covered by the line item "Awards ceremony"?
    • This is the ceremony following the Wiki Loves events where we award the winners and use also the event to bring the movement close to some people. This event is scheduled for this Saturday in Seville and we will also have a talk and workshop about Wikimedia Commons.
      Location is a problem to be solved and can be expensive. Last time we had Paradores as a partner, so we had a great location for the event, the sort of place -a palace in fact- that costs two to three thousand euros for a couple of hours. In Seville we are being hosted by Mensa España, in a place that can cost a bit cheaper than Paradores, in the range of 1800 to 2500 an evening. We cannot allways count on having a partner that pays for the place (but we will try hard, be sure). B25es (talk) 16:57, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      Thanks! So this 2500 EUR line item is for renting the space for the ceremony, since 2500 EUR is your upper limit for what you expect to pay for space? Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      • When it comes to fancy places, prices can be extremely costly. So a limit is a must. 2500 EUR makes sense as a limit. Of course, partners could provide other places. But we are not willing to pay more than that. On the other hand, if we have a partner, as it has been the case many times, we cannot take the event to a place like your local McDo. B25es (talk) 18:31, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Till now the places was provided by a partner, but the main consts are travel cost for organizers and winners and a cattering. --Millars (talk) 12:01, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • What costs are included in the "Annual Assembly" line item? How many people will be attending?
    • In 2015 we spent 250.07 EUR in different items needed, mainly merchandising and leaflets. But we got free use of a hall for the event. The cost of such premises is 250 to 300 EUR per day. As our Assemblies and additional activities last three days, we find 1,000 EUR a reasonable amount.
      Using premises for free means that you cannot complain. For instance, there were no hotels close to the assembly place, we couldn't have supper there (had to walk two km), etc. We cannot have that kind of problems in prize ceremonies, that's why we have different policies.
      Attendance to the Assembly itself was 25, but other activities attracted up to 40 people, mainly from the university and the free license groups. We also had contacts with the media. B25es (talk) 18:12, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      So does this total amount include travel costs for participants from around Spain? Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      • No. In some cases we pay expenses for external people coming to give a workshop or some other additional activity.
        We know that when we have many members outside on the Balearic and Canary Islands or Ceuta/Melilla, it will be a problem. But as it is not the case now we do not pay for our own members' travel expenses. B25es (talk) 17:42, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • What is included in the line item "Administrative expenses"?
    • Office supplies, photocopies, postal mail, couriers. We spend a lot of money moving small things. For instance, in order to legalise a change of Board and address (which I think is free of cost or almost) we have to fill a paper form, colect a signature in one city, a second in another one, a third in another one, a fourth in another one and then go to a government office in Madrid In fact we are moving two papers at a time to save time and money. Making printed stuff for our activities also requieres some expenses (photocopies). And sometimes we move bulkier things, like rollers. B25es (talk) 17:14, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Can you explain what a "roller" is? I think this might just be a translation issue :)
This is a roller.
Picture's worth 1,000 words in this case :) So, these will be a one-time investment that you can re-use. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Of course. We already have some of them, but we have activities in different regions, and in the long term it would be cheaper have one in a region with serveral activities than send them many several times. We have one in the following regions/cities right now: Galicia, Asturias, Valladolid, Madrid, Aragón and Valencian Community, and we want to buy two (for Basque Country and Andalusia). --Millars (talk) 22:47, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Similarly, by "Paperwork services agency" do you mean a notary / notario? Or is this another type of service?
  • Your budget for merchandise at 6,800 EUR seems excessive, and we suggest you reduce it. Can you explain exactly what is included in that budget and why such a large amount for merchandise is needed?
    • We have spent very little money in merchandise. And it is a problem. First of all we have contests. We cannot offer a WMES T-shirt because there is not such a thing yet.
      Sencondly, third parties. Personally, I have gone to talk with a councilor in Ayora or with the president of an association in Godella, and I have been given some stuff with their logo. Some times a lot of it. And I couldn't give them anything from our part. It does't look good.
      Thirdly. Edit-a-thons and simmilar activities. We cannot offer a pencil.
      It is a big investment because it is a starting kit. We don't expect that amount to be the norm for the future. B25es (talk) 17:44, 1 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      Even considering start up costs, this amount is very high. I think we will need more details about your merchandise budget to continue this discussion. Would you please provide a detailed description of what merchandise you are planning to purchase here, the quantities, how it will be used, and the total amounts for each type of item? Thanks! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, it took me a lot of time to find, but I knew we had a detailed budget. It is 5,620 EUR + taxes, that is 6800.20 EUR (the 20 cents got lost at some point). Of course, we will make our best to get the best price. B25es (talk) 18:45, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Description Quantity Cost EUR
21% VAT included
Use
T-shirts 150 1,089.00 EUR Promotional. Could be used as prizes or sold.
Polos 150 968.00 EUR For members.
Ballpens 1,000 544.50 EUR Cheap gifts.
Notebooks 500 907.50 EUR Gifts in workshops and edit-a-thons.
Pencils 1,000 242.00 EUR Even cheaper gifts.
Folders 150 417,45 EUR To present information to our counterparts. Also for the Assembly.
Chapas 1,000 363.00 EUR Cheap gifts.
Pins 150 363.00 EUR Present to new members.
Lanyards 150 326.70 EUR For use in our activities.
Keyrings 500 798.60 EUR Promotional. Could be sold.
Mugs 150 780.45 EUR Promotional. Could be used as prizes or sold.
Thanks for the details on the merchandise. I think this may be one area where we need to reduce the budget if we need to, but we can talk more about specifics once the committee makes its decisions.. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you!Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 03:16, 1 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I started a list of equipment in our private wiki (roller-ups, books, stickers, documents, etc.) but this have to be updated and it must when we will have more things. --Millars (talk) 12:01, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Perfect! Thanks for getting that started. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:43, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Committee assessment and decision[edit]

The committee will make an assessment and Wikimedia Foundation will make a final decision by 15 December.

Committee recommendations
Funding recommendations:

The Simple Annual Plan Grants Committee recommends that Wikimedia Espana receive a grant of 29,800 Euro (corresponding to about 80% of the funding requested) for the first six months of their 2016 annual plan.

We recognize that Wikimedia Espana has significant opportunities to do effective work throughout Spain and appreciate their established expertise in competitions, as well as their growing expertise in GLAM partnerships. We think having an effective community organization in Spain is a good opportunity for the Wikimedia movement. We appreciate the in-kind donations Wikimedia Espana has secured for past work. We think that bringing on staff has the potential to increase Wikimedia Espana’s capacity and improve results, and we hope that Wikimedia Espana sets higher targets that will be more commensurate with the level of funding they request in the future.

Wikimedia Espana has an energetic and committed group of volunteers, but they do not yet have experience managing staff or a budget of this size. We think significant attention will need to be devoted in the coming year to managing organizational change and growth, improving the organization’s ability to plan and budget accurately, and increasing Wikimedia Espana’s capacity to evaluate and document its work, and we will be monitoring improvements in these areas over the course of 2016.

This may require Wikimedia Espana to reduce its planned activities, budget, and expectations around program activities in the coming year. We have also recommended a reduced allocation because the budget can be made more efficient in some areas. In particular, we recommend that Wikimedia Espana reduce its merchandise budget significantly and reconsider some of its more costly activities, such as awards ceremonies.

Strengths identified by the committee:

Organizational effectiveness

  • We saw good engagement on the discussion page of the proposal, with forthright responses, and a willingness to learn and improve the plan. We appreciate the commitment and engagement of the organization’s volunteer board.
  • We appreciate that the organization has a strategic plan and an annual plan, and their strategic plan includes targets for tracking longer term progress.

Program effectiveness

  • The organization’s improved application has reasonable metrics and a better plan for next year. Targets for volunteer involvement are particularly strong.
  • Several programs are likely to lead to good results, including contests, events coverage, and GLAM. In particular, their community work seeks to empower local communities throughout spain and spur impact throughout Spain beyond what a centralized organization and staff could achieve.
  • Programs are based on past successes, and adapted according to lessons learned. For example, the organization has built good practices in the area of competitions.
  • This plan has a good emphasis on diversity, in terms of gender diversity and geographic diversity within Spain.
Concerns identified by the committee:

Organizational effectiveness

  • The organization does not yet have experience managing staff, and bringing two staff on for the first time will be a challenge; the organization’s leadership is committed but not yet experienced. For example staffing plans are not sufficiently detailed, and so it is difficult to understand how staff will help achieve program objectives. This may inhibit staff increases from leading to more impact.
  • We have concerns about the organization’s capacity to plan effectively and do accurate budgeting. For example, we are concerns about large amounts allocated to merchandise, prizes, and award ceremony costs in the current budget, and it is unclear how some budget items are calculated.
  • While we appreciate the strategic and annual plans the organization has created, we think there is room for improvement in defining the organization’s long term impact and direction, and we encourage the organization to continue to deepen its program approaches to achieve better results, as they have done with their successful contests.
  • As the organization expands its staff, we will need to see more evidence of strong volunteer engagement.

Program effectiveness

  • Targets seem low with respect to the amount of funding requested.
  • While some programs, such as contests, are based on past successes, there is still a lack of clear evidence of the impact of past GLAM activities, where the organization is still building expertise.
  • The organization’s original application was less coherent than we would expect at this level of funding. Even in the improved version, programs are not grouped in a logical way, but seem to be bundled together. For example, the community program is focused on operational activities rather than program activities, and should not have been included in this proposal as a program.
  • Despite improvements to the application, many activities and budget items are still vague and objectives are not specific enough. It is not yet clear how specific activities relate to overall program objectives.
  • At this funding level, we would like to see the organization pursue more innovative programs that could benefit the wider movement. To the extent that the organization may already doing this, we need to see clear documentation to help us understand their more innovative contributions.

posted on behalf of the Simple Annual Plan Grant Committee Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 19:39, 14 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for all these comments. They are very useful to improve our effectiveness in the future. --Millars (talk) 22:24, 14 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Decision from WMF
Funding decision:

Many thanks to Wikimedia Espana for your work during the application process, and many thanks to the committee for this recommendation. WMF will fund this grant as recommended, in the amount of 29,800 Euro for six months, and we will work with Wikimedia Espana to implement the committee's recommendations and agree upon an approved budget.

According to the committee's recommendations, we will need to reduce the budget by 7,724 Euro. As a first step, I would recommend reducing the merchandise budget to 2,000 EUR, leaving 2,924 in further reductions. If you reduce your contingency fund of 2,290, you will be almost there. The remaining 634 Euro might be taken from the edit-a-thon budget of 3,000 Euro, which seems quite large.

We agree contingency funds are generally a good practice, and now that you are choosing to bring on staff we may want to discuss your plan for building some reserves for your organization. The reason I am recommending that you reduce in this area is that I agree with the committee that other areas may be over budgeted and I think this will be an easy area of your budget to cut in order to get an approved version. Changes to the budget can still be made after the grant's approval with WMF's consent. As a condition of your grant, I am suggesting that you work closely with me to review your financials each month as part of regular check-ins, so that we can work on improving financial planning together. This will also give me a good insight into how things are going, so that we can make adjustments in case unexpected events do occur.

We can also work closely together on your budget as you prepare for your next grant request.

If the above suggestions for reducing your budget do not seem like a good solution for you, we can discuss further options together. It's been a pleasure working with you on this grant application, and I look forward to our continued work together. All the best in 2016.

Best regards, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 02:31, 15 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Questions about your income and spending[edit]

Hello, WMES team!

Thank you for this spending report. There will be more discussions and questions related to your program work once the rest of the report is complete. In the mean time, we would appreciate you offering some clarifications on the financial information submitted.

Non-APG income[edit]

In your budget for H1 you offered the following estimates of other income sources:

  • Membership fees, €825
  • Non-WM donations and subsidies, €2,500
  • Interest, €10.05 EUR
    Total non-APG income: €3,335.5

Would you please confirm the actual amount of non-APG income received and spent between 1 January and 30 June 2016?

The actual amount was EUR 565.19.
Membership fees what have only received EUR 440.00. Membership fees tend to be paid during summer, we are trying to change that.
Donations have been very small (EUR 102.56). Last years most donations were in form of free space for our events in Paradores or other comercially available places. So we knew the cost of what we were given. This year all premises that we have been allowed to use were not commercial, there was no price for which they could be hired. So we have been given EUR 0.00 inspite of being give more or less the same service as we had last year.
Interest makes a small income, but we have been paid EUR 22.63. Is quite out of our control, but any income is welcome.
All income has been free to use on any activities. That's a big change from being given a meeting room in a hotel that we could only use for a certain activity. So income from all sources was integrated with APG money. B25es (talk) 17:17, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for clarifying your income! The discrepancy in calculating the value of in-kind donations makes sense. Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 19:49, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Underspending in specific line items[edit]

Can you please offer some explanations to explain why you spent less than expected in the following areas:

  • WLX (photo competitions), €1,647 spent of €3,736 budgeted.
    • The two big WLX -Wiki Loves Folk and Wiki Loves Earth- have vouchers as prizes. No prize-giving ceremonies, no cost of sending items. We have reduced our spending on the jury panel. We have reduced the global amount spent substatially, even after some spending in promotion of WLF.
      The third contest -Places of the Spanish Civil War- had books as prizes, but its global cost was low. B25es (talk) 18:42, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wiki Takes, €389 spent of €600 budgeted.
    • Wiki Takes have suffered a lot from our counterparts schedules and agendas. In one case, they changed dates from Abril to Autumn (no more precise data given). In another case, we are preparing to take a museum but after several meetings they keep interested but no final date has been given. We launched WT Camí de Vera: we had people willing to Wiki Take something and we had some preparations already in place. But Camí de Vera was very cheap, particularly when compared with Cartagena. We are now more willing to rely on our own resources and less on official ones. B25es (talk) 17:33, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
      About Riba-roja and Camí de Vera, it deserves some more explanation. Riba-roja was to have place on April 1st. The town council people were talking about 30 people going. On March 22nd we received an email saying that they'd move dates to after summer. We had 9 days to do something. We had Camí de Vera on the fridge, a concept without a date and no location to edit. In less than 48 hours we prepared everything, from local maps to lists of things to picture to getting somewhere with WiFi to edit. But our numbers lowered from 30 to 10 people, transport costs went down too (we just walked). So we ended up with a very low cost activity. B25es (talk) 17:44, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Edit-a-thons, €1,349.85 spent of €3,000 budgeted.
    • We budgeted considering 8 edit-a-thons at EUR 375 each. We had six events, one of them in two locations so the number can be considered seven. But two events cost zero (Book Day Wikiquote and Book Day BiblioWikiAsturias). Three others cost from EUR 50 to EUR 200: Poetry Day 55.60; Mother Tongue 103.51 and the Pentathlon 193.95 (and almost half the cost of Mother Tongue was used to send a prize to Colombia).
      Only two edit-a-thons really cost the money we expected: Book Day Almería (EUR 346.99) and Woman's Day (EUR 534.85). Both were strategic successes for diferent reasons.
      Why didn't we do more edit-a-thons? We have done as many as we could with the volunteers that volunteer to make them. In addition, we have always had in mind the possibility of some other event appearing unexpectedly.
      How did we spend such little money on the average edit-a-thon? WMES organizers have been very frugal. On-line edit-a-thons have been successful in terms of articles, bytes and participants and cheaper than expected.
      B25es (talk) 16:06, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Meeting with Community, €451 spent of €600 budgeted.
    • We have spent less than budgeted because each event came cheaper than it was forseen.
      The first group of three meeting (making Wiki 15) spent more or less as we expected (202.86 vs 200.00). But people in Madrid paid for themselves when we wanted to invite them. A small diference comes from that.
      The next event was Wiki Cocido in Astorga (EUR 159.64). We knew we couldn't pay the whole meal for everybody, but we underspent.
      Es:wiki 15th anniversary in Valencia had a low attendance, so we only spent EUR 88.50. May was not a good choice.
      All in all we consider that a trend of meeting other Wikimedians has been settled, and that's a success. B25es (talk) 18:05, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wikimedia Movement, €3,277 spent of €4,500 budgeted.
    • This concept included mainly Wikimania 2016, but also some spending was expected at WMConference in Berlin. My idea was to take leaflets and explanations of our activities to Berlin and also some little gifts. Well, we ended up with just some last minute adoquines (traditional sweets from Zaragoza) at a cost of only EUR 13.98 (people seemed to like them, fortunately). I had to convince Jesús to be reimbursed EUR 87.40 for his train ticket from Zaragoza to Madrid and back. He was not reimbursed for his taxi or whatever he took to get from Atocha to Barajas. We are frugal and humble.
      Wikimania was a different story. First of all, we wanted to promote GLAMing Madrid using five posters. For technical reasons only one of them was printed, meaning that some EUR 220 went unspent. We printed a lot of stuff (EUR 1,107.65 plus 384.49 in stickers and pins) for the Community Village and to give to other interested parts. We learn a lot at Wikimanias and we take as much printed stuff there as we can, so we can get inspired (or just copy ideas straight away). So I think that we shall give back at least some of our own ideas.
      Two grants were given, at EUR 500.00 each and we sent our employee to Esino by car (EUR 658.92). He carried most of our printed materials, but I also drove to Esino with more things, for free in my case. I strongly support the idea that my participation in Wikimedia activities is a volunteer matter that I do in my leisure time and for which I don't have to be paid. In consecuence I didn't ask for a grant. My wife and son, who took care of WMES stand at Community Village for most of the time, did so for free too. I expected some money to be used in something like a communal supper of all WMES people who were at Wikimania but it couldn't be done.
      The question of how we should have used the extra money is open. My personal opinion is against grants not linked to activities. But I'm not the only member of WMES, so I expect dissenting voices to be heard here at some point. The next Wikimania will be in Montreal, I place I cannot drive to. In order to cover such an event properly we'll need some five people, two teams of two plus an extra one to fill the gaps. And I think that all five will need a grant and all of them will have to work hard just to do the same that has been done in 2016. B25es (talk) 16:12, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
B25es, thanks for the detailed explanations in these areas. We continue to appreciate that your organization is frugal in so many of these areas, and that your volunteers are so dedicated.
  1. Glad to see you saved some money on event costs and prizes! You might think about apply that information to future budget planning, now that you have a better sense of what events cost.
  2. Will you need additional funds allocated toward Wiki Takes for your H2 grant, given that activities were postponed? If so, we can discuss a reallocation of some portion of your underspend toward this.
  3. Given the high costs of sending people to Wikimania in Montreal, I would recommend that you encourage community members to apply through the global scholarships program. We're unlikely to approve funds for 5 scholarships next year; funds for 2 scholarships is probably closer to what you'll have available through your Simple APG.
  4. Finally, please include printing and merchandise costs as a separate line item in future budgets, rather than combine them with travel, as this is something we try to keep a close eye on and treat fairly across organizations. I had understood that this line item included in your budget was for travel to movement events, since you had a separate line item already included in your budget for merchandising. As you know, at the time of the approval WMF and the committee expressed some concerns around spending for printing and merchandise. $1,000 EUR+ for printing documents for Wikimania is out of line with what other Simple APG organizations are receiving, especially since we haven't seen anyone make a strong argument for how distributing printed materials at Wikimania is leading to significant impact in line with those costs. Inspiration is certainly valuable, but when you add up the total cost of what organizations are spending on printing, I don't think it matches that value. If we had known that such a large portion of this line item would be devoted to printing, we would likely not have approved it. We need to apply greater scrutiny to costs for international events in future grants, and especially printing.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond in detail, and your explanations make sense to me! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 19:48, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Overspending in specific line items[edit]

The following areas were overspent by more than 20%. You should ask for permission in advance for overspending by more than 20% for any one line item. Can you please offer some explanations for the following line items, so that we may consider approving these expenses retroactively? In the future, be sure to monitor spending so that you can request permission for the changes in advance.

  • Roll up banners, €217 spent of €140 budgeted.
  • Compulsory insurance, €341 spent of €171 budgeted.
When whole groups of sections are taken into account, the overspending is quite small or none existant.
As for roll up banners, they belong in Operating Costs, which have used only 83.4% of their budgeted amount. We are keeping track of every section but I understood that we could move spending within the groups if necessary -it hasn't been the case in any more sections. The overspending on roll up banners comes from our desire to have all of them identical. So we trusted our previous provider. We are not happy with what has happened and we are using multiple different suppliers for other items, such us leaflets or other printed stuff. We also keep an eye on other potential providers to check prices or to move from one to another if needed.
About Compulsory Insurance, it belongs in Staff Costs and couldn't be avoided. Staffing Costs have overspent far less than 20% (its final spending being 101.2% of the budgeted amount).
In any case, WMES could pay these small diferences from its own funds if needed. B25es (talk) 16:49, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
There's no need. You can still cover these from grant funds. We just needed to clarify the reasons for overspending so we could retroactively approved them. Budget changes need to be approved per line item. Additional spending on roll up banners up to EUR 217 and insurance up to EUR 341 is approved out of your underspend in other budget areas. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 19:28, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Total underspending[edit]

Overall, you have spent €27,492.40 of €33,135.05 budgeted, leaving a total underpend of €5,642.65. Please clarify the total number of grant funds spent out of the €29,800 sent, so we can determine the amount that should be returned to WMF or reallocated.

Our total spending was EUR 27,492.40. Our total income was EUR 565,19. Our net spending was EUR 26,927.21
The budgeted amounts were
Total spending EUR 33,135.05. Total income EUR 3,335.05. Net spending EUR 29,800.00 (which is the amount of the APG).
We have used EUR 26,927.21 from the grant, instead of EUR 29,800.00.
So the unused amount is EUR 2,872.79.
B25es (talk) 17:02, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:32, 1 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for clarifying! I've updated the grant page accordingly, and will let Janice know. Will you be requesting to have any of the remaining EUR 2,872.79 reallocated to postponed activities that are to take place in H2, or do you plan to return this amount to WMF? Thank you! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 19:51, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I have checked with the other members of WMES Board and we'd prefer to reallocate the remaining amount to postponed activities and to pay the unexpected modification in the cost of kilometers driven by our employee, that has led to a diference of EUR 993.41 that has to be paid. B25es (talk) 21:40, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Makes sense! Please provide a budget of how you would like to spend the reallocated funds on postponed activities, so we can make a decision. You can post it directly here on this page, or send it to me by Email. Cheers, 198.73.209.2 17:51, 8 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Reallocating remaining funds[edit]

Hello, we´ve decided to reallocate the remaining funds as follows:

  • EUR 993.41: the difference of the unexpected modification in the cost of kilometers driven to Wikimania by our employee.
  • EUR 307.45: Social Insurance derived from the difference in the cost of kilometers of Wikimania.
  • EUR 45.67: sending prizes of the WLE 2015 Writing Contest.
  • EUR 575: Wiki Takes Ayora 2016, second edition of the Wiki Takes Ayora 2015, in this case two-days event focused on a festival and several Wikimedia projects talks (travel, accommodation and logistics). This municipality probably will be the first in Spain with content in all Wikimedia projects.
  • EUR 546.81: the difference of the unexpected modification in the cost of kilometers driven by our employee in the first six months.
  • EUR 169.51: Social Insurance derived from the difference in the cost of kilometers of first six months.
  • Sending prizes of Monuments of Spain Challenge 2014. In that writing contest we included items of Wikipedia shop as prizes and gifts for that challenge. We had two difficulties, the first because there were people who provided that data after a long time and the second was that we did not ask for a telephone number and then we had to start again. Then, we had the data of the participants but not the items, and the PEG was completed. People of that challenge are still waiting for something. The items we applied at the PEG were listed at the PEG page. At that moment we did not know how difficult was that and how expensive is for WMF sending so many items. Like we have a big amount of money underspent from H1 this could be the opprtunity fo close that and forget this story (after learning from our mistakes). One option would be that WMF send the prizes to the winners, other, sending to WMES and then we send them, or another option that proposed to me Satdeep was changing that items for vouchers and then reduce the time and expenses.

Cheers. --Rubén Ojeda (WMES) (talk) 18:05, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I am noting here that this was approved back in September. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 20:01, 16 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Final report accepted[edit]

Final report accepted
Grant status:

Completion pending resolution of underspend

Comments:

Thank you, Wikimedia Espana colleagues, for submitting your complete final report for your 6-month H1 grant lasting from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2016. This final report included progress on each of your program objectives and a detailed financial report. We appreciate this good quality, reflective report, and enjoyed this high level view of your work over the past 6 months. Also, we note that this was the first final report submitted for this grants program, so we appreciate that you did such a fine job without having an example to follow. This fine report may serve as an example to future grantees!

We note that you exceeded your targets for content acquisition and use through photography projects and contests. Although you have not yet met your targets in terms of batch GLAM content donations, you have reported good progress in your relationships with potential donor institutions. You have met your targets for involving new editors, and your progress in the area of engaging volunteers in more regions throughout Spain is very impressive. We are glad to see that having program staff has enabled you to connect with and support more volunteers throughout Spain and also to engage effectively with GLAM institutions, as you had hoped. One aspect of your program story we found particularly interesting was your focus on several non-Wikipedia projects, including Wikidata and Wikivoyage, as part of your Pentathlon editing event, which also involved editing in both Spanish and Catalan. Your learning story also had a clear connection with Wikidata, as you work to compile lists of places in Spain to be documented and engage volunteers more actively in this work. There are a few other Simple APG organizations gaining traction with using Wikidata to engage volunteers in documenting specific locations, including WMFI (public art) and WMCZ (points of interest), so I will be sure and connect you with some of your colleagues so you can share experiences in this area.

This report is accepted, and we can discuss it in more detail at our next check in. Thank you for your work. Best, Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 21:46, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]