I also know it's frustrating about money. As someone, like you, who comes from the GLAM world, I know that funding isn't being thrown at these types of projects on a whim, especially large scale consortium type projects, by GLAMs. If only we had a contingent of grant writers (haha!) and available funds from the movement (Chapters, WMF, whatever) that could contribute to this. I also agree that an in person meeting is KEY to making that happen - we all know the power of GLAMcamp.  Without GLAMcamp I would not be as involved in this as I am, nor care as deeply as I do.

I really doubt that, anytime soon, significant resources are going to be shared by GLAMs for these projects that don't' directly relate to their own direct mission (i.e. funding a Wikipedian in Residence is more ideal than funding a consortium). GLAMs and Wikimedians want to see this consortium happen, but, I do think it'll take "Movement money" to make it come together. Just having initial funds to have a meeting and get the ball rolling in person is ideal, IMHO.

It's also so aggravating about the tools - I also have a feeling that if the consortium can get off the ground with a meeting, that tools can be developed via GLAMs. I'm hoping our event at MCN can help inspire that too - having tech folks from WMF and MediaWiki volunteers engaged with GLAMs in the US is important - and I know that if GLAM tech folks were made more aware of the opportunities with MediaWiki they'd probably have more interest in developing tools that benefit both sides.  I also think it'd be cool to have more GLAM hackathons (at THATcamp, etc.), but, we'd need additional MediaWiki folk support for that (hackers, people who can help lead).