Dear FDC Advisory Group,
Greetings from San Francisco! It has been a very busy past few months for us here as FDC support staff, and I am glad to share the progress of the FDC with you. A quick recap of the second round of recommendations: the FDC met in Milan in late April; after extensive analysis and intense deliberations, they recommended that two of the four submitted proposals be funded. Their recommendations were followed by an official complaint and appeal which were handled by the Board Representatives and Ombudsperson respectively. The Board published their decision about the FDC's recommendations and endorsed the recommendations in full.[1]
In the meantime, and over the next few months, we are learning from this year's experience and using the feedback to improve our systems and procedures. In addition, we are planning for Round 1 in the fall by instituting a new Letter of Intent process and having conversations with interested applicants. We have received 17 Letters of Intent. In addition, with the FDC community elections, we have two new members on the FDC (which brings the FDC up to its final size of 9 members). The Ombudsperson was also re-elected for her second term.[2] Finally, we've been delighted to welcome a new staff member - Katy Love, the Senior Program Officer for the FDC - and she's had an exciting onboarding with the second round of the FDC, after joining us in January. :-)
As you will remember, the Advisory Group was scheduled to review the progress of the FDC both in its inaugural year and finally, to re-convene in March 2014 to make a recommendation to the Board on the continuance of the FDC. While the initial review was originally scheduled for March 2013, it seemed prudent to wait till both rounds were over so that we would learn from the whole inaugural year of the FDC. I'm glad we did so, since Round 2 tested some of our processes as Round 1 didn't, including the critical ones of appeals to the Ombudsperson and complaints to the Board representatives.
For the overall review process, what I'd like to suggest is this: that you offer your perspectives and insights on the inaugural year of grants, and that we hold a face-to-face convening of the Advisory Group in *May 2014* in order to make your final recommendation to the Board. The reason for this is that we find it is extremely labour-intensive working on each round of FDC proposals, and it would be helpful to meet post the FDC deliberations for Round 2. Please let us know if you're comfortable with moving the face-to-face meeting originally intended to be for March 2014 to May 2014.
Re the Advisory Group's review of Year 1: we'd like to suggest that a brief report is finalised by end July (so we can present it at Wikimania), with a draft completed by mid-July. In order to support you in this as best as possible, we will shortly share with you the feedback we've gathered through surveys conducted with FDC members, AG members, applicants and others for both rounds. As you know, we most recently asked you to complete a survey for Round 2, and are currently conducting some initial analysis for you.
We believe the most critical framing questions the FDC Advisory Group can support the FDC and the movement in answering are:
* Is the FDC proceeding in the right direction for the movement, both in terms of process as well as building up learning around impact?
* Are there critical challenges or gaps that the FDC should be mindful about for the coming year?
You may well feel there are other key issues that need addressing, of course. We felt that after we share with you all the feedback, it would be useful to do a call with you that will help you all in discussing the inaugural year. The notes from this call can form the basis for your report. Would this be the best way to proceed? If so, it would be very helpful if 2-3 of you would volunteer to design the agenda for this call with Katy and me, so that it is most useful to all of you. Please let Katy and me know if you'd be interested in helping us with this. Katy will then also follow up to schedule the call with the entire FDC Advisory Group.
It's been a tremendous pleasure and privilege to work with the FDC members over the last year, and I've been inspired by the level of commitment and integrity they bring to this process. As someone who joined WMF after the creation of the FDC Framework, I've also been hugely impressed with the thoughtfulness of design in the FDC process itself: so thank you all for the wisdom and insight that you brought to its creation! We have now tested most if not all of the FDC systems and believe we have come out stronger because of it. The experiences have not always been easy, but I believe we are learning from them and improving as we go. We look forward to continuing to improve and refine the process with your support and suggestions.
Please don't hesitate to reach out to me should you have any questions about the Advisory Group or the FDC process itself. I look forward to speaking with you all. Katy will be in touch with more information very shortly.
Warmly,
Anasuya
Anasuya Sengupta
Senior Director of Grantmaking
Wikimedia Foundation
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