Hello Nora,
One of the key roles of the FDC is focusing the Wikimedia movement on developing sound
measurable goals that match the mission of the movement, and to then have the
organizations use a evaluation process that is hearty but not too burdensome for
volunteers who are likely to be heavily involved with projects.
The Wikimedia movement as a whole is in an infancy stage of figuring out how organizations
can achieve the right balance between time spend on administrative and bureaucratic
activities and the time spent creating content for the various Wikimedia Foundation
projects.
In my opinion every organization in the movement, small or large, can benefit from the
type of comments that you shared in your email. I encourage you and other interested
people to push up your sleeves and help the organizations develop meaningful measurable
goals around the topic of the gender gap (or anything else.)
It would be really useful for a group of interested people to review the organization
various activities and make suggestions about how goals related to increasing the
diversity of the movement can be added.
If you or anyone else is interested, I will help you figure out the best way to accomplish
this task. The Wikimedia Foundation had staff dedicated to assisting the movement with the
general evaluations of projects and programs. But their numbers are few and the task is
large!!! Plus the involvement of volunteers is an important ethos of the movement. So the
involvement of volunteers is key to getting this done in a meaningful and timely way.
Regards,
Sydney
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 22, 2013, at 13:38, "trueself56 ." <trueself54(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I reviewed some of the proposals that have been
submitted for funding from the aspects of concrete goals. I have a background in United
States Human Service charities as an Operations Manager and database administrator. One of
the most challenging activities for an agency is to identify goals in a manner that is
meaningful to all constituents and can be tracked. If a goal cannot be defined with an
action statement and specific target numbers and the result that proves the target
numbers, then the goal language must be modified and/or the result that proves the goal
changed. At the time of goal identification the tracking methods should be determined and
reviewed for feasibility.
A goal should be so clearly written that anyone who is a member of the organization
understands how to collect the data that proves the goal. A common failing is creating
goals that sound really impressive but are so vague that the people responsible for doing
the work and collecting the data don't know which activity proves the goal and what
form or question or whatever, they have to do to get the information back to the Main
Office. (And "don't they understand that I am very busy and who reads this, and
oh lord, what did I do last time I filled out this form and ...")
For example: Efforts will be made to increase the participation of women and other
minorities in monthly workshops by 30%. This goal will be verified by sign-in sheets that
ask for gender and (ethnicity, cultural group or whatever concrete statistic defines the
goal).
From an operations standpoint the sign-in sheets should be sent to the Main office after
every workshop, the results tabulated and reported to the appropriate constituents. At
minimum, the board and the sponsoring group should receive feedback on goals on a
quarterly basis. This keeps the goals in front of everybody and lets everyone know what
progress is being is being towards achieving those goals while there is still time to
improve their methods.
The most effective grants I worked with tied achievable goals to monetary rewards. If
quarterly goals weren't met, future financial allocations were jeopardized and indeed,
in cases of egregious inactivity, programs lost funding mid-fiscal year.
The preceeding goal language was created in a vacuum without consultation with any
constituents in the space of approx. one hour and is to be used only as an example.
Organizations tend to use too many words to describe what they are trying to accomplish.
Grant language must be straight-forward and easily understood. If the average
user/volunteer/staff member doesn't understand the goals at first reading then further
refining is of the highest importance
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to be of service.
Regards,
Nora (Norawashere)
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