Hi Alex,

Thanks for the clarification and your help. I'm sorry to hear that all those requests came in that late! I would definitely recommend them to send them in earlier, so that they can actually use them where they mean the most: in the preparation phase (unless the idea is of course to first try to find external funding, and only use grants as last resort, which is awesome). Not because of the grants process, but because it allows volunteers to plan more ahead, and have less burnout in the long run :) I'd say, request it as soon as you know what you need. 

I hope everyone spreads the word in their organizing teams: if you think you will need to request a national grant, please do so before Feb 1, or you risk having to wait until May 1 (and maybe longer if there's backlog). If your timeline permits that, then no problem for you. 

Keep up the good work,

Best,
Lodewijk

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 8:33 PM, Alex Wang <awang@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Lodewijk,

If the international team (whomever they may be) cannot submit the request before February 1st and need funds before April 30th, I am happy to talk about a solution. I am also happy to review a draft grant request at any time in order to make the process of review and discussion by the Grant Advisory Committee more efficient.

We do believe that this is a positive campaign, addressing a strategic priority, that demands more time and focus from the grants team. We honestly cannot provide this focus in the stream of our normal grantmaking workflow. All folks with grants currently in draft stage have been contacted, as well as grantees whose current annual grants are coming to an end.

Please also note that last year PEG funded 7 WLM grants (+1 to the international team). The earliest request was made in June and the last in mid-September. Next year, we will recommend that national requests come in by early July, and will be communicating this as well as other tips on national WLM grant requests, over the next couple of months.

Cheers,

Alex

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 9:51 AM, Lodewijk <lodewijk@effeietsanders.org> wrote:
Hi Alex,

it is indeed the case that the 2013 team started in May only. One of the lessons was however, that this was way too late and that it should ideally be started in December. 

I'm sorry to hear that the grant system is being used in this way, and that this will only be announced two weeks before the period starts. I would be much more in favor of a /positive/ campaign to support requests of a certain type rather than to a negative campaign like this, which discourages everything besides that type. 

In either way, perhaps we learn this in time to make an effort to submit the grant request before February 1, so that we stay ahead of this and the damage is limited to all the national requests that have to be made. 

Best,
Lodewijk

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 6:44 PM, Alex Wang <awang@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi All,

Yes, we are in the planning stages of an Inspire Grants campaign that we will be announcing more broadly the week of January 12th. Please stay tuned for the details.

In short, Inspire is a global campaign to proactively source and support new projects aimed at addressing a specific strategic topic. Our first campaign will focus on addressing the gender gap: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Inspire_Grants_%E2%80%93_Gender_gap_campaign.


In order to focus, we will take a short break from the regular funding routines in both Project and Event Grants (PEG) and Individual Engagement Grants (IEG). We are dedicating round 1 of IEG funding and 3 months of PEG funding to the campaign. From February 1-April 30, PEG will only accept proposals as part of the gender gap campaign, with the exception for urgent requests. And IEG's first round of the year will be devoted to this experiment.


I don't anticipate this having a large impact on 2015 WLM grant planning. The 2013 international team started on their proposal at the end of May, leaving plenty of time for discussion and approval. However, if you feel this will be a challenge, please let me know and I am happy to discuss.

Cheers,

Alex


--

Alex Wang
Program Officer
Project & Event Grants
Skype: alexvwang




On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 8:43 AM, Ilario Valdelli <valdelli@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, exactly.

It's a plan, it's not a definitive plan.

It has been communicated to the committees as general plan to focus some period of the year to some specific areas in order to produce more impact.

Regards


On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 5:06 PM, Lodewijk <lodewijk@effeietsanders.org> wrote:
Hi Ilario,

I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying. Are you suggesting that for three months long, nobody can get a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation if it is not directly related to the gender gap? This would be very surprising to me, and inconsistent with communications that I am aware of... It would be quite disruptive of the process as well. 

Nonetheless I do think that any project like Wiki Loves Monuments that involves a general audience, is in part a solution to the bias-problems such as the gender gap. But it would be counterintuitive to position it as such. 

Lodewijk

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 3:41 PM, Ilario Valdelli <valdelli@gmail.com> wrote:
For your record, there is the plan to reserve the grants of the first quarter of 2015 for project for gender gap. It's an idea not official yet.

So I agree that the best is to draft the budget because the submission probably may be conditioned by this decision and delayed to the middle of 2015.

Best regards and happy new year (at least for those using the Gregorian calendar).

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 9:46 PM, Lodewijk <lodewijk@effeietsanders.org> wrote:
Hi Yan,

Actually, the grant for next year should already be drafted by now :) I don't want to hurry people too much, but I'm afraid it would be unwise to wait with finding the team for next year... 

Best,

Lodewijk

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 9:39 PM, Ynhockey <ynhockey@gmail.com> wrote:
Can we wait for this year's competition to end before agreeing on next year's team? There are actually still quite a few things to do, including regarding the grant.

—Yan (Ynhockey).

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 10:02 PM, Saqib Qayyum <saqib.qayyum@hotmail.com> wrote:
I can help too .. :P 


Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:17:10 +0530
From: karthikndr@wikimedia.in
To: wikilovesmonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wiki Loves Monuments] Call for Volunteers - WLM International Team


Dear all,

We shall need a good international team to have another successful version of Wiki Loves Monuments after 2014. The team should comprise of experience volunteers who have conducted WLM or any such event in their country. 

There are numerous tasks and first task will be to hunt and find our countries who shall be willing to organise Wiki Loves Monuments again. To brief, the International Team is more of coordinating with all participating countries and without proper coordination, there will be no international competition for WLM 2015. 

Been in the international team is also more of applying for grant, documenting, following up and keeping track of status of all participating countries. Time to be spent may vary according to the skill of team members; more the skills and people, lesser the burden; however you can assume 10 hours a week during the contest (just horrifying). 

Would you be interested to be part of international team for WLM 2015, please send me a brief introduction of yourself and also a note on how you would benefit the international team. Please send the same by 6th of Jan. 



Regards from Mumbai,
Karthik Nadar. 

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--
Ilario Valdelli
Wikimedia CH
Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
Wikipedia: Ilario
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Twitter: Ilario Valdelli
Linkedin: Ilario Valdelli

_______________________________________________
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https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
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_______________________________________________
Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org



--
Ilario Valdelli
Wikimedia CH
Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
Wikipedia: Ilario
Skype: valdelli
Facebook: Ilario Valdelli
Twitter: Ilario Valdelli
Linkedin: Ilario Valdelli

_______________________________________________
Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org



--
Alex Wang
Program Officer
Project & Event Grants
Skype: alexvwang

_______________________________________________
Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org


_______________________________________________
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WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org



--
Alex Wang
Program Officer
Project & Event Grants
Skype: alexvwang

_______________________________________________
Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org