hi David,
On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 7:52 PM, David Cuenca Tudela <dacuetu(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Recently the review for the Wikidata conference grant
application has
started, and I have complained that the funds allocated are insuficient to
cover the needs of the grants. The requested amount for the grants was
36,000 EUR, but in my opinion that should be at least 72,000 EUR.
You realize that this is pretty much what an annual budget of a small
Wikimedia chapter is, right?
I have the feeling that the WMF is sitting on a pile
of money just giving
breadcrumbs to the community, and the community has to suffer in silence
about this stinginess.
The WMF, just as the movement, has a responsibility to our donors, to spend
the money wisely and frugally. We surely do not always do so, but we try.
Why are there two standards? One standard seems to be
that everything that
the WMF needs to allocate can go unsupervised, whereas another standard
seems to apply to community activities where every
penny is so supervised
that it becomes a pain in the ass to organize anything big.
The WMF's spending is actually reviewed and commented on by the community
and the FDC.
The Wikidata Conference needs more funds to be a
success and I think that
in the grand scheme of things, the money requested is just peanuts compared
to the money that the WMF has collected from donors.
I believe we have a responsibility to treat our donor's contributions with
respect and care. I don't think that 70k Euro is peanuts, and rarely you
will find any foundation or NGO considering such an amount to be
insignificant.
best,
dariusz