On the low or zero-cost element, the one bit I'd question is 'editathons
work well when attendees can buy their own food or attend a social where
they pay their own costs'.
This is certainly convenient for the chapter/volunteers/delete as
applicable, but I don't think we should have it as an expectation. The
thing that the last couple of years has made very clear is that Wikipedia's
outreach to marginalised or disenfranchised people needs work and is of
vital importance. If we have an expectation that those who attend will pay
their own way, then only those who can afford to do so will be able to
attend.
This is not to say that James's proposal is a good one (it's not. It seems,
frankly, entirely arbitrary, completely out of left field and not solving a
problem that we've actually seen happen. Honestly the portrayal of
editathons it contains makes me question how many the author has attended).
But we need to be cognizant of who we're excluding with these sorts of
expectations. So, yes, editathons work well when attendees pay their own
way - but they work /best/ when they don't.
On Thursday, 19 March 2015, Fæ <faewik(a)gmail.com> wrote:
This thread puzzles me. When I was the Chair of a
certain chapter, I
recall a strategy meeting where I was the only participant who did not
put "fund raising" as a 9/10 priority, I set it as merely 5/10. I
guess it is in this area of money and "branding" that world-views are
conflicting.
When we first coined the word "editathon" the working model was that
they were open events run at *zero cost* (we had no staff and
insignificant funds). Later we started providing a free buffet, paying
expenses for "trained helpers" and some others, and a couple years
after that it started to become impossible to organize an editathon
without first having an employee agreeing it, being required to use
official feedback forms and committing to making event reports to help
with future funding.
Basic facts:
* Unpaid volunteer editathon participants do not need travel costs,
they should be local people who can get on a local bus, and do not
need to travel hundreds of miles.
* Editathons work well when attendees can buy their own food from a
local cafe or expect a social event afterwards where they pay their
own costs. Frequently the hosting institution provides drinks and
sandwiches for free.
* Editathons work perfectly well without incurring employee costs
(this is why editathons work in countries where there are no Wikimedia
employees). Volunteers who know enough about Wikimedia projects to get
a geonotice approved and discuss the event in advance on relevant
wikiproject noticeboards or email lists do not need, nor even ask for,
funds.
* The world is stuffed with free venues and institutions looking to
support open knowledge. I had several organizations spontaneously
offer me top class venues in the UK, so long as I could get a handful
of keen editors to commit to coming. We are not even close to running
out of goodwill of this type.
Fae
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