Thanks for your clarification! Yes of course it is difficult to keep up
with changing WMF rules regarding funding (or reporting). I know in the
past we have run into problems trying to stay aware of all the ins-and-outs
of these things in the Netherlands chapter and for chapters with
sub-sections distributed far apart it must be very hard to do. Your
question seems to be why these WMF funding/reporting changes are made, and
though I don't know the details I assume from past experience that this is
all done to simplify the work done by the WMF in such a way that they can
better support the chapter work by simplifying and streamlining their
workflow. It's nice to read that the most common grant requests are still
flexible and can be requested each month: editathons, photo walks, etc.
It's a good idea to have an Outreach person appointed at the WMF for
diversity and I think we have all been happy with the work done by Alex
Stinson for GLAM. I don't think we have ever had a person for the
Gendergap, but there is a diversity project out on Meta now with a very
long title for this (sorry, can't remember it and I am not a Meta person)
and this is probably where a WMF appointment should be. I am not up to date
with the whole Meta-Outreach discussion and as far as I can tell Outreach
is nowadays mostly just for "This Month in GLAM". Maybe we need a "This
Month in Diversity" or something like that, with input from all workgroups!
On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 7:02 AM Natacha Rault via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Jane,
Thank you for your answer, but I think I did not make my point clear
enough given the answer you made.
On the francophone wiki there is not “local WIR”. There are a few sister
projects like les sans pages of which I am the founder (so people might
turn to me for questions) or ateliers femmes et féminismes, Wikimatrimoine
ect. I think we view WIR as a sister project, not as an umbrella. We would
like equal access to ressources, finance and management, which is why it is
important for us to have WMF reps at our regional events. Local chapters
are great, but it’s not the same. I have tried to go to as many
international events as possible, because this is where you learn about the
politics and new tools and financing possibilities. I could not go most of
the time because our project was very successful. and nearly every two week
two there are events and because I have a family too, and limited finances.
So yes, having a person representing outreach would have been great. I
think we need T&S and Outreach to be there, with the possibility of booking
appointments.
I was writing about rapid grants not questions about wikipedia, saying
that local reps are worried about the way rapid grants have been designed
with timing to apply according to themes.
See
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/Learn
What was great about rapid grants was:
-flexibility : you could ask for funding anytime and receive it within 3
weeks (now you have to apply between the 1rst and 15th of each month and
decision is made one month after)
- for certain themes you can only apply at certain time in the year making
it very rigid. No doubt volunteers will miss lots of opportunities because
of this.
IMO the major asset of the rapid grants, flexibiiity and speed to adapt to
volunteers fluctuating engagement is now gone. Why?
I copy and paste below the new rules. I was wondering why this new ruling
is in place as it seems to some volunteers very complicated and rigid as
opposed to the last system.
I was wondering if the advice of volunteers was taken into account.
You must submit your application between the 1st and 15th of each month.
Please plan to make your applications accordingly, so you will have a
decision about your grant within the timeframe you need to plan your event.
Decisions will be made by the 15th of the following month.
In the months specified below, we will prioritize support to contests and
campaigns. These months will be solely dedicated to different contests
throughout the year:
August: only receiving proposals for Wiki Loves Monuments
September: only receiving proposals for Awareness Grants(campaign)
December: only receiving proposals for Wiki Loves Africa
January: only receiving proposals for Art + Feminism (campaign)
March: only receiving proposals for Wiki Loves Earth
Outside the months specified above, proposals are welcomed in all other
categories: edit-a-thons, contests, photowalks, general promotion
campaigns, and video campaigns. We will also consider proposals outside of
these categories, such as software development.
I hope I have clarified a little what I meant, which is basically that WMF
is so useful that until regional hubs are set up if they are, we need them
more present at our events.
Kind regards,
Natacha
Le 16 sept. 2019 à 08:45, Jane Darnell
<jane023(a)gmail.com> a écrit :
As far as Art+Feminism goes, this project concentrates on biographies of
female artists. The English Wikipedia project "Women in Red" is open 24x7
all year round and concentrates on biographies of women on English
Wikipedia, period. So you can take all of your local Wikipedia questions
about A+F to your local WiR women for each non-English Wikipedia, and if
there is no overlap yet, I suggest starting your own local A+F/WiR in
your
local Wikipedia. We should probably start a
multi-lingual one for
Commons,
since it has proven so difficult to get pictures
of female artists to
illustrate articles about them.
On Sun, Sep 15, 2019 at 8:27 PM Natacha Rault via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Thank you Thierry. To be honnest a few of us were really waiting for
> Valerie D'Costa, the new Chief of Community Engagement because we had
> questions for her about the new rapid grant funding agenda which seems
> totally inadapted to volunteer’s need in terms of flexibility. One has
to
> wait a soecific month for Art+feminism and
very often the timing has not
> been adapted to when the events are actually taking place. For a
volunteer
> this is way too procedural. We need more
flexibility.
> We had other questions regarding the departure of several people which
> were very important for the gender gap.
> So ... Some of us were disappointed indeed.
> Kind regards,
> Natacha
>
>
>
>> Le 15 sept. 2019 à 20:02, Thierry Coudray <tcoudray(a)gmail.com> a
écrit :
Valerie D'Costa, the new Chief of Community Engagement,
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