tl;dr The FDC is meeting in San Francisco at the WMF office from November 17-21 for its deliberations on the current round of proposals. To ensure that confidentiality is maintained throughout the process, I sent out a letter to WMF staff with the ground rules established by the FDC. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Anasuya Sengupta &lt;asengupta(a)wikimedia.org&gt; Date: Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 1:02 PM Subject: FDC deliberations being hosted at WMF from October 17 - 21 To: Staff All &lt;wmfall(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt; Cc: Funds Dissemination Committee List &lt;fdc(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt; Dear all (mainly: WMF staff in SF and visiting remote staff), This is a heads up that the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) will be in the Wikimedia office for five days starting Sunday: November 17 - 21st, to deliberate on the current round of proposals for Annual Plan Grants from 11 Wikimedia organizations.[1] They will be working in Yongle for most of these five days, and using the Inversion Table/Ford Prefect room on occasion. For those who came in late: the FDC is an advisory committee to the WMF Board, comprising 9 community members (elected and selected from across the Wikimedia movement) who meet twice a year to make recommendations on the allocation of movement-resources; specifically annual plan grants/FDC allocations for Wikimedia organizations.[2] They are joined by two Board representatives, who participate as observers during these deliberations.[3] The current FDC members are Arjuna Rao Chavala (Arjunaraoc), Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro), Dariusz Jemielniak (Pundit), Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy), Delphine Ménard (Notafish), Mike Peel, Yuri Perohanych (Perohanych), Sydney Poore (FloNight) and Anders Wennersten (Yger). The two Board reps are Bishakha Datta and Patricio Lorente. Please welcome them to WMF when you see them! At the same time, I ask for your understanding in appreciating the serious nature of their task. This is really tough work, that takes significant energy and focus to get to a high quality set of recommendations by the end of the meeting. In order to also maintain confidentiality while they do so, the FDC has set in place a few ground rules that they’ve asked me to share with you. They’ve requested that: 1. WMF staff not ask FDC members or any other meeting participants about any of the applications under consideration, or related FDC processes. 2. The outcomes of the deliberations are not shared with WMF staff or others before they’re publicly announced (by e.o.d on December 1). 3. Only those WMF staff members who’ve been asked to support the FDC with inputs attend the meetings. 4. Others supporting the process (logistics etc) can only come in after individual sessions or discussions are over. FYI: these ground rules apply to any Wikimedia organization that might host an FDC meeting. Like with WMF in this round (which doesn’t have a proposal under consideration), no organization will be applying for funds in the same round of deliberations it hosts. The draft schedule for the meeting is here.[4] For the meeting, here’s the list of WMF staff with direct inputs: Katy, Winifred, Jessie, Garfield and Anasuya (will be supporting the FDC throughout the meeting and present for all the deliberations) Sue, Stephen, Frank and Asaf (have scheduled presentations) Adele (logistics) and any other staff (on request from the FDC) To be clear, WMF staff who are present throughout the deliberations do not take part in the discussions around proposals. We offer our analysis, help facilitate and take notes and respond to any additional queries by the FDC. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. And finally, I do hope you have the opportunity to say hello to some of the FDC members when possible. They’re inspiring members of our community from all over the world, contributing to multiple Wikimedia projects, doing really thoughtful work in the interests of our movement. They’re awesome. :-) thanks, Anasuya [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1 [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_members/Current_round [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_members/2013-2014_round1/Del… -- *Anasuya SenguptaSenior Director of GrantmakingWikimedia Foundation* Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! Support Wikimedia <https://donate.wikimedia.org/> -- *Anasuya SenguptaSenior Director of GrantmakingWikimedia Foundation* Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! 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