The inaugural Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) is pleased to announce recommendations [1] on Round 1 of funds allocations for the year 2012-13. The WMF Board of Trustees will make a decision on these recommendations by December 15, 2012.
The FDC received proposals from 12 movement entities for Round 1 for a total requested amount of 10.4 million USD. These proposals were from 11 Wikimedia chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation. Three proposals were received after the deadline of 1 October had passed, but the FDC decided that since it was the first time for the process, the late proposals would be accepted and discussed. Since the proposal deadline, the FDC and FDC support staff have spent many hours reviewing and assessing these proposals to determine a set of allocations that would best support movement goals. This assessment included a 4-day in-person deliberation session in San Francisco over the period October 28-31, where the FDC members discussed the proposals in depth and determined allocation amounts for each applying entity.
The FDC recognizes that this is not a perfect process, and that the process and the outcome will improve over time as we learn more about what works in the movement and what drives impact. We invite the community to provide overall feedback on these recommendations on the talk page for these recommendations [2] and to provide feedback about the FDC process on-wiki to the Ombudsperson [3], who will collect this feedback and use it in our continuous improvement process. For formal complaints about the recommendations, there is a separate process, outlined below.
If any entity has a complaint about the FDC’s recommendation, it should be submitted by 23:59 UTC on 22 November 2012 in accordance with the complaint process outlined in the Framework for the Creation and Initial Operation of the FDC [4]:
- The complaint should be in the form of a 500-or-fewer word summary directed to the two non-voting WMF Board representatives on the FDC (Jan-Bart and Patricio) - The complaint should be submitted on-wiki, through the FDC portal page designated for this purpose [5] - These board representatives will present the complaint to the WMF Board at the same time it considers the FDC recommendation. - Formal complaints can be submitted only by the Board Chair of a funding-seeking entity. - Formal complaints must be filed within seven days of the submission of the FDC slate of recommendations to the WMF Board (by end of day UTC November 22) - Any planned or approved disbursements to the organization filing a complaint will be put on hold until the complaint is resolved. - If the WMF Board's consideration of the complaint results in an amendment of the FDC's recommendations (which is expected only in extraordinary circumstances), the WMF Board may choose to release extra funds from the WMF reserves to provide additional funds not allocated by the FDC's initial recommendation. - Other members of the WMF Board may participate in the investigation if approved by the Chair of the WMF Board.
on behalf of the FDC
Dariusz Jemielniak (Chair)
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013_roun...
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013...
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Appeals_regarding_FDC_process
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_t...
[5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Complaints_regarding_FDC_recommend...