Thanks for the prompt reply. Could you provide a link to where the
trend in these measurements is now reported, or provide a specific
date as to when you will be reporting them to the members and the
board?

ANALYSIS

This appears to mean that the Strategy monitoring plan[1] is
incorrect, as numbers of leading volunteers are not going to be
reported. Consequently the target agreed with the board for this year
of 140 is not meaningful and should be withdrawn.

Presumably the commitment in the FDC bid of reaching 150 active
volunteers has to be officially withdrawn as it has not been reported
on in 2014 and it there will be no future reports of this number by
the charity.

I note that the figure of 107 leading volunteers was the baseline for
2013. If this is the same figure being reported in April 2014, then
the charity is not growing according to the original performance
indicator.

I am concerned that the UK Board of Trustees has accepted that 'the
clock has been reset' on this Key Performance Indicator for the
charity. Unfortunately members and trustees will be unable to compare
performance on growth in volunteer numbers from 2013 to 2014 due to a
reworking of what the word "volunteer" means. As a pure mathematician
and an MBA graduate, I am having difficulty in getting any feel for
"volunteer activity units" as opposed to just providing a plain
English count of leading volunteers, or an equivalent credible
estimate of this number. I am happy that the trustees are able monitor
the performance of the charity using these more hypothetical concepts,
I look forward to reading the reports, reviewing the trend charts and
seeing a practical definition of what was counted to create the
reports. Hopefully the definition will be fixed and remain unchanged
for several years from this point in time, so we can compared
performance in one year to the next. It is a pity that no reports have
been published in 2014 so far.

I recall the workshop in 2012 when it around about 20 minutes for
trustees and employees to name all 87 active volunteers. It is a pity
that this simple to understand and highly credible measurement is
being dropped altogether rather than being reported once per quarter
or even once a year to support the FDC bid.

Links
1. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Strategy_monitoring_plan&oldid=55387

Fae

On 10 April 2014 12:57, Jon Davies <jon.davies@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
> We have kept a log of active volunteers in the office for the last two years
> at least. This has allowed us to report a gradual increase to a point that
> we now can identify 107 people who participate in WMUK activiites.
>
> We have never claimed that it is more than a rough guide but it has done its
> job (and other chapters have complimented us on it) and been able to allay
> the anxieties that the chapter's volunteer base was shrinking .
>
> But it has real weaknesses. It is not accurate enough. We miss people who
> are active and forget to take off people who have, for instance, left the
> country.
>
> Apart from the issue of keeping it up to date and accurate it has two major
> weaknesses as a measuring tool.
> a. The definition of an 'active' volunteer is quite broad and ranges from
> someone who does one thing a year to someone who does very many.
> b. The 'thing' that they do is not recorded anywhere and again is very broad
> e.g. Trained Trainer, office admin support, press spokesperson, delivering a
> lecture, event organiser etc etc.
>
> Hence in our new planning we have changed to measuring the actual units of
> activity and the type of unit. This way, through our CiviCRM database we
> have been able to identify realistic targets as to what we want to achieve.
> In 2014-15 this will be based on a best guess from the previous year but we
> hope that we will create a good baseline upon which future targets can be
> more SMARTLy based.
>
>
>
> On 9 April 2014 15:09, Fæ <faewik@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Is there a place where I can find the monthly trend for the number of
>> leading (or active) volunteers? As a KPI agreed with the board of
>> trustees, this is required to be reported at least quarterly, however
>> for this measurement, it would make sense to report the trend in the
>> monthly report so that trustees and members of the charity can judge
>> if we are approaching the target agreed with the board and celebrate
>> the progress being made.[3]
>>
>> Could someone explain why the operational target for 2014 appeared to
>> be adjusted from 150 in the FDC bid to a more modest 140 in the
>> recently published plan? I do not recall this being discussed with the
>> community, I may have missed it.
>>
>> BACKGROUND
>>
>> Reporting the number of active volunteers was a positive commitment
>> the chapter made in the last FDC bid[2] where it was stated that WMUK
>> was going to increase active volunteers from a reported 101 to 150 (in
>> 2014). The specific phrasing was "Increase the number of active
>> volunteers to 150".
>>
>> In the Strategy Monitoring Plan for this year[3], it was reported to
>> the board that in 2013 the number of "leading volunteers" was
>> estimated at 107 and a new target for 2014 has been set at 140.
>>
>> Requests for reports on this number have been made for more than six
>> months. An upgrade to the CRM database was a reason for delays in
>> reporting this number in 2013.[1][4] From the monthly reports
>> available (including the drafts for February, March and April 2014,
>> this figure does not appear to be being publicly reported.[5]
>>
>> Based on recent responses to questions by some trustees, I would like
>> to clarify that this is not a demand for employees of Wikimedia UK to
>> work for me, neither is it intended to be an order, sarcasm, trolling,
>> personal attack or personal criticism; it is an open question. Other
>> volunteers and members are interested in seeing this key performance
>> indicator for the charity as an outcome of the significant investment
>> of donor's funds in growth and improvement of our valued
>> volunteer-centric programmes and staffing, and will have an idea of
>> where to find this number if it has been reported on-wiki, so indeed
>> this may need no employee time to answer.
>>
>> Links
>> 1. Feb 2014 -
>> https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room/2014#Community_consultation_-_Financial_and_Expenses_procedures
>> 2.
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/WMUK/Proposal_form#Programme_1
>> 3.
>> https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Strategy_monitoring_plan&oldid=55387
>> 4.
>> https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Volunteers/numbers&oldid=55418
>> 5. https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Reports
>>
>> Fae
>> --
>> faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
>>
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>
>
>
>
> --
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> tweet @jonatreesdavies
>
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