If the first step is working out a rough budget. Step zero is establishing whether we have a team of people wanting to make this happen, then logically step minus one is creating a signup page http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_bid for all those enthusiasts to sign up at.

So having done step minus one I shall pause and wait for the rush.

WSC

On 27 July 2011 18:42, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:

On 27 July 2011 13:11, Michael Peel michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:

...

I'm 100% sure that the chapter would part-fund a UK wikimania - but it would need to be in conjunction with external sponsors. The money would come from the appropriate year's budget, though, not the current one (which covers spending between 1 Feb 2011 and end Jan 2012). Funding to support the creation of the bid over the next 6 months (e.g. travel to meet potential sponsors, scout out venues, etc.) would fall under the current budget, if this would be of use.

I disagree. Something as big as Wikimania should be saved up for. The first step in putting together a bid would be working out a rough budget, including costs during the bidding process. You can then work out how much of that it is reasonable to pay out of general chapter funds and how much we need to fundraise specifically for (most likely through corporate sponsorship, although there are a few other options). The bit we're going to pay for out of chapter funds can then be saved up for over several financial years. The current underspend could be re-allocated to be the first installment if the board wished to do that.

The one big problem with this is what happens if we have an unsuccessful bid. I think we would need to take steps to ensure that doesn't happen. At the very least, we can talk to other European chapters and make sure there are no competing European bids by getting them to support our bid (that could be anything from a letter of support to a pledge to contribute £X). Less formally, we can start letting people know of our intention to bid (maybe even handing out leaflets and badges and things at Wikimania 2012) and try to get people to view 2014 as our year even before the bidding starts.

I know it's not exactly in the spirit of the thing to go out of our way to avoid any real competition in the bidding process, but with such a short timescale from the winning bid being announced to the conference starting, we don't have much choice if we want a large amount of corporate funding.

---

Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org