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_-_Fina... 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/WMUK/P... 3. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Strategy_monitoring_plan&oldi... 4. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Volunteers/numbers&oldid=5541... 5. https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Reports
Fae
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
- Feb 2014 -
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room/2014#Community_consultation_-_Fina... 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/WMUK/P... 3. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Strategy_monitoring_plan&oldi... 4. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Volunteers/numbers&oldid=5541... 5. https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Reports
Fae
faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
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&oldi...
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
- Feb 2014 -
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room/2014#Community_consultation_-_Fina... 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/WMUK/P... 3. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Strategy_monitoring_plan&oldi... 4. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Volunteers/numbers&oldid=5541... 5. https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Reports
Fae
faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
-- Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169 tweet @jonatreesdavies
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.
Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
On 10 April 2014 12:57, Jon Davies jon.davies@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:
Hence in our new planning we have changed to measuring the actual units of activity and the type of unit.
Other charities for which I volunteer (in one case as a trustee; where it is done at my instigation) record volunteer hours. Among other things, that's useful as a volunteer-hour can be ascribed an agreed monetary value for match-funding.
*Answers in-line*
On 10 April 2014 13:22, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
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?
The metrics will be reported in the quarterly FDC reports on Meta. BTW by
agreement with FDC they will be two weeks later than other chapters to account for our strange year start of February. The next report will be published on the FDC portal on 15th May. This report will form the core of the board report.
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.
We now have several different ways of measuring volunteer activity rather than the old blunt system which did at least reassure us that we were growing. We have revised down the active LEADING volunteer number forecast from 150 t0 140 in line with what we felt was happening. This differs from the old 'active' volunteers as it reflects people leading activities not simply attending.
Andy - we did consider measuring by hours and we are designing our database, CIVICRM, to allow for this if we wanted to by recording how long an event was. That way we could query it to see how many volunteer hours were spent at an event and add the total of hours over the quarter.
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.
Yes, the whole thing has changed and we will be having much SMARTER metrics. We all hope that we can show some stability in the way we measure what we do and this year will act as something of a baseline. There are however lots of indicators and proxies that we are developing as a chapter as can be seen clearly in our 2013-14 impact report to the FDC and will be demonstrated over the coming year. There have been reports in 2014, see the monthly reports, but the most reliable ones will but the quarterly reports to the FDC.
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.
Having talked to other chapters over the weekend we are doing well. We will do better and there are encouraging signs, such as new people who came to the London meet-up this weekend after the latest donor newsletter, and are now firmly in the clutches of Jonathan Cardy.
Links
https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Strategy_monitoring_plan&oldi...
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
- Feb 2014 -
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room/2014#Community_consultation_-_Fina...
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/WMUK/P...
https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Strategy_monitoring_plan&oldi...
https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Volunteers/numbers&oldid=5541...
Fae
faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
-- Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169 tweet @jonatreesdavies
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A
4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.
Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote.
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org