[Wikimedia-l] FDC Letter of Intent due June 8 & IRC office hours

[Katy Love]

Hello again, everyone,

I want to remind all entities interested in applying to the Funds
Dissemination Committee (FDC) for the next round (Round 1 of 2013-2014)
that the Letter of Intent (LOI) is due by end of day UTC June 8 2013, which
is coming up shortly. The letter of intent is the first--and a
mandatory--step in applying to the FDC. If you are unclear if your entity
is eligible, please review the eligibility criteria [1], and reach out to
the FDC staff with any questions.

You can see which entities have submitted LOIs to date [2]. You are also
welcome to review the logs [3 and 4] from our office hours held on IRC on
the Letter of Intent.

To create an LOI, please go to the FDC portal [5] and scroll to the bottom,
where you will begin the process. You can see a sample Letter of Intent on
Meta. [6]  Note at the time of submitting the LOI, you do not need to
submit any information on board members or key employees. This information
is required for compliance with US law, and it will be requested by WMF
later in the process. At that point we will explain in more detail why it
is requested, how it is used, and where it is securely stored.

As always, should you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact the FDC
staff at FDCsupport at wikimedia.org.

Cheers,
Katy

[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_criteria
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:FDC_2013-2014_Round_1
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2013-05-29
[4]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2013-05-29_2
[5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal
[6] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Sample_letter_of_intent

On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 2:45 PM, Katy Love <klove at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
>
> You will have seen an email recently from Patricio Lorente and Jan-Bart de
> Vreede, the Board Reps to the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), about
> the FDC's new Letter of Intent process. The Letter of Intent (LOI) is the
> first step in applying for funds from the FDC, as outlined in the FDC
> Framework. [1] This upcoming year (2013-2014) will be the first time we
> institute the LOI process. As you heard from them, we anticipate the LOI
> will be a helpful planning tool for the FDC as well as offering us a chance
> to begin working with entities in advance of the FDC proposal deadline.  We
> hope it will allow us to work closely with applying entities and to address
> questions and concerns (and clear up any misunderstandings) significantly
> before the proposal deadline.
>
> Interested entities must submit an Letter of Intent in order to apply for
> FDC funding. For Round 1 of 2013-2014, the LOI is due on June 8. The LOI
> asks potential FDC applicants to state their intentions to apply and to
> include a notional dollar figure (or local currency figure). The Letter
> of Intent can be created on the FDC portal [2], and a sample is here for
> your reference [3]. The LOI is non-binding, but it is required in order to
> be able to submit a proposal for Round 1.
>
> In anticipation of the LOI's June 8 deadline, the FDC staff is holding
> office hours twice to respond to questions. We welcome entities considering
> applying for Round 1 funding to join us. Our two office hours will be held
> on #wikimedia-office on:
>
> * Wednesday, May 29 at 0:00 UTC
> * Wednesday, May 29 at 15:00 UTC
>
> These two sessions will have the following agenda:
>
> 1. Introductions
> 2. Brief explanation of the FDC
> 3. Explanation of the purpose of the Letter of Intent and general FDC
> proposal process
> 4. Q&A on the LOI
>
> And finally, for your reference, here is the 2013-2014 Round 1 proposal
> process [4] schedule:
>
> - *Letter of Intent deadline for Round 1: 8 June 2013*
> - Deadline for WMF Staff to post eligibility: 15 July 2013
> - Deadline for entities to meet eligibility requirements: 15 September
>  2013
> - Proposal submission deadline: 1 October 2013
> - Community review period: 1 October - 31 October 2013
> - Staff assessment deadline: 8 November 2013
> - FDC recommendation due: 1 December 2013
> - Board decision due: 1 January 2014
>
> As always, contact us questions or requests for support:
> FDCsupport at wikimedia.org.
>
> Warm regards,
> Katy and the FDC support team
>
> [1]
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_the_Creation_and_Initial_Operation_of_the_FDC#Process_overview
> [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal
> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Sample_letter_of_intent
> [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposal_process
>