[Wikimedia-l] FDC R1 funding recommendations are posted

[Dariusz Jemielniak]

Hello friends,

The Funds Dissemination Committee meets twice annually to help make
decisions about how to effectively allocate movement funds to achieve the
Wikimedia movement's mission, vision, and strategy. [1]

On behalf of the committee, I am pleased to announce that Round 1 2013-2014
recommendations to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees have now been
posted on Meta. [2] The WMF Board will make their decision on these
recommendations by 1 January 2014.

For the first round of this fiscal year, the committee received 11
proposals.  [3] These eleven proposals came from ten chapters and one
thematic organization, totaling requests of $5.9 million USD.  Prior to our
face-to-face deliberations in San Francisco from 17-21 November, the FDC
reviewed the proposals in careful detail, aided by staff assessments and
analysis on programs, finances, grant compliance and history, as well as
community comments on the proposals. Staff presented an overview of these
findings to the FDC during the deliberations. The FDC and FDC staff also
asked clarifying questions to the entities on the proposal form discussion
pages during the four-week community review period (and prior to the
publishing of staff assessments), and observed the discussions about the
proposals.

The committee thanks all entities that submitted proposals, as it required
significant effort to both create the proposal and to respond to the
questions and feedback from the community, FDC, and FDC staff.  We
sincerely appreciate them all for this work.

For formal complaints or appeals about the recommendations, there is a
separate process that entities should follow. Note that at the request of
many stakeholders, we are clarifying the complaints and appeals terminology
so that complaints are made about the process to the ombudsperson and
appeals on the recommendations are made to the WMF Board representatives.
These are further explained below:

Any entity that would like to submit an appeal on the FDC’s Round 1
recommendation should submit it to the Board representatives to the FDC by
23:59 UTC on 8 December 2013 in accordance with the appeal process outlined
in the FDC Framework. The process is as follows:

Appeals to the WMF Board on the recommendations of the FDC (formerly called
complaints, terminology changed to avoid further confusion):

* A formal appeal to challenge the FDC’s recommendation should be in the
form of a 500-or-fewer word summary directed to the two non-voting WMF
Board representatives to the FDC (Patricio Lorente and Bishakha Datta).

* The appeal should be submitted on-wiki through the FDC portal page
designated for this purpose. [4]

* Formal appeals can be submitted only by the Board Chair of a
funding-seeking entity.

* Formal appeals must be filed within seven days of the deadline for
submission of the FDC slate of recommendations to the WMF Board, even if
the recommendations are published before the deadline for the
recommendations i.e. end-of-day 1 December 2013. The deadline for appeals
is the end-of-day UTC on 8 December.

* These board representatives will present the appeal to the WMF Board at
the same time as the Board considers the FDC recommendation. However, all
responses to an appeal will be made seven days after the deadline for the
appeal, i.e. by end-of-day UTC 15 December 2013.

* Any planned or approved disbursements to the organization filing an
appeal will be put on hold until the appeal is resolved.

* If the WMF Board's consideration of the appeal 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.

* The Ombudsperson, as well as members of the WMF Board other than the
Board representatives, may participate in the investigation if approved by
the Chair of the WMF Board.

Complaints to the ombudsperson about the FDC process (formerly called
appeals):

* A complaint about the FDC process can be filed by anyone with the
Ombudsperson
and can be made any time during a particular round of the FDC process (e.g.
in this instance, from start July 2013 to end December 2013).

* The complaint should be submitted on wiki, through the FDC portal page
designated for this purpose [5]

* The ombudsperson will receive and publicly document the complaint, and
investigate the complaint, as needed.

On behalf of the FDC,

"pundit" Dariusz Jemielniak (FDC Chair)

[1]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_the_Creation_and_Initial_Operation_of_the_FDC

[2]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2013-2014_round1

[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals

[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Appeals_to_the_Board_on_the_recommendations_of_the_FDC

[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Complaints_about_the_FDC_process