On the low or zero-cost element, the one bit I'd question is 'editathons work well when attendees can buy their own food or attend a social where they pay their own costs'.
This is certainly convenient for the chapter/volunteers/delete as applicable, but I don't think we should have it as an expectation. The thing that the last couple of years has made very clear is that Wikipedia's outreach to marginalised or disenfranchised people needs work and is of vital importance. If we have an expectation that those who attend will pay their own way, then only those who can afford to do so will be able to attend.
This is not to say that James's proposal is a good one (it's not. It seems, frankly, entirely arbitrary, completely out of left field and not solving a problem that we've actually seen happen. Honestly the portrayal of editathons it contains makes me question how many the author has attended). But we need to be cognizant of who we're excluding with these sorts of expectations. So, yes, editathons work well when attendees pay their own way - but they work /best/ when they don't.
On Thursday, 19 March 2015, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
This thread puzzles me. When I was the Chair of a certain chapter, I recall a strategy meeting where I was the only participant who did not put "fund raising" as a 9/10 priority, I set it as merely 5/10. I guess it is in this area of money and "branding" that world-views are conflicting.
When we first coined the word "editathon" the working model was that they were open events run at *zero cost* (we had no staff and insignificant funds). Later we started providing a free buffet, paying expenses for "trained helpers" and some others, and a couple years after that it started to become impossible to organize an editathon without first having an employee agreeing it, being required to use official feedback forms and committing to making event reports to help with future funding.
Basic facts:
- Unpaid volunteer editathon participants do not need travel costs,
they should be local people who can get on a local bus, and do not need to travel hundreds of miles.
- Editathons work well when attendees can buy their own food from a
local cafe or expect a social event afterwards where they pay their own costs. Frequently the hosting institution provides drinks and sandwiches for free.
- Editathons work perfectly well without incurring employee costs
(this is why editathons work in countries where there are no Wikimedia employees). Volunteers who know enough about Wikimedia projects to get a geonotice approved and discuss the event in advance on relevant wikiproject noticeboards or email lists do not need, nor even ask for, funds.
- The world is stuffed with free venues and institutions looking to
support open knowledge. I had several organizations spontaneously offer me top class venues in the UK, so long as I could get a handful of keen editors to commit to coming. We are not even close to running out of goodwill of this type.
Fae
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