Thanks for your clarification! Yes of course it is difficult to keep up with changing WMF rules regarding funding (or reporting). I know in the past we have run into problems trying to stay aware of all the ins-and-outs of these things in the Netherlands chapter and for chapters with sub-sections distributed far apart it must be very hard to do. Your question seems to be why these WMF funding/reporting changes are made, and though I don't know the details I assume from past experience that this is all done to simplify the work done by the WMF in such a way that they can better support the chapter work by simplifying and streamlining their workflow. It's nice to read that the most common grant requests are still flexible and can be requested each month: editathons, photo walks, etc.
It's a good idea to have an Outreach person appointed at the WMF for diversity and I think we have all been happy with the work done by Alex Stinson for GLAM. I don't think we have ever had a person for the Gendergap, but there is a diversity project out on Meta now with a very long title for this (sorry, can't remember it and I am not a Meta person) and this is probably where a WMF appointment should be. I am not up to date with the whole Meta-Outreach discussion and as far as I can tell Outreach is nowadays mostly just for "This Month in GLAM". Maybe we need a "This Month in Diversity" or something like that, with input from all workgroups!
On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 7:02 AM Natacha Rault via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Jane, Thank you for your answer, but I think I did not make my point clear enough given the answer you made. On the francophone wiki there is not “local WIR”. There are a few sister projects like les sans pages of which I am the founder (so people might turn to me for questions) or ateliers femmes et féminismes, Wikimatrimoine ect. I think we view WIR as a sister project, not as an umbrella. We would like equal access to ressources, finance and management, which is why it is important for us to have WMF reps at our regional events. Local chapters are great, but it’s not the same. I have tried to go to as many international events as possible, because this is where you learn about the politics and new tools and financing possibilities. I could not go most of the time because our project was very successful. and nearly every two week two there are events and because I have a family too, and limited finances. So yes, having a person representing outreach would have been great. I think we need T&S and Outreach to be there, with the possibility of booking appointments.
I was writing about rapid grants not questions about wikipedia, saying that local reps are worried about the way rapid grants have been designed with timing to apply according to themes. See https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/Learn What was great about rapid grants was: -flexibility : you could ask for funding anytime and receive it within 3 weeks (now you have to apply between the 1rst and 15th of each month and decision is made one month after)
- for certain themes you can only apply at certain time in the year making
it very rigid. No doubt volunteers will miss lots of opportunities because of this. IMO the major asset of the rapid grants, flexibiiity and speed to adapt to volunteers fluctuating engagement is now gone. Why?
I copy and paste below the new rules. I was wondering why this new ruling is in place as it seems to some volunteers very complicated and rigid as opposed to the last system. I was wondering if the advice of volunteers was taken into account.
You must submit your application between the 1st and 15th of each month. Please plan to make your applications accordingly, so you will have a decision about your grant within the timeframe you need to plan your event. Decisions will be made by the 15th of the following month. In the months specified below, we will prioritize support to contests and campaigns. These months will be solely dedicated to different contests throughout the year: August: only receiving proposals for Wiki Loves Monuments September: only receiving proposals for Awareness Grants(campaign) December: only receiving proposals for Wiki Loves Africa January: only receiving proposals for Art + Feminism (campaign) March: only receiving proposals for Wiki Loves Earth Outside the months specified above, proposals are welcomed in all other categories: edit-a-thons, contests, photowalks, general promotion campaigns, and video campaigns. We will also consider proposals outside of these categories, such as software development. I hope I have clarified a little what I meant, which is basically that WMF is so useful that until regional hubs are set up if they are, we need them more present at our events.
Kind regards, Natacha
Le 16 sept. 2019 à 08:45, Jane Darnell jane023@gmail.com a écrit :
As far as Art+Feminism goes, this project concentrates on biographies of female artists. The English Wikipedia project "Women in Red" is open 24x7 all year round and concentrates on biographies of women on English Wikipedia, period. So you can take all of your local Wikipedia questions about A+F to your local WiR women for each non-English Wikipedia, and if there is no overlap yet, I suggest starting your own local A+F/WiR in
your
local Wikipedia. We should probably start a multi-lingual one for
Commons,
since it has proven so difficult to get pictures of female artists to illustrate articles about them.
On Sun, Sep 15, 2019 at 8:27 PM Natacha Rault via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Thank you Thierry. To be honnest a few of us were really waiting for Valerie D'Costa, the new Chief of Community Engagement because we had questions for her about the new rapid grant funding agenda which seems totally inadapted to volunteer’s need in terms of flexibility. One has
to
wait a soecific month for Art+feminism and very often the timing has not been adapted to when the events are actually taking place. For a
volunteer
this is way too procedural. We need more flexibility. We had other questions regarding the departure of several people which were very important for the gender gap. So ... Some of us were disappointed indeed. Kind regards, Natacha
Le 15 sept. 2019 à 20:02, Thierry Coudray tcoudray@gmail.com a
écrit :
Valerie D'Costa, the new Chief of Community Engagement,
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