Global Resource Distribution Committee/Creation of the interim GRDC/Candidates/Agus Damanik

Agus (Agus Damanik)

Preferred name	Agus
Language capabilities (native or professional / advanced / basic)	Indonesian (native), English (Professional), Malay (intermediate)
Region and country you identify with	ESEAP, Indonesia
Interim GRDC seats you are running for and why (regional volunteer/thematic volunteer)	Regional seat for the ESEAP region, as I am quite experience on various position in the region. The things is need considering that right now i am part of AFFCOM and also Board of trustee for Wikimedia Indonesia
Do you have any topic or area of specialization within the Wikimedia movement? (max 1000 characters)	I have been actively contributing to various Wikimedia projects since 2020, with a focus on Indonesian Wikisource and Wikispecies. My contributions primarily revolve around uploading public domain book on Wikisource, contribute Indonesian Lemma into English Wiktionary and Indonesian Wiktionart and specializing in crustacean species on Wikispecies. This has given me expertise in enhancing content within smaller Wikimedia projects.
Have you ever held any role or position, either current or past, in the Wikimedia movement? (max 1000 characters)	I have held several roles within the Wikimedia movement such as ESEAP Community Specialist for EWOC and assisted in organizing Wikinusantara 2023 as an Event Assistant, where I helped facilitate the event’s logistics. Additionally, I have served as a volunteer coordinator for COT Wikimania 2023, managing volunteers and ensuring smooth operations. I am also involved in the Affcom and participated in the ESEAP Preparation Council. My contributions extend to COT ESEAP Conference 2024 and COT Wikisource Conference 2025. In addition to these roles, I am an administrator of both Indonesian Wikipedia and Indonesian Wikisource.
Why are you interested in the interim GRDC and what can you contribute? (max 1000 characters)	I am deeply interested in the interim GRDC because I recognize the urgent need for transformative changes in how grants are distributed. There have been several complaints and grievances about the current distribution process, particularly during my volunteer work with AFFCOM and collaboration with people from my region. I am confident that my experience and in-depth knowledge of the ESEAP region, gained through my roles over the past four years will be valuable in this context. Having been a recipient of the Rapid Grant twice, I am well-versed in grant mechanisms. Furthermore, as a recently elcted trustee for Wikimedia Indonesia and a recent COT for the Wikisource Conference 2025, I have practical insights into managing other Community Fund,. Cause of this reason, i am eager to contribute to a more fair and transparent grant distribution system.
Please share any volunteering or professional experience relevant for the interim GRDC (role, organization, years) (max 1000 characters)	I have experience in grant management cause i have successfully received two rapid grants and contributed to the creation of conference grants as part of the Conference Organizing Team (COT) for Wikisource Conference 2025. Additionally, I served as a Conference Assistant for Wikinusantara 2023, an annual conference for Indonesia, which helped me develop strong skills in program management, budgeting, and coordinating logistics.
Describe your skills and experience relevant to the interim GRDC (max 1500 characters)	My relevant experience includes serving as a member of AFFCOM, where I gained extensive experience in reviewing documents Additionally, my role as a Project Manager for the Wikimedia Foundation has honed my ability to oversee complex projects, while my professional experience as a Senior Program Officer has strengthened my capacity to manage tasks efficiently and meet deadlines.
Describe your understanding of the Wikimedia Movement's current resource distribution process. (max 1500 characters)	My knowledge for the Wikimedia Movement's resource distribution process which is a mechanisme how to support initiatives related to wikimedia movement through Community fund that consist of Conference & Event Fund, Rapid Fund and General Support Fund. The other mechanism is also Wikimedia Hub Fund and also Wikimedia Research fund. The distribution was spread over 8 region that managed by program officer which is maybe only one person per region or on special case where one people manage two region. The program officer is helped by Regional Funds Committee (RFC) specific to the region to evaluate the grant before WMF distribute the fund.
How do you think the GRDC could improve the current situation and which priorities do you think it should have? (max 1500 characters)	I emphasize that Regional Funds Committees context is still important, but the mechanisme of the election is still questionable and i hope the GDRC will clear this context to make it clearer cause I belive the RFC is a great help to program officer for making them understand the local context surrounding the region as they provide invaluable information about the local context of the grant requests. I also believe there's a need to fix the affiliate system and conncection to the grant cause theres a few grievance where in a few case unrecognized affilite get a grant and the recognized affiliate doesn't agree with this distribution. We need also to clear the independency of Grant system and affiliate to make people not think that being recognized is kinda pass to receiving the grant.
By the end of the pilot in two years, what should the GRDC have accomplished and how should we measure its success? (max 1500 characters)	I hope we will prepare compact mechanism to vote and elect people who can became RFC. We also can give more context of the amount of distribution to each region with written reason to global movement. On the other hand, we will solved the lack of knowledge of between affiliate status and grant mechanism -->