Global Resource Distribution Committee/Creation of the interim GRDC/Candidates/NickK
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| Preferred name | Mykola Kozlenko | |
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| Language capabilities (native or professional / advanced / basic) | uk-N, ru-N, en-4, fr-4, nl-2.5, de-1.5 | |
| Region and country you identify with | Central and Eastern Europe/Ukraine, Northern and Western Europe/The Netherlands | |
| Interim GRDC seats you are running for and why (regional volunteer/thematic volunteer) | Regional volunteer (more likely for NWE but can also be for CEE) | |
| Do you have any topic or area of specialization within the Wikimedia movement? (max 1000 characters) | I think grants can count as my specialisation, as I have been involved in WMF grantmaking for more than a decade, both on the receiving side (as a chapter treasurer) and on the allocating side (as a member of different grant committees). Other than that, I have done a bit of everything in the Wikimedia movement, both on the online side (sysop, checkuser, previously ArbCom member, author of several good Wikipedia articles, a few dozen thousand edits on each of Wikidata and Commons and some edits on Wiktionary and Wikisource) and on the offline side (member of two affiliates, board member, organiser of photo contests, of writing contests, edit-a-thons, attended and helped provide scholarships for several conferences). | |
| Have you ever held any role or position, either current or past, in the Wikimedia movement? (max 1000 characters) | I have held many roles in the Wikimedia movement.
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| Why are you interested in the interim GRDC and what can you contribute? (max 1000 characters) | I am interested because GRDC is one of the most important developments of the movement strategy, and I want to make sure this committee has the right impact: neither too little (we don't accept the status quo as a given and can change anything) nor too much (we don't review individual grant proposals). On one hand, I can bring more than a decade of knowledge of WMF grantmaking on both sides, \as a grantee (applying, receiving and reporting) and as a grant committee member. On the other hand, I have a good knowledge of the three main stakeholders for whom the process needs to be satisfactory, namely WMF, affiliates / hubs and volunteer communities. Finally, I have participated in previous discussions on resource allocation, so I know at least some of the context. | |
| Please share any volunteering or professional experience relevant for the interim GRDC (role, organization, years) (max 1000 characters) | In my day job I work with data in finance, thus I know what dealing with money means (although in a different context which is not a non-profit one). My main experience comes from the above-mentioned Wikimedia roles in grantmaking, affiliate governance, strategy processes and online community functions. I also volunteer and volunteered for multiple organisations with budgets from a thousand US dollars to millions of US dollars.
Note: I do have a full-time job, so while I think I can allocate 5h/week on the average, I might have professional constraints, and it's really important for me that this volunteer time is used wisely. I would value a mix of synchronous and asynchronous collaborations (with more of the asynchronous ones) for an efficient use of the global committee's time. | |
| Describe your skills and experience relevant to the interim GRDC (max 1500 characters) | Questions about Roles and Experience provide information about my experience. Regarding skills, I think the three most important ones would be: setting priorities (both from my professional work and from my role on the NWE grants committee), listening to different stakeholders and understanding their needs (from my online community functionary and affiliate board member roles) and coming up with a suitable solution, if needed thinking out of the box (from my governance experience in two affiliates and involvement in the 2030 strategy process) | |
| Describe your understanding of the Wikimedia Movement's current resource distribution process. (max 1500 characters) | The WMF allocates its resources internally between departments and programmes, with a chunk of money going to movement grants, whose distribution process is described on pages Grants:Start and Grants:Programs. In addition to that, multiple affiliates and one or two hubs have their own microgrant programmes for individuals and smaller affiliates (subgranting). Many affiliates have their own fundraising, several can get money from government tax advantages (such as Wikimedia Polska and Wikimedia Italia) and two (Wikimedia Deutschland and Wikimedia CH) have access to direct banner fundraising. To make the process more complex, we can add movement partners like CIS-A2K and Wiki Education Foundation which are technically not a part of the Wikimedia movement but do support the movement. | |
| How do you think the GRDC could improve the current situation and which priorities do you think it should have? (max 1500 characters) | The main goal is coming up with the new global resource distribution process. How I would approach this:
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| 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) | Should have accomplished:
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