Grants talk:Conference/QW22/QW2022

Previous working document

Check QW2022/Proposal as our working document for drafting this. Much of the content there builds out this submission. Bluerasberry (talk) 20:48, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

WMF feedback and questions

Hi QW22 team!

Thank you for submitting this proposal, and for the work you have done to also deliver a detailed version for more clarity. This is definitely a well thought proposal and the goals and motivation are clear. I'm really happy for your decision to not pause after the last QW event, and to move on to another international QW conference. It is not taken for granted in such times and I wanted to share my appreciation.

I reviewed your proposal, and have some follow up questions and comments to share.

• 18 responses to the community input survey is quite a low number, especially for 300+ expected attendees. I suggest you keep the survey live during the organizing period.

• How will the node meet-ups financial support will be determined? I'm not clear on how will you choose which individuals will be eligible for travel funding, or which local communities will get the financial support, why and how will they be selected?

• Risks - to mitigate the scenario of not having enough volunteers, I suggest being very very clear with the list of skills needed when you publish a call for volunteers. Be as specific as you can when listing the kinds of roles and responsibilities you will need. That way you can maximize the chance of people applying for organizing positions when they can easily see their personal capabilities and skills being used for good. It is sometimes harder for people to volunteer for a general and generic call for support when they don't really know how can they help.

• Who will guide and manage the project manager? Will it be the organizing committee?
• How many participant do you intend to support with the $18,750 'Participant expenses' budget? I also understand you do not want to refer it as 'scholarships', but I do ask that you will come up with criteria for eligibility for attending or receiving financial support, travel and accommodation expenses.
• Presenter expenses - I do think that an honoraria is a good way to accommodate presenter expenses. I also think you should prefer honoraria over the option of buying IT equipment. Especially if it's for one-time use only. When we fund purchasing equipment, we prefer it will later stay in the possession of a WM affiliate so it can be used again.
• Will you be supporting the 'Nodes' events in a way other then financially?

As I said in many occasions before - I truly think this platform is a much needed one for the WM movement (some may even say way overdue). And I understand the goals and motivation for organizing the conference. But my main unresolved question is - what would be the key deliverable of this conference, that you will consider a success? or what will be the change in reality you wish to see? How will you know the conference was impactful? I want to say that sometimes the success of a conference, is just the fact that it happen and allowed a platform for support, sharing and convening. And that's a well deserved cause by itself. But if you do have a vision as for what kind of change or deliverable you want to achieve by having this specific conference, I'll be happy to know.

Thank you again for this great proposal! Best, CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 22:34, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for the detailed questions. We are arranging a team workshop in the next few days to talk through these as a team, and will respond shortly after. --QW22 (talk) 11:19, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

@CAlmog (WMF): After workshopping through the issues and questions we have the following responses, in the order that you have raised them, which are nearly all additions to the conference application page. The links take you directly to the added paragraph apart from the explanation at A3:

• A1 The use of an ongoing user expectations survey and registration survey.
• A2 Prioritization of funding for nodes and individuals.
• A3 The volunteer's landing page will be expanded with a better definition of roles soon after the grant is awarded. Specific skills needed will have a campaign of notices focused on those requirements, such as translation support, competence with conference programming, registration and administration. Much of the skills and roles needed are similar to those for Wikimania 2022, and those definitions will be reused where possible. Also, see A5.
• A4 An explanation of operational management and line management for the Project Manager has been added.
• A5 An explanation of the criteria for funding individual expenses has been added. The conference participation has been estimated to include 300 people from core participants to passive viewers, of these it is estimated that 50 may be eligible for funding through honoraria in defined volunteer roles or by applying for expenses meeting the criteria given.
• A6 Purchased equipment or licenses of significant value will be offered for reuse by local WMF Affiliates where possible.
• A7 A summary of types of non-financial node support has been added.
• A8 A key impacts statement has been added for clarity.

Thank you. Please get in touch if any of these responses fail to have fully understood the question or issue raised. --QW22 (talk) 14:21, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Grant approved

Hi QW22 team!

Thank you for your work on the grant request and for responding to our comments. We are glad to inform you that we have reviewed the final proposal and we are happy to support it in the amount of $89,450. You can expect an email in the next few days with more instructions and next steps. I will also circle back soon to schedule our first meeting. Looking forward to working together! On behalf of the Conference Grants Committee and Community Resources team. Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 08:21, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

WMF reporting requirements

Here is text from a WMF email to us about this funding -

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Final report due 28 February 2023: Feel free to submit your report before the due date at Grants:Conference/Evaluate-and-report. Email <conferencegrants@wikimedia.org> if you have questions or difficulties with submitting your report, so that we can help.

• Documentation of expenditures: Review the guidelines at Grants:Documenting project expenses. You are not required to send in receipts for any of your current projects as part of your reporting, unless specifically requested by the Wikimedia Foundation in accordance with the terms of the agreement. You may also be asked to return unused grant funds to WMF.
• Changes to your grant: Any changes to your grant proposal on Meta will require approval from WMF. Post a request for change/s to your grant on your proposal's discussion page and notify <conferencegrants@wikimedia.org>, so that they may review and reply to your request on Meta.
• Unspent grant funds: Return any unspent grant funds to WMF at the time of reporting by following the instructions at at Grants:Return unused funds to WMF, or suggest another way to use the funds in your grant report for WMF's review and approval. Check Grants:Remaining funds for more information on unspent grant funds.

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Bluerasberry (talk) 13:12, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Just a note to confirm that I have spoken with Chen about this (and a more-general update on the project) today and the User Group needs to update her on our revised deadline proposal. — OwenBlacker (Talk; he/him) 19:22, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

@CAlmog (WMF) and @DSaroyan (WMF): It was not made clear to us that, despite our conversation with Chen last week, the grant reporting was still considered overdue to an extent that it affects Wikimedia Österreich. As you know, the conference itself was split to happen partly in October and partly in May, so the February deadline has been clearly inappropriate since conversations in July and September.

We have not yet discussed how much time we need to close the accounts and complete the report so, for now, we are requesting an extension to Thu 31 Aug 2023. We will discuss internally what is still outstanding and we will let you know should we need to request a further extension subsequently. Could you also please add me to the list of contacts for the grant, as wasn't included on the email, which delayed our response here.

Thanks! — OwenBlacker (Talk; he/him), on behalf of the organising team, 17:43, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

Hi @OwenBlacker, The extension request is approved and your new reporting date is August 31, 2023. Please let us know in case you would need further extension. Best, CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 04:29, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Thank you Chen! — OwenBlacker (Talk; he/him) 08:13, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

I just realised we emailed Chen, but didn't add a link to the talk: page here. The formal report has been submitted to the Foundation and can be found at Grants:Conference/QW23/QW2023/Report, covering the QW2022 and QW2023 events, both funded under this grant. A further extension had been secured, again by email without updating here, so the report was submitted on 30 September 2023 — OwenBlacker (Talk; he/him) 10:36, 7 October 2023 (UTC)