Grants talk:PEG/WM MX/Annual grant 2014-2015/Final report

Hi ProtoplasmaKid and Salvador alc. Thank you for submitting this detailed grant report. We really like all the photos, videos, links to event pages, and highlighted projects. It was a great read! We have just a few comments/questions below and look forward to your responses.

1. 38 editathons with 42 partner cultural organizations is incredible! It's amazing that with your team of volunteers you did almost one event every two weeks in 2016. No wonder you feel this is unsustainable! The amount of time, energy, and passion you have put into these projects is really astounding and we are very appreciative of all your work. The diversity of topic areas is also really interesting -- from addressing the gender gap, to cinema and rock and roll.
2. Were the participants in your editathons mostly new editors or a mix of experienced and new? Did new people come to multiple events? How did you stay in touch with them after the in-person event? Do you know if many of them are still engaged in contributing to the Wikimedia projects?
3. We are interested in the work you did to support the Mayan Wikipedia in Merida. Since your intensive workshops, has the project continued to develop?
4. Editona is a great success story and it's awesome to see it being replicated in other places around the world. We hope to learn more about the model and how to share it further at the upcoming WikiWomen's Camp.
5. We are especially impressed that the community was able to overcome the "Wikimania Syndrome" -- to be able to organize a successful Wikimania while also continuing to support and grow your local community. I'm sure other Wikimania organizers would be interested to know your strategies for doing this successfully.
6. It is obvious that your level of activity is unsustainable as volunteers and we understand you are planning to apply for an Annual Plan Grant. This is a good next step in the chapter's growth and we hope it will be supportive.
7. In terms of the remaining funds, it is best to return the funds to WMF since you will be apply for your next grant under a different grants program. Please follow the instructions here.

Thank you again for all your impressive work for the movement. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:18, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi Alex. Thanks for the questions. Some of the were tough ones. Here our answers:

1. Yes, we had many activities, almost one per week. It became part of our weekly day-to-day schedule. Definitely was tired and this year we decided to have more space between one activity and another. We were open to almost all proposals, for that reason the themes were so diverse.
2. Ordinarily, we have a mix of experience and new editors. All our editathons are open to the public, so if we have newcomers we dedicate a space to give a workshop. New people comes back sometimes, in our experience, those who come at least three times remain as part of the community, but it happens rarely. The follow-up after events it's something missing in our strategy. We keep mails thanks to Eventbrite, so we have thought in sending mails invitating to new events or creating a newsletter. Even when they not come back to in-person events we have detected some of them keep as members of Spanish Wikipedia community editing from home, we need a metric about this.
3. Mayan wikipedia was one of our more cherished projects we have. Unfortunately the community in Merida is not so integrated, due that native speakers interested in project live in separated towns outside the capital of the state, sometimes with low conection to Internet. We are planning a follow-up through webinars or videos in order to keep them editing at their our rythm.
4. Ah, Wikimania... It's an excellent question, we talked a lot for answering this. Definitely we finished exhausted but maybe the clue is that we didn't get demoralized or demotivated, on the contrary, Wikimania was perceived as a chapter's achievement and a motivation factor. We did some workshops with volunteers to get some community engagement, that created deep links among them and with us, many of them remained as part of our community. Another reason is, maybe, we tried to be kind and supportive each other and with our volunteers, we never saw our volunteers as work force but as community members, so we never asked nothing beyond their capacities and forces. The last thing is, maybe, we always make use of good humor: jokes, smiles and fun is always present in all our activities and obviously Wikimania wasn't an exception.
5. Yes. We area planning to ask for an Annual Grant, we need definitely help with administrative duties, reports and managment. Sometimes our personal lifes and works are very demanding. Thank you for your help in getting this.
6. We will, check the process for remaining funds.

Thanks to you for reading our report and for your help, we really felt supported by WMF staff during the last of this grant. --Salvador (talk) 03:45, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi Salvador. Thanks for all the detailed responses! Follow-up definitely takes a lot of work and time and would be a good responsibility for whomever you may hire to help with the admin duties. It's a pity that the folks in Merida are so spread out and it is hard to connect with them. It is wonderful that your Wikimania organizing team and community in general is so supportive. Having a really positive culture and focusing on the fun is definitely important and a testament to your strong community! Thanks again for all your work and this detailed report. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 21:28, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

About remaining funds

The $129,620.02 MXN remaining funds of this grant was used for Wikimania 2015 expenses with a previous authorization by Wikimedia Foundation financial department in topics as among which are printings, stationery and incidental expenses also local banking fees. Best, --ProtoplasmaKid (WM-MX) (talk) 07:05, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

250749 MXN was used for Wikimania out of the PEG underspend, but there isn't clear accounting of what was paid by PEG funds because we received the funds in the same account and the unforeseen expenses of the event was more than the expected. Going forward WMMX will have a permanent admin consultancy so that accounting/bookkeeping will show no commingling of grant funds with other organizational funds (as listed in the executed agreement item 1.a) and receipts will be submitted as instructed in any future grant agreements. --ProtoplasmaKid (WM-MX) (talk) 05:11, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Hi ProtoplasmaKid (WM-MX). Thank you for this clarification and we're happy to hear that moving forward you'll be contracting the admin work and accounting/bookkeeping to avoid these issues in the future! Once the remaining funds are returned we can move forward with processing your Simple APG. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 23:06, 5 June 2018 (UTC)