Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Activating Botswana 2022

Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Hello Shoodho and Kolobetsoo

Thank you for taking the time to submit your proposal. We are pleased to have reviewed it and have the following comments and questions;

• We are excited and see the importance of the project in rebuilding the Wikimedian community in Botswana.

• We see the project as feasible and suggest reviewing and refining the suggested activities to share more clarity on how they connect to the strategies and impact.

• When reviewing your capacity vs the proposed programs and activities, we find a misalignment and especially taking the timeline shared and suggest reducing the volume of the work seeing that you are still a young emerging group. We are keen on you succeeding in your work.

• We reviewed the metrics and see an opportunity to do more beyond the indicated 10 contributors, especially knowing that you have an awareness target of 100.

• We recognize that your staff costs are a significant portion of the budget and request if you could share the rationale and basis of the amounts and specific roles in relation to the impact goals.

• Would you share with us how you have managed resources before. What financial systems structures and skills have been useful in the past that will be handy in managing this proposed grant?

• Kindly review your timetable to provide a simpler and more detailed plan allowing us to further and better understand the workload for the period of the proposal vs the resources per program.

• Would you share more on the plan of rebuilding the community; are there specific strategies on community building? We were curious to learn if one of the intended outcomes of the projects is to be a full-fledged Wikimedia User Group?
• Would you share with us your recruitment plan for the project facilitator role?

• In answer to question 13.1, you say you had a meeting with the Ugandan Wikimedia community to work on projects around the arts, and the gender gap. We are curious to learn more on the relationship and the outcomes so far in supporting your work and what agreements you have in supporting the implementation of this proposal.

Questions from staff;

We see a significant portion of your resources is on staff and while we understand the purpose of the request we have a few questions to support us in understanding the measures you have put in place to support this transition from volunteer-led to hiring staff to manage projects;

• Have you taken time to review the labor laws and regulations and what policies have you put in place to be complaint
• Employees' experience in organizations are enabled by organizational culture and in thinking about the experience you hope the proposed staff would have, might you have thought about the organization’s culture and other organizational elements associated with hiring staff.

• Additionally, who would the staff be reporting to and getting support from?

• Would you share the basis informing the costs related to the audiovisual recording of vocational works of the Yoruba and especially those related to producer and production.

• Seeing that there will be a compensation element, it would be financially appropriate that the payment is made from a legally recognized organization. Having mentioned that are you legally registered and if not, what is your intended plan of action.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 16:02, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

• When reviewing your capacity vs the proposed programs and activities, we find a misalignment and especially taking the timeline shared and suggest reducing the volume of the work seeing that you are still a young emerging group. We are keen on you succeeding in your work. ANS: We have removed the Second Setswana Wikipedia Challenge series, WLF and WPWP to give more capacity to carry out the remaining proposed programs.
• We reviewed the metrics and see an opportunity to do more beyond the indicated 10 contributors, especially knowing that you have an awareness target of 100. ANS: We have increased this to 40 contributors.
• We recognize that your staff costs are a significant portion of the budget and request if you could share the rationale and basis of the amounts and specific roles in relation to the impact goals.
• ANS: Wiki expertise for specialized projects has been a serious capacity problem. We believe we will be successful because we are seeing positive change happen on the ground and because this grant makes allowances for compensation of experienced community leaders to more fully and meaningfully engage projects and foundation needs.
  • Candy Khohliwe, Program Coordinator ,Responsible for the overall project. For the  Program Coordinator role: here is a link to the average pay of a Program coordinator working full time in Botswana Implementation,evaluation and reporting.
  • Oteng Kolobetso,Project assistant: Link- help in overseeing all projects.
  • Pearl Molamu - Admin officer: Link- create engagements and responsible for communication channels/logistics and planning on training events.
  • Project facilitator: link  - Lead in training the community in editathons and creating partnerships and hosting panel discussions (vacant position)
  • Would you share with us how you have managed resources before. What financial systems structures and skills have been useful in the past that will be handy in managing this proposed grant?
  • ANS: In the past we have used formulated financial spreadsheets to manage funds better and keep track record of funds as well as hitting target. We  kept record of our finances as well as file recording of all receipts expenditures that have been done here are links to the reports we have submitted and have been approved.We intend to also have regular Wiki financial activity report on a meta- Wiki report page indicating how we managed our funds: Report 1, Report 2 AND Report 3.
  • Kindly review your timetable to provide a simpler and more detailed plan allowing us to further and better understand the workload for the period of the proposal vs the resources per program. ANS: We have amended the timeline activity plan specifying activities that will take place in a project showing dates to reflect on the flow of how we will carry out our project activities throughout the year. See attached timetable. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E1AKR8ap7DwCLInxNLu9xYH9CLhOsLc6rC96aoFwGTg/edit?usp=sharing
  • Would you share more on the plan of rebuilding the community; are there specific strategies on community building? We were curious to learn if one of the intended outcomes of the projects is to be a full-fledged Wikimedia User Group?ANS;
    • The community of Botswana aim to focus on the following (diversity, capacity, access, flexibility and awareness): hence we are planning to host the following projects;
    • Setswana Wikipedia Challenge - one of the events where we train the community to create more articles about Botswana and notable people in our native language Setswana. Hence with the great relation we have with University of Botswana Librarians we believe that we will be able to edit more articles in Setswana language especially with the great qualification background of the Librarians to edit quality articles.
    • WikiGap, WLW, Artfeninism edit-a-thons - The Botswana community members have close relations with other established Wikimedian communities such as the Wikimedia Uganda Community user group who have hosted several events in the gender gap diversity and inclusion are, therefore we believe we would be able to get support and guidance on best practices to host such events and have the best outcome by also engaging more female editors.
    • The Wiki Loves events gives the chapter a chance to enhance coverage of Botswana topics on Wikipedia by generating photographic content to illustrate relevant articles. We have been hosting these events since 2019.
    • The Librarian Workshop  is mainly for the librarians as well as newbies to create quality articles about Botswana both in English and Setswana language.
    • Campaign Channel program will be a  program specific strategy that seeks to create awareness to  Wiki and introduce newbies to editing Wikipedia and thereby join the editing community through direct training and/or community involvement. The second is a general awareness campaign to increase the public's awareness of Wikipedia, how it works, and how to get involved.
    • The general awareness campaign relies on community members making public appearances as often as possible in the media and publishing opinion pieces in the media. As we aim to re-engage inactive editors in the community as we reactivate our user group, all these projects will be a way to build momentum and help us rebuild the community with a more structured timeline and dedicated time events to increase collaboration as well as retain volunteers and attract newbies as well. The main outcomes for the community user group are as follows;
    • Increasing community diversity
    • Grow number of articles in Setswana.
    • Increasing public access to free knowledge through campaigns and panel discussions
    • Would you share with us your recruitment plan for the project facilitator role?
    • ANS: Drafting a job description
      • Outreach: Share the opportunity on Wikimedia communities communication platforms and social media platforms to identify the best applicants for the role advertised., with an eye to diversity, equity, inclusion and globalisation. We can also benchmark from other communities on recruitment process, such as Art+Feminism role here.
      • Interviewing: Develop a fair and equitable approach to interviewing. Once all applicants are  received all applications, make sure to draft a manageable process that will be sustainable for all team members and ensure that applicants are selected fairly, based on pre-determined criteria.
      • On-boarding: Be intentional about how you on-board the project facilitator.
      • In answer to question 13.1, you say you had a meeting with the Ugandan Wikimedia community to work on projects around the arts, and the gender gap. We are curious to learn more on the relationship and the outcomes so far in supporting your work and what agreements you have in supporting the implementation of this proposal.
        • ANS: We have been inspired on the impressive work the Ugandan Wikimedia community  had managed to achieve on events such as Wiki Gap hence, although we have some experience quite a similar projects such as Wiki loves Women we would like to benchmark on their  Wiki Gap experience and how we can manage our events in general better basing on the fact that their are an active community and also growing very well. Therefore, learning tactics of how to retain a community, as well as networking with other Wikimedia community user groups learn and share our experience encourage the spirit of peer to peer mentorship, coaching  and collaboration.
      • Questions from staff;
        • Have you taken time to review the labor laws and regulations and what policies have you put in place to be complaint.
        • ANS: Here is a link that specifies the labor laws and regulations in Botswana and we intend to follow these policies as needed once we receive the finds and have the staff rationally pay tax as per required by the laws Individual payable income tax in Botswana.
        • Employees' experience in organizations are enabled by organizational culture and in thinking about the experience you hope the proposed staff would have, might you have thought about the organization’s culture and other organizational elements associated with hiring staff.
        • ANS: As the Wikimedia Botswana Community user group  has signed up and committed to the WMF's Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code Of Conduct we find it vital to adapt and have a community culture that encourages and has a  friendly conducive space for all. Having the UCOC is important  and helpful  in  activating the community and instilling good principles in good faith. These principles create an important social structure for our community culture to develop. As there will be the aspect of hiring staff some organizational elements that we would like to implement are having the flat hierarchy system which promotes an increased involvement in decision-making with less supervision with the following advantages;
          • Communication is clearer and less susceptible to degradation.
          • Decisions can be made faster and closer to the point of impact.
          • Increased autonomy and empowerment is motivating to the team.
          • Additionally, who would the staff be reporting to and getting support from?
            • ANS: The Project Assistant, Project Facilitator, Admin Officer and Intern report to the  Program Coordinator.
            • The Accounting consultant will be reporting directly to the Program Coordinator and Project Assistant.
            • The Project Assistant, Project Facilitator, Communication Support  will be reporting to the Program Coordinator and the Program Coordinator will be compiling all the  reports to share with WMF and the community on Meta.
            • Would you share the basis informing the costs related to the audiovisual recording of vocational works of the Yoruba and especially those related to producer and production.
            • ANS: We have not mentioned any Yoruba project in our proposal, not sure we understand the question.
            • Seeing that there will be a compensation element, it would be financially appropriate that the payment is made from a legally recognized organization. Having mentioned that are you legally registered and if not, what is your intended plan of action.
            • ANS: We have currently applied to reactivate our Wikimedia Community User Group Botswana to be recognised again hence we awaiting for approval from AffCom, once that has been approved we will proceed to legally register our community with the name that AffCom ill approved, the legal registration for this community will take up to 14 days which will be considered as a society. Link here for further clarity on registration. We anticipate having a usergroup and a registered community by August 2022, which we will be happy to share once all is finalized.

Shoodho (talk) 04:13, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund approved in the amount of $20,000USD

Hello Shoodho and Kolobetsoo

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of $20,000USD, with a grant term starting 1 July 2022 and ending 30th June 2023.

We are excited to see the opportunity of growing / reactivating the Botswana Wikimedia community and encouraging to see leaders such as Candy and Sandra initiating these efforts. It was clear from the proposal that the focus is towards creating awareness , recruiting members to be part of the community and developing a community. We found ideas on working on local languages and campaigns being great approaches that have worked in emerging communities and a useful path to attracting new comers to the movement.

We recognize the shared enthusiasm and ambition to develop the community and share in that enthusiasm. At the same time we reviewed your capacity[ Wiki experience, programatic and operational] and your current grant history, and concluded with the recommendation of reducing the scope of the proposed activities to a level that considers your organizing and technical experience with Wikimedia projects. We would hope to avoid instances that stretch your current capacity and lean more towards encouraging you to identify scope that is adequate and that gives you room for continuous reflection and learning.

We also recommend looking into taking a a stipend / allowance approach when thinking of how to support project coordinators. We believe the recommended funding will support and cater for project / program cost and a few operational costs; kindly adjust your budget and programs to fit the resources available. We recommend where possible working with a consultant to support you in initial work to develop organizational and operational structures.

We recommend that you reach out to the regional program officer to support you in learning more on the recommended adjustments to your proposed budget and programs.

Overall we are excited to see the Wikimedia community in Botswana re-activate and look forward to it developing even further. Thank you for your work and all you do for the community and Wikimedia movement.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff --Aristidek5maya (talk) 17:18, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

Thank you so much for the opportunity, we will definitely take into consideration all the recommendations you mentioned above. Shoodho (talk) 11:23, 21 May 2022 (UTC)