Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Macedonian User Groups/2020

simple APG Committee recommendation

We recommend that Shared Knowledge/GLAM Macedonia receive a grant of 43,194 EUR for a year. We are extremely happy to see this joint request and to see that the two groups have managed to find a way to cooperate. Overall, programs are well thought-out and well sketched out. Projects output are still somewhat low for the amount of funding, but we see good programs. We are interested in learning more about the groups' plans to measure the quality of outputs within the Education program, as experience shows that Education activities often yield more content than they do long-term editors. Incentivizing students often gives high results but does not keep them in the long term. However, we think that the fact that both groups have worked through their differences and are willing to work together is a great step forward in the region.

For the committee, Islahaddow (talk) 11:28, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

APG approved in the amount of 43,194 EUR

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 43,194 EUR (12,876 EUR for GLAM Macedonia, 30,318 EUR for Shared Knowledge) with a grant term starting 1 January 2020 and ending 31 December 2020.

We are happy to see that GLAM Macedonia a Shared Knowledge are presenting a joint plan this year, and to see the progress in working together. We are giving two grants this year for practical purposes, but we would like to see both organizations come together in a single legal entity in order to join efforts and costs. We are looking forward to see how this cooperation will advance. Both groups have offered a detailed annual plan in addition to their joint plan. The planned joint activities in Education and Community support make a lot of sense, but we still fail to see how they are really working together. The hope is that since staff will be working for both groups, that synergies will be found in the programs that happen in the same domains and that these will be completely joint in the near future. Both organizations are presenting their own strategic plan, something they will need to rewrite together in order to find those areas for better cooperation and synergy.

Shared Knowledge is building upon its experience and presents a solid plan around Education, Community and Partnerships, with activities such as their strong partnership and education program with the Josip Broz Tito Grammar School in Skopje, their long running Wikiexpeditions, and interesting partnerships with local governments around Wikistreets. Their program structure is clear and well articulated, and most activities are aiming at tackling content gaps, with a clear attention to quality of content. Most activities have a low need of resources, which makes them easy to implement. We are missing more initiatives around diversity and gender gap, which would be welcome to align better with the 2030 strategic direction.

GLAM Macedonia's plan is centered around GLAM, Education and Community, with a high number of objectives per program that sometimes lack in clarity. Their successful GLAM program, which focuses on partnerships with high profile institutions in Macedonia and a Wikipedia in Residence program, will be continued in 2020 and hopefully extended to three residencies. The program consists of a collaboration where the Wikipedian in Residence trains GLAM staff to edit Wikimedia projects, add references and create new articles. It is interesting to see how GLAM Macedonia has managed to keep institutions which do not have a Wikipedian in Residence any more by organizing events with them (editathons around topics of interest for them). Their Education program's flagship are Wikiclubs, which they intend to grow from 6 to 8 in 2020. GLAM Macedonia's community Program is quite light and centered on their Wikiclubs participants as well as their members.

We see a lot of opportunity for synergy in Shared Knowledge and GLAM Macedonia's Education programs and we would like to see how they can be combined to address the different publics but also learn from each other and complement each other especially in teacher training and approach of young students. Both Community programs should also be thought together to see how some of the activities that Shared Knowledge puts together for community members could benefit Wikiclubs participants and how Wikiclubs could benefit from having engagement from a broader set of community members. We are looking forward to see how this will be achieved over the course of this year.

Best regards, Delphine (WMF) (talk) 17:54, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

About unforeseen costs

Hi, GLAM Macedonia is preparing Wiki Camp for the last weekend of March 2020 for underage students and Wiki Clubs members. As we calculate the costs, we will need to use the unforeseen costs, which are already in the line of Wiki Camp in the budget, as a sum for unforeseen costs for the Wiki Camp. This amount will be used for additional hotel costs. Regards, - Violetova (talk) 09:22, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello Violetova, can you confirm how much money this is, and for what exact Hotel costs this is going to be used? Thanks! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 09:42, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

Hi Delphine (WMF), we want to reallocate 575€ from unforeseen costs to Hotel costs in the program Wiki Camp to cover costs about internet, three days using of venue, flip chart, projector, etc. - the things we need in order to have successful 3-days event, and will have to be paid to the hotel. As for the last Wiki Camps we organized (in Berovo 2017 and Doyran 2018), we had problem of not having stable internet at all. The hotel cost is still with discount. There will be left 225€ unforeseen costs. Regards, - Violetova (talk) 10:03, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

This request for reallocation is granted, 575€ from unforeseen costs in the Wikicamp program to Hotel material and amenities.. Thank you for this information! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 10:20, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

#WPWPMK Campaign

Hi Delphine (WMF), the Macedonian User Groups (Shared Knowledge and GLAM Macedonia) are preparing together to get a part in the global #WPWP Campaign. The idea is to have a local version along with a global initiative for adding images on Wikipedia Pages, with the hashtag already set - #WPWPMK. The campaign will run from 1st July to August 31th 2020, same as global initiative. Therefore, from a shared budget line for Conferences (3.200 EUR in total), which will be unspent this year due current situation, we would like to request a reallocation of 1.000 EUR for prize fund. There will be left 2.200 EUR.

The metrics will be: at least 25 participants, and at least 900 articles improved with images at the end of the campaign.

The prizes we want to give to the best participants are as this: 1 first prize, voucher of 200 EUR, and 8 additional prizes, voucher of 100 EUR. Note: The prizes will be given to participants if they improved at least 100 articles with images across Macedonian Wikipedia. In case we don't have that number per participant, that prize will not be given. Regards, - Violetova (talk) 08:45, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation approved. Delphine (WMF) (talk) 16:38, 28 June 2020 (UTC) cc/ WJifar (WMF)

Midpoint Report Accepted

Hello Dandarmkd, MacedonianBoy, Виолетова, and other colleagues at Shared Knowledge and GLAM Macedonia, thanks for submitting your midpoint report. We have reviewed the metrics, budget, and report and marked them as accepted. Thank you for your work for the Wikimedia Movement! Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 11:51, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation request for Wiki loves SDGs

Dear Delphine (WMF), the Macedonian Wikipedia community plans to join the Online edit-a-thon SDGs September 2020 that will take place during the Global Goals Week from 19–26 September 2020 with the goal of creating and improving articles on topics about and related to the Global Development Goals (see localsied page). For that purpose, we have localised the recommended lists of relevant topics and confirmed the presence of large scarcity of topics on the Macedonian Wikipedia. In order to stimulate active participation, we plan to invite all participants in our outreach events held in the last couple of years and follow the pattern from the international initiative in awarding the three most prolific participants with vouchers redeemable for books and technological equipment.

Considering that our budget abounds in items that will probably remain underspent until the end of the year, we would like to request a reallocation of 150 euros for the prize fund (65 euros for the first, 50 euros for the second and 35 euros for the third prize) from the amount of 300 euros initially intended for technological innovations. The main reason why we opt for this specific item is that the microgrants had to be extended through a collaboration with an undergraduate institution but the activities were halted because of the pandemic and it is now certain that the amount will not be spent until the end of the year. The metrics for the Wiki loves SDGs event are at least 5 participants and at least 75 created or improved articles. We plan to impose a minimum threshold of 25 articles for each prize so that we must have at least 75 articles in order to award all three prizes. Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 13:48, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Hello Kiril Simeonovski, thanks for contacting us and posting your requested on the discussion page. I'll respond on behalf of Delphine and sAPG program officer. I have reviewed your budget reallocation request and approved it! Additionally, please note that Delphine has moved to another department and changed her job at WMF. She is no longer acting as a Program Officer for sAPG. In the future please contact my colleague Chris Shilling — he is temporary managing the sAPG program until we have a new dedicated program officer. Best wishes, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 14:27, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Hello DSaroyan (WMF) and thank you for the swift response. I am sorry for not being aware about Delphine's move to another department and I will bear that in mind on the next occasion. Best.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 14:33, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Request to use unforeseen costs for Wikiexpeditions

Dear Colleagues DSaroyan (WMF) and I JethroBT (WMF), we started our expeditionary projects last weekend, when we visited two former municipalities in western parts of Macedonia (report on Macedonian Wikipedia). We successfully managed to get back, although we have problem with tires of the vehicle on off-road terrains to the remote villages in that area. Our member Nino Bogdanovski and driver of the vehicle informed us during this week that tires should be replaced, so we would like to ask you to use unforeseen costs in total amount of 300 EUR projects in the budget for expeditionary projects. This will be helpful to replace tires and to get a chance to continue our project on high level visiting remote villages in our country. So far, on Wikiexpeditions we visited over 26 separate regions, we uploaded 7.000 images, which are used more than 90% on Wikipedias, and we visited over 500 villages in our country (over 30% of all villages in Macedonia). Best regards, Toni --Ehrlich91 (talk) 09:58, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

Hello Ehrlich91, thanks for your request. I have reviewed and approved it. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 09:06, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation requests for Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting 2020 T-shirts and Wiki for UN

Dear DSaroyan (WMF) and I JethroBT (WMF), the Macedonian Wikipedia community plans to make two reallocations from the unspent funds. Firstly, we would like to reallocate funds from the shared budget for conference participation of 2,200 euros (reduced down from 3,200 euros upon previous reallocation) to print Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting 2020 T-shirts that will be given to organisers, speakers, safety team members and other people who supported the online conference in the amount of 360 euros (50 T-shirts at price of 7.2 euros). Secondly, we would like to report that we have an unspent amount of 195 euros from unawarded prizes in the writing contests that have already taken place this year and request reallocation for the Wiki for UN campaign on the Macedonian Wikipedia (see localised page) that will consist of an editing week of a competitive nature similar to the one on the SDGs that we have organised a month ago. For that purpose, we plan to follow the same pattern and secure a prize fund of 150 euros (65 euros for the first, 50 euros for the second and 35 euros for the third prize). The metrics for this event are at least 5 participants and at least 75 created or improved articles. We plan to impose a minimum threshold of 25 articles for each prize so that we must have at least 75 articles in order to award all three prizes. Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 20:41, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Hello Kiril Simeonovski, thanks for reaching out to us! I have reviewed and approved both of your budget reallocation requests. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 07:10, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Reallocation requests

Dear DSaroyan (WMF) and I JethroBT (WMF), one of the GLAM Macedonia’s founder and active member (User:GjorgjiP), unfortunately and to our terrible loss, has died due to Covid-19 complications. Therefore, since he was involved in all crucial documentation and procedures of GLAM Macedonia, we have to change him in every single document where his name appears, official documents. As a consequence to that, we have to relocate 250 Euro from WikiCamp budget in order to cover all the costs for these changing procedures. At the same time, we request a relocation of 250 Euro from WikiCamp budget to organise, implement edit-a-tons and provide/ increase the amount for the awards given to the Wiki Club members for the current one-month editing competition. Best regards, MacedonianBoy (talk) 10:47, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Hello MacedonianBoy, please accept my deepest condolences for your active member's loss. Please pass on my condolences also to your affiliate and Gjorgji's family. I am approving you budget reallocation request. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 12:18, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Thank you very much. It is a terrible loss to all of us. MacedonianBoy (talk) 11:00, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

GLAM Macedonia's Final Reallocation Request

Dear DSaroyan (WMF) and I JethroBT (WMF), We, GLAM Macedonia board, discussed and planned the activities for the rest of the year, that is until 31.12.2020. We request reallocation of 3.014 Euro (amount of money left from the pre-planned, unfortunately not held Wiki Camp due to Covid-19) for many activities and expenses: extra Wiki Conference for teachers, printing materials and brochures, IT items, Covid-19 materials and reallocation of the GLAM Macedonia office, etc. After this reallocation, according to the plan, unused amount of money from the current budget will be 500 Euro. Kind regards MacedonianBoy (talk) 11:00, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

@MacedonianBoy: Thanks for this reallocation request to support these various needs. This reallocation is approved. When you can, please update your budget to reflect the reallocation of this 3,014 EUR. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:20, 12 November 2020 (UTC)