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Wikimedia LGBT+/Governance/2023-09-07

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This online video conference is focused on the tasks of governance and the LGBT+ User Group. The meeting is intended as an opportunity for core organizers to discuss shared opportunities, challenges, and ideas.

  • Date: 7 September, 2023
  • Time: 4:00pm-5:30pm UTC+0 (9:00-10:30am PT/12:00-1:30pm ET)
  • Duration: 90 minutes
  • Location: Zoom link, Meeting ID:

The Wikimedia Universal Code of Conduct will be followed for this meeting.

Attendees

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Agenda

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  • Reminder: September User Group mtg, Thursday 14 September @ 4:00pm GMT/UTC+0 (9:00am PT/12:00pm) Wikimedia LGBT/2023-09-14
  • Membership registration, to-dos and who will do them
  • Administrative Executive ongoing employment and tasking status
  • Multiyear Funding *focus of this meeting*
    • Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Multiyear Funding - WMF info on grant we are applying for
    • Review our responses to each question
      • Evaluation, timeline, and budget are 3 areas that need extra careful scrutiny from Gov Comm
    • Discuss fiscal sponsorship
      • Grants:Fiscal sponsorships - info about WMF grants and fiscal sponsorships
      • m:Category:WMF grants with fiscal sponsors list may be useful for us to see who other grantees are getting fiscally sponsored by
      • Chris recommended we look into a specific fiscal sponsor that has been used by other Wikimedia grantees before - lets research them
      • Anyone have other fiscal sponsor ideas?
    • Timeline
      • Draft and budget to GovComm (Aug) grant narrative and budget drafts have been emailed to committee as GDoc/GSheets doc links
      • Gov Comm provides feedback at or before Sept Governance Committee meeting
      • Public comment period - early September -- how are we soliciting feedback from membership? (this is also a question on the app)
      • Deadline is: September 15, 2023 for "North America" and September 29, 2023 for "Northern & Western Europe" funding regions.
      • Fiscal sponsor needed by end of October
      • decisions are announced: November 24, 2023

If we have time

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Notes

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  1. Why have a financial sponsor?
    1. If we had a bank account then we could manage this ourselves.
    2. What would we get from this?
      1. payment processing
      2. issuance of financial report
      3. third-party confirmation of probity / integrity
      4. relief from the urgency of incorporating to get a bank account
      5. some wiki orgs use a fiscal sponsor despite incorporation and having a bank account because they find it worth the expense
  2. Reminder: September User Group mtg, Thursday 14 September @ 4:00pm GMT/UTC+0 (9:00am PT/12:00pm) Wikimedia LGBT/2023-09-14
    1. add agenda items
    2. anyone can recruit an LGBT+ editor for guest speaking
  3. Membership registration, to-dos and who will do them
    1. translated to Spanish with paid consultant
    2. should the registration form include survey questions?
      1. perspective - no, should be as easy as possible to complete
    3. can we have an option for registering without the Google form?
      1. on wiki - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT%2B/Membership
      2. Owen set up dedicated email to receive election communication, including people completing this form for us to transcribe to Google
      3. Administrative Executive ongoing employment and tasking status
  4. Dorothy's administrative contract is up
    1. Dorothy invoiced 40 hours in August
    2. Dorothy's term has ended
    3. There are pending tasks from Dorothy
      1. financial report for Queering Wikipedia drafted
      2. some vendors have not been paid due to paperwork
      3. grant report drafted, discussed, but not published as finalized
  5. Multiyear Funding *focus of this meeting*
    1. Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Multiyear Funding - WMF info on grant we are applying for
    2. What is most important?
      1. someone says budget
      2. someone says strategic priorities
      3. someone says minimal viability of the text of the grant proposal
      4. someone says fiscal sponsorship is essential to plan the budget
    3. Questions
    4. What period of time should we request? Has WMF made a recommendation?
      1. Our draft is a one-year plan which could be repeated in future years
    5. Review our responses to each question
      1. Evaluation, timeline, and budget are 3 areas that need extra careful scrutiny from Gov Comm
    6. Discuss fiscal sponsorship
      1. Grants:Fiscal sponsorships - info about WMF grants and fiscal sponsorships
      2. m:Category:WMF grants with fiscal sponsors list may be useful for us to see who other grantees are getting fiscally sponsored by
      3. Chris recommended we look into a specific fiscal sponsor that has been used by other Wikimedia grantees before - lets research them
      4. Anyone have other fiscal sponsor ideas?
      5. Yes, shared by email to governance committee
    7. Timeline
      1. North America application would be due next Friday, but European registration due end of month
      2. Draft and budget to GovComm (Aug) grant narrative and budget drafts have been emailed to committee as GDoc/GSheets doc links
      3. Gov Comm provides feedback at or before Sept Governance Committee meeting
      4. Public comment period - early September -- how are we soliciting feedback from membership? (this is also a question on the app)
      5. Deadline is: September 15, 2023 for "North America" and September 29, 2023 for "Northern & Western Europe" funding regions.
      6. Fiscal sponsor needed by end of October
      7. decisions are announced: November 24, 2023

For majority of this meeting, the attendees discussed every line of the proposed budget. There are no notes for this discussion. Here are some points discussed:

  • How many regular staff should the organization hire?
  • How do we balance administrative costs versus programmatic costs?
  • Divination and fortune telling
    • How can we guess how much the Wikimedia Foundation is willing to fund? More like US$70,000, or $200,000 a year?
    • How many of the conventional Wikimedia Foundation impact metrics must we address to be viable?
    • How open is the current grants committee to sponsoring the new unprecedented special needs of Wikimedia LGBT+, when we believe they like funding already tested activities?
  • In the context of needing to get approval from the Wikimedia Foundation grants committee, how free is this organization to decide which demographic we prioritize to serve?
    • Demographics
      • Existing Wikimedia editors
      • New Wikimedia editors (thought to be favored by Wikimedia Foundation)
      • Readers
      • People who do LGBT+ community organizing in the Wikimedia platform (the loudest voices in Wikimedia LGBT+ planning)
      • Funders and sponsors (potentially highest strategic priority, but risky)
      • Institutional partners who are high profile but demand our resources (Often recommended to us)
      • LGBT+ Wikimedia editors in distress from anti-LGBT+ harassment (Highly requested but expensive to service and Wikimedia Foundation historically has not sponsored support)
    • What service can we provide?
      • Conventional Wikimedia community organization offerings like editing events, trainings, and outreach campaigns
      • Address readers and funders with reports of what the Wikimedia platform currently achieves in LGBT+ content and service offerings
      • Victim relief, including mediation, harassment support, counseling, security training, and policy development for protection recommendations
      • High level negotiation of institutional partnerships with cultural organizations, universities, and LGBT+ nonprofit organizations
      • Convene more community events, so that Wikimedia editors across languages and projects can network to better collaborate in developing LGBT+ content and tools


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