Dear all, I hope nobody is surprised or worried by seeing a stranger speaking up on this list. I've been subscribed here since the inauguration of this list and been a silent observer for most of the time. My home is Germany, my fellow chapters are Austria and Switzerland.
I understand well the concerns of already existing commitments and the bad outlooks towards FDC and the chapter's reputation. Maybe I can offer a compromise: The Wikimedia Grants program is great for funding projects and chapters not able or willing to cope with the FDC. WMAU could apply for individual grants for individual projects. So it won't be a global yes or no, either funding a huge budget you'd have to come up with 1,5 years beforehand or not funding anything, like in the past. It also saves you from the hassles of the FDC process and, by the way, may help to improve your chapter's reputation within the WMF! Small projects with planned inputs, outputs and outcomes as Whiteghost states it are doable with grants. Each successful project will represent a successful grant and create a positive track record, not only within your community, also with the WMF grantmaking team and also publicly on Meta. It also allows you to adjust your projects and commitments to your growth and possibilities. Maybe even the research project - or parts of it, if they can be divided into packages with outcomes - may be granted that way. FDC is meant for chapters with staff, even the FDC staff states so. AFAIK WMAU has no staff, so it would be really hard to deal with all the requirements of the FDC - design of programs with measurable results, evaluation of all programs, budgets, control systems, audit through WMF, reporting requirements etc. For bigger chapters with an existing infrastructure FDC is great, because most of the processes are already in place or need to be in place if you have staff anyway and FDC makes sure you can operate at full scale for a full year. For small chapters FDC is a nightmare and grants are much better to allow people to concentrate on certain projects and get them done well. There is one gap between the two programs though: Grants normally don't cover staff. We had grants approved with contractors, so to make the shift from grants to FDC one either manages to create programs including all the evaluation part, the budget and the FDC proposal with volunteers and hires staff right after approval, or one uses contractors or an exceptional grant, designed to bridge that gap and get the right person on board to help with the FDC process later. If it is clear to the GAC and the WMF grantmaking team that a chapter will manage a positive FDC proposal they are likely to approve such an exception as a grant. If someone - chapter or volunteers - need help with a Grant request or someone of you happen to be in Europe - please contact me. In case I help making a grant request please note that I will abstain from handling it at the GAC to avoid conflict of interest. Regards, Manuel -- Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens Lausanne, +41 (21) 34066-22 - www.wikimedia.ch _______________________________________________ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
