Microgrants/2011 process revision

Grants Project grants (£5–250) or Partnership Funding (£250 and upwards) Scholarships Evaluation Panel

Background

The aim of microgrants is to provide an easy and transparent way for UK Wikimedians to obtain funds for small-scale activities; and more strategically, it aims to foster the UK community, and encourage them to innovate and come up with new approaches to Wikimedia outreach and increasing free content, with the incidental result of increased interest in, and knowledge of, Wikimedia UK amongst the UK community. Organisationally, a microgrants committee was set up in June 2010, consisting of MP and TD. Microgrant applicants need to be WMUK members.

Thus far, there have been 8 microgrant applications, of which 3 have been accepted, 2 are pending and 3 unapproved and now archived. The microgrants process is currently stalled on a procedural basis.

Recommended changes

• Bring the microgrants budget in line with 2011 Budget/Controls; i.e. dissolve the current microgrants committee and replace it with a single budget holder.
• Have a single board member approving (Mike Peel for now?), with any two board members combined also being able to approve in that board member's known absence or when a conflict of interest exists
• Increase the maximum amount for an individual microgrant to £250, in line with the amount specified in the controls, to broaden the range of possible grant purposes. The overall microgrants budget will remain at £2,000, with the option to increase this if warranted by demand.
• Where applications overlap with with other budget lines, the appropriate budget holder should approve the applications from their budget if they are to be funded, unless they have devolved the small-scale spending to the microgrants budget. This would currently apply to the GLAM and education budgets.
• Funds will ideally be spent by WMUK directly; expense claims are the second choice; advances can be provided if necessary (from the second grant provided to an individual onwards).
• Introduce volunteer Microgrant Coordinators to assist in the microgrants process (see below)

Microgrant Coordinators

The role of a Microgrant Coordinator will be a named volunteer position, with the aim of getting more community members directly involved in highlighting opportunities to support other wikimedians, and to take the burden off the responsible board member, whilst retaining board-level control of the budget. Applications to become a Microgrant Coordinator will be approved by the Board, with recommendations to be made by the responsible board member.

Draft blog post

Could you be a Microgrant Coordinator?

Wikimedia UK is looking for coordinators for its microgrants process! The aim of Wikimedia UK's microgrants are to provide a light-weight way for UK wikimedians to obtain small amounts of money to help with their online and offline Wikimedia activities, including purchasing reference materials for articles, equipment to scan public domain records or make audio recordings of Wikipedia articles, travel to attend Wikimedia-related meetings, and much more.

Microgrant coordinators will have the responsibility of:

• Identifying and encouraging potential microgrants in on-wiki editing activities and offline chapter activities
• Assisting members during the application process
• Ensuring that applications have provided all of the necessary information
• Checking that applications are valid, and don't fall under any known problem areas
• Ensuring that all microgrant applications are respond to in a timely manner
• Chasing reports, and ensuring that filed reports are complete and contain all of the necessary information.

We expect to have two Microgrant Coordinators at any one time. Coordinators will initially be appointed for a term of one year, after which they will be reconfirmed by the WMUK board. We expect a Coordinator to spend around one hour per week fulfilling their duties as described above. Coordinators must support the WMUK mission and values, and should ideally be a WMUK member.

Applications for the first microgrant coordinators are sought by 20 August. Please email michael.peelwikimedia.org.uk with an expression of interest, as well as a brief description of your on-wiki experience, by that date.