Grants:Project/Rapid/Women in Design/Report

Draft report

This is a draft of a grant report for a grant funded for fiscal year 2021-2022. Please do not respond or comment on it just yet: it's not yet ready for review. To read the approved grant submission, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Women in Design.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

We did meet all our goals, but not to the extent we were expecting. We had several setbacks due to COVID - 19 in 2021 and subsequent unpredictable changes in the institutional/academic calendar. But largely, we are happy with how the project went since it was our first time, and introducing Wiki to the community was refreshing and allowed us to plan according to the structure of NID. We were able to extend the grant period to 2022 to organize and execute what we had planned for 2021. Also, in 2021 because of COVID restrictions accessing books from the library (Knowledge Management Centre) wasn't possible.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
04 events	05 events	Since we were able to extend the grant period due to COVID, we were able to add another event.
60 - 80 participants	158 participants	Again, due to the longer program period and sustained publicity we saw increased interest and repeat participation
10 new editors	17 new editors
20 - 30 articles to create and edit.	16 created and 40 edited. 32 commons uploads
20 - 25 repeat participants	2021 - 7 ; 2022 - 8	Due to the very hectic schedule of NID and the floating student population, we observed that past participants coming back, especially in the edit-a-thons was less likely

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

• What worked well?

The hybrid format allowed folks joining remotely to edit at their convenience. Those who were enthusiastic and engaged in editing kept at it even after the event was officially over. As it was NID's first time hosting a series of events of this nature, designers, students, staff, and faculty members interested in feminism and learning about marginalized genders in the design discourse actively participated. Those who didn't edit, keenly shared and pointed us toward resources that could be helpful.

• What did not work so well?

The number of editors was relatively less who could edit on their own. Coordinating with everyone in a hybrid mode became quite challenging for the organizers. Participants who joined remotely were not very keen on ordering food online. Screen fatigue was another factor that drained many of our otherwise enthusiastic participants.

• What would you do differently next time?

With our learnings, we are now better equipped to handle information collation and sharing in a hybrid mode. We'd also prefer to prepare smaller gifts, along with SWAG for participants who consistently engage in editing. Also, taking the event outside of institutions into the city with other GLAMs and cultural spaces would render more participation.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on. Total expenditure was $837. The money was spent on venue/space, food, print & post, gift (books), SWAG, and poster printing.

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds? Yes, we have $616 left

We would like to continue organizing Women in Design edit-a-thons, meet-ups, and panels. We'd like to plan for 1-2 days of events throughout 2023. We would also like to propose partnering with local institutions like Arthshila and CEPT Archives in Ahmedabad (and Gandhinagar) to co-host the events in terms of venue and sharing of knowledge resources.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

We'd like to thank Medhavi for her continued support and guidance, and mostly for introducing and orienting us editors and organizers. Sincere gratitude to Venkat for introducing us to Tanveer & Rohini, both of whom gave us plenty of practical advice, and introduced us to KC Velaga and Nitesh who gave us multiple training sessions on basic tenets of wiki, editing, and using the language-translation tool. Special thanks to KC Velaga, Medhavi, and Arunesh for being connected with us during the edit-a-thon days and making sure things run smoothly. Lastly, a big thank you to Davit for kindly helping us in understanding and give sound advice regarding our programming.