Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Community Ireland Annual Grant 2022

Feedback from the Northern and Western Europe (NWE) Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Hello Smirkybec, Sameichel and Geichel,

Thank you for taking the time to submit your General Support Fund proposal in the Northern and Western Europe region.

The committee went over your budget application. We are happy to see the investment you are willing to make in reviving the Irish language. We think that the work of preserving the Irish language is important.

Other strengths we found in your application are:

1. Focus on rural community who have no access
2. Focus on Irish community versus national focus on Ireland (focus on more than one nation)
3. Strong proposal - planning for stability; solid User Group
4. Gender, particularly the ERASMUS program, on GA
5. Strong focus on the Irish EN volunteer community, strong demonstration of compassionate volunteer management

The committee has a number of comments that we think could improve your budget application:

1. Please could you provide background information on the salary and responsibility level for your programme coordinator, and how they compare to standard salaries in Ireland?
2. Please could you also provide more information about how you plan for long term organizational stability and growth, and how you would like to see your staffing capacity evolving over the next few years to match your organisational needs?
3. In your application you mention also a conference grant, if both grants are awarded to you, how will the work be balanced, or is more capacity needed?
4. The Travel budget seems to be low, can you elaborate on that

Other questions:

1. You have about 500-600 editors that edit in English Wikipedia - how do you track this?
2. Can you share more about the third level institutions you will work with? Is this the first time you will work with this demographic?

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

On behalf of the NWE Regional Committee,

–Hanay (talk) 16:42, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

@Hanay: I have been asked by our chair and vice-chair, Sameichel and Geichel, to post these replies on their behalf.

1. Please could you provide background information on the salary and responsibility level for your programme coordinator, and how they compare to standard salaries in Ireland?

Rebecca O’Neill, who is our Project Coordinator, was hired in 2017 when we received our first Simple APG grant. She was hired on a full time basis to grow the outreach of the community. In the past 4+ years, we have seen tremendous growth in the volunteers and contact with organisations throughout the island of Ireland. We have also seen growth in the Irish language programs. Rebecca is the voice of WCI and the first point of contact with the group. The average salary for a Project Coordinator in Dublin is €35,000-€37,000. Rebecca's responsibilities include:

• Coordinates and runs editing working shops in Universities and GLAMs
• Organises and promotes the several photo contests we run every year
• Sits on several Wikimedia movement committees
• Coordinates with Chair on annual grants
• Complies grant reports
• Works with external organisations to promote the use of Vicipeid
• Generally promotes the work of WCI and the Wikimedia Movement

2. Please could you also provide more information about how you plan for long term organizational stability and growth, and how you would like to see your staffing capacity evolving over the next few years to match your organisational needs?

We believe that our volunteer base will not grow much larger than it is now. Over the past few years, we have focussed on cultivating relationships with allies that promote the same open data concepts as the Wikimedia Foundation. With these allies we co-sponsor events and workshops which increases our footprint in Ireland. Rather than focus on expanding our volunteer base, we will continue to focus on growing relationships with our allies. Our main focus going forward will be the continued growth of the Irish Language and Vicipéid. In our next grant we plan on applying for a .5FT Irish Language Officer. We would like to see this position to grow to 1FT over the next few years. This position will focus on expanding on the work started with the Eramus+ program to create a distribute teaching packets for the use of Vicipeid in the classroom, solidify relationships with several Irish Language societies in Ireland, and run workshops on Vicipeid in the Irish Language. Our Project Coordinator would be tasked with managing this Officer.

3. In your application you mention also a conference grant, if both grants are awarded to you, how will the work be balanced, or is more capacity needed?

We are assisting Wikimedia and Libraries User Group in applying for a conference grant as the fiscal sponsor. Rebecca will provide limited logistical support and in-person support in July as part of our participation in the wider IFLA programme, but the grant has funding for a travel agent and other capacity support. The volunteer committee for the conference are leading on the programming, scholarships, and other elements of planning.

4. The Travel budget seems to be low, can you elaborate on that

Over the past few years due to the pandemic, travel has been restricted. We have utilised Zoom, Twitch, and YouTube to continue outreach and training. This has been quite successful and many of the allies we work with prefer it, which limits the amount of travel needed. We also do not anticipate much international travel this year that requires additional funding.

Other questions:

1. You have about 500-600 editors that edit in English Wikipedia - how do you track this?

This is done using the Wikimedia Statistics dashboard.

2. Can you share more about the third level institutions you will work with? Is this the first time you will work with this demographic?

We have been working at third level since 2014, with our longest partnership being with Dr Crystal Fulton in University College Dublin. We have held events or worked with teaching or library staff in all the universities in ROI. We have not worked with the 11 institutions that were previously known as Institutes of Technology. These Institutes are currently being merged and reconfigured into Technological Universities, so tracking this as a numerical metric is not straightforward. Since 2014 we have worked with, holding at least one event:

• University College Dublin
• Trinity College Dublin
• Dublin City University
• National University of Ireland, Galway
• University College Cork
• Queens University, Belfast
• University of Limerick
• Maynooth University (including a conference on Wikipedia in Education in 2018)
• Dun Laoghaire Institute Of Art Design and Technology
• National College of Art and Design
• Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Smirkybec (talk) 21:56, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Round 2 2022 decision

Congratulations! The Northern and Western Europe Regional Funds Committee has recommended your proposal for funding!

The Wikimedia Foundation has approved the committee's recommendation to fund your proposal in full for $49,956.54 USD / 45,636.56 EUR

Comments regarding this decision:
The NWE Committee recommends full funding for WM Community Ireland User Group. We would be happy to see future proposals continue to address strategies that support organizational capacity.

Next steps:

1. You will be contacted to sign a grant agreement.
2. If you have questions, you can contact the Regional Program Officer for the Northern and Western Europe Region.

Posted on behalf of the Northern and Western Europe (NWE) Funding Committee, --Marti (WMF) (talk) 16:58, 26 May 2022 (UTC)