Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Thailand/2020

simple APG Committee recommendation

We recommend that Wikimedia Thailand receive $20,804.71 USD for one year. We commend Wikimedia Thailand for its contributions to Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth activities the past five years. It was interesting to see the group’s efforts in diversifying its outreach to address the issue of declining contributions. We understand that whether Wikimania will take place or not is still uncertain; however, in the event that it moves forward we would like to recommend that Wikimedia Thailand has an open process for local contributors to apply for scholarships, even if they are not members of the affiliate. We also recommend that the group coordinate with WMF events team to share costs of volunteer training for Wikimania.

For the committee, Philip Kopetzky (talk) 18:54, 15 March 2020 (UTC)

Wikimedia Thailand’s grant is approved in the amount of 20,804.71 USD for 12 months

Congratulations! This grant is approved in the amount of 20,804.71 USD, with the grant term starting on April 1, 2020 and ending on March 31, 2021.

We are excited to welcome Wikimedia Thailand to the Simple Annual Plan Grant program as a new applicant this year. Over the years Wikimedia Thailand has executed multiple Wiki Loves X contests as well as different education programs. It is great to see that through the Simple Annual Plan Grant you are planning to continue to do the great work you’ve been doing through photo and article contests as well as the education programs.

Even though, at the time of application Wikimedia Thailand had been preparing to host Wikimania 2020 in Bangkok along with the ESEAP regional collaboration, it was announced this week that Wikimania will be postponed until 2021. Furthermore, on March 12, 2020, the grants team shared a message from Katherine Maher, our Executive Director, regarding grant-funded programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. As you know we’ve asked all grantees to cancel or postpone all offline (in-person) public events funded by WMF. We will reach out in the next few weeks to discuss what adjustments will be necessary to move forward without offline activities. We appreciate your hard work during this especially challenging time.

We also look forward to learning more about your incorporation process and if there is any way we can support you further in these activities.

We look forward to working together this year. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 00:12, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

Grant extension and reallocation

Dear APG Grant's commitee,

We would like to extend the grant due date to 30 June 2021 in order to cover the upcoming office rents and other costs associated with the incorporation of Wikimedia Thailand (WMTH).

In addition to extension, we would like to reallocate the part of the budget planned for the ESEAP capacity building workshop and annual assembly (total amount of 50,000 THB) to fund a Wikipedian-in-residence for 6 months at UNESCO Bangkok. We had an opportunity to collaborate with UNESCO Bangkok during the International Women's Day in 2019. Our usergroup received generous support from UNESCO Bangkok to host a Wiki4Women event and a workshop at UNESCO Bangkok's headquarter. Because of their support, our affiliate has gained more reach and is better recognized by the public. In our grant proposal we wrote that having partnership with GLAM institutions with the idea of "preserving by sharing "was something that we were looking forward to. ฺBy establishing collaboration with UNESCO Bangkok through Wikipedian-in-Residence, it opens doors for future collaboration with GLAMS because UNESCO Bangkok is known for its GLAM initiatives. Having a Wikipedian-in-Residence in the ESEAP region is also new, and if effective could be a role model for other countries in the ESEAP region, especially in terms of partnership and capacity building.

The following are the proposed commitments of a Wikipedian-in-residence at UNESCO Bangkok:

• Digitizing of cultural resources available at UNESCO Bangkok
• Promoting the understanding and awareness of Wikimedia movement among staff
• Coordinating between UNESCO and WMTH for events such as workshops, edit-a-thons, etc.
• Facilitating content improvement with GLAMs
• Knowledge management by transferring the knowledge and skills learned to other affiliates in the ESEAP region

We thank you in advance for your kind consideration of our requests.

--Athikhun.suw (talk) 06:17, 2 May 2021 (UTC)

Thank you, Athikhun.suw for reaching out and for sharing the reallocation request of 50,000 THB and an extension of the grant end date to 30 June 2021. We are pleased to see the opportunity in Bangkok and beyond of bringing on board a Wikipedian-in-residence in collaboration with UNESCO. We believe this will strengthen your idea and goals focusing on ' preserving by sharing'. The request is approved. We wish you the very best and look forward to seeing the unfolding change. --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 11:47, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

Grant extension

Dear APG Grant's commitee,

Following our previous grant reallocation and extension request (above) to cover the Wikipedian-in-Residence (WIR), we would like to re-extend the grant's end date to 31 December 2021. As you are probably aware in our previous request, the WIR will have to work for a duration of 6 months, which is obviously beyond the current end date. We will be interviewing the potential candidates by the end of this week and the result will be announced shortly. We have agreed with UNESCO Bangkok that the selected candidate will work as a WIR for 6 months from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2021. Therefore, we are requesting for a grant extension to cover the entire contract.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Kind regards, -- Athikhun.suw (talk) 11:47, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Dear Athikhun.suw, thank you for your request. Please find this request approved. We wish you well with the WiR project. --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 14:15, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

Fluxx Status of the grant / Comments

@Athikhun.suw and JChen (WMF): to my understanding, Athikhun submitted his report and initiate review/finalization of the grant on Fluxx. Does the status of review or decision get updated here? --Taweethaも (talk) 07:23, 21 March 2022‎ (UTC)

@Athikhun.suw and JChen (WMF): Thanks for your time in the meeting today. I think the review process can commence now. --Taweethaも (talk) 09:06, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

@Tanapatjms, Athikhun.suw, and JChen (WMF): We look forward to seeing the conclusion of this grant at the end of this month. --Taweethaも (talk) 00:28, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

@Tanapatjms, Athikhun.suw, and JChen (WMF): Hi All. This is the last day of May. If you need any assistance from me, let me know. --Taweethaも (talk) 03:44, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Follow-up Questions and Report Approval

Hello Wikimedia Thailand (@Athikhun.suwand @Tanapatjms,

We had follow-up conversations about the report. I'm also documenting them here on the talk page. Your report has been accepted. That said, there are some fields that have not been updated. I am publishing the content here. @Athikhun.suwPlease update when you have the details.

1. Could you share more about the UNESCO Wikimedian in Residence Programme? What was achieved from the grant above? And what is the plan for Wikimedian in Residence in the General Support Grant in 2022? Note: Athikhun requested to add THB 50K into the original budget to account for the Wikimedian in Residence. Email dated 14 January 2022, titled: Re: Grant Application Received R-GS-2112-07531.

Wikimedia Thailand's Response We do follow up with the volunteer (username) and UNESCO. We learned that the UNESCO office in Bangkok has a frequent officers rotation. The officers we supervised this program had already left. The officers we are currently in contact with will be rotated soon. We were able to support one volunteer from the Philippines to work remotely with UNESCO Bangkok from DDMMYY to DDMMYY. There is no plan to continue this in 2022 yet as we yet to receive the feedback and evaluate the program.

2. As a youth led group, could you share how you organised yourselves to deliver on the grant activities? From application -> implementation -> reporting.

Wikimedia Thailand's Response

As a youth led organisation, we value friendship and personal growth of members. Group of peers are actually supporting each other and learning from each other. The strength of the group is in flexibility, versatility, and probably resilience. However, the group will have to move on after their graduations and this model can only be sustained if a successor is found among the other next generations of the students. Past examples of grants record of WMTH are already good examples. We can intuitively follow examples to complete those administrative tasks. Even though we are volunteers, students learned quite a lot from it too.

3. What types of tools do you use to track programme activities?

Wikimedia Thailand's Response

Standard tools hosted by WMF, such as Outreach Dashboard, were used to track WikiGap2022. A total of 28 editors were involved. There were 70 articles created and 265 articles edited. A total of 1.33 million bytes were added from approximately 2,000 edits. Wiki Loves Earth statistics have been inactive for a couple of years now. But we manually tracked the program for the number of submissions and uploaders over the years.

Thank you.

Regards, Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 07:39, 27 September 2022 (UTC)