Hello Liam and Richard, Let me try to answer some of your questions.
*Do you have an idea of how much work will be required by movement orgs for this?* *Very little actually: it is a matter of simply answering an email asking, for instance, out of your "Administrative Costs" listed in your most recent report, how much were your travel costs.* *There will not be further paperwork to be submitted. It is the fellows' job to make the final report, not the chapters or thematic organizations. Furthermore, we are working with the WMF Grantmaking department as they contribute their expertise and their already existing reports. Therefore, we won't be contacting the chapters until we've exhausted our current available resources. Again, I want to emphasize that we will not be asking for any additional paperwork to be submitted. * *I worry that your target of 20 January won't be met, as we don't have the resources to help revalidate your data at that point of our year. December is difficult, as the FDC figures are released then - which is when we need to construct our final budget for the next year. January/February is also difficult , as all our staff are already pre-booked working on our financial year end of January 31 - which is also an FDC quarter end - so there's a lot of work to be done!* *We completely understand how overwhelming work can be near the end of the year and the end of respective fiscal years. The date indicated is not a hard deadline, but rather a tentative date the fellows have set themselves as a group milestone; by no means is this date a "drop-dead" item. We fully appreciate the work our partner organizations conduct and we acknowledge the difference in abilities to respond to requests. Hopefully we are able to catch the chapters at the most convenient time possible over the next few months. Again, we will not reach out until we make certain that the data we intend to find is not already available. * *Has anyone contacted movement orgs already, perhaps a few months ago? * *No, movement organizations were not contacted about this project within the past few months.* *Will you need to talk to treasurers? If so, please let us know as far in advance as you can so we can book dates for meetings!* *At this time, there is no need to talk to the treasurers. If the there is a time, we will contact them as far ahead as possible. * *What happens if movement orgs do not have time to check your data? Will you go ahead with "unvalidated" data in your report, or will you be able to move your timeline to fit with ours?* *We are here to meet your schedule as best as we can. Given the six-month duration of the fellows time here at WMF, we hope to conclude this project before the end of March 2015 and to conclude the initial phase of consolidating the data earlier than that. However, we are flexible. Ideally, we would like to validate all the data we receive, but we understand that this may not be the case for every item. We will indicate line items that have not been validated in our final report, if need be. That said, we appreciate if you are able to help us make the most accurate final product possible. * *How much input will chapters have in the process? who will have the "final say" in the comparisons - presumably the WMF? * *Chapters are strongly encouraged to offer their input throughout the entire process. After all, this project concerns you! Chapters are encouraged to reach out directly via the project's meta page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement-wide_Financial_Report> and the fellows' pages with their questions, comments, and suggestions. Once we have gathered as much information as possible, we will attempt to consolidate our findings into a single, movement-wide report. Garfield Byrd will monitor and determine the viability of the final product, but any product rendered will be the result of the participation of our partner organizations. If there are concerns about the quality of the data then it will be highlighted in the report. * *In response to MZMcBrIde, the user account 'WMF Finance Fellows' will not be used to make any edits on any of the Wikimedia projects. * *Thank you,* On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 6:00 PM, Liam Wyatt <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you Garfield for your quick reply - and with welcome news in it. I am > heartened to see your clarification/confirmation that this project is > specifically intending to re-use existing documentation and not to increase > the "red tape" or compliance-requirements of chapters. Also, as mentioned > in my first email, I would like to reiterate my support for the idea that > (especially smaller/newer) chapters have a dedicated contact person. This > will be very helpful for many. > > On the other note I raised, could you/anyone also address whether the > chapters had prior-awareness of this new project's existence or planned > creation before this email announcement? > > On Friday, 31 October 2014, Garfield Byrd <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Liam: > > > > My apologies for the language you noted, it was not our intent to, even > > inadvertently, to degrade anyone. We fully appreciate the abilities of > our > > community and I know from my meetings with members of our community how > > smart and engaged they are in a variety of issues impacting the Wikimedia > > movement. > > > > > > I want to clarify that these Fellows are not auditors. They will be > > working from data as presented by the movement entities. The project has > > been designed so that the fellows will be using existing data provided by > > movement entities and the Fellows will only be reaching out to movement > > entities with clarifying questions. So there should be no material > > increase in staff/volunteer time to provide information for this project. > > If this not the case, please let me know. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Garfield > > > > On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 11:10 AM, Liam Wyatt <[email protected] > > <javascript:;>> wrote: > > > > > Interesting development. Probably a very good idea for transparency and > > > good use of the movement's money, and consistency of reporting to make > > > things comparable is a great goal. I especially think that for smaller > > > chapters there is lots of value in having a dedicated contact person! > > > > > > But I find the self-description of the Fellows as "an elite group of > > global > > > operatives"[1] a bit degrading to the rest of us... > > > > > > I presume it's taken a fair while to recruit the team and scope the > > project > > > too (I see one linkedin profile which says they've been working already > > for > > > two months[3]). So, I wonder - did the Chapters who have been allocated > > to > > > each of these new auditors[2] have any notice that this new process was > > > being created before it was announced today - so they were able to make > > any > > > other time-commitments without being surprised by a new layer of > > paperwork? > > > > > > Also, I presume that the increased amount of staff/volunteer time > needed > > to > > > comply with new paperwork will be offset by streamlining this with > other > > > WMF-compliance paperwork? > > > > > > [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Oolukoya_(WMF) > > > [2] > > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement-wide_Financial_Report#Who_We_Are > > > [3] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/seyi-olukoya/59/b09/a7 > > > > > > wittylama.com > > > Peace, love & metadata > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > wittylama.com > > > Peace, love & metadata > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > > [email protected] <javascript:;> > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:[email protected] <javascript:;> > > ?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Garfield Byrd > > Chief of Finance and Administration > > Wikimedia Foundation > > 415.839.6885 ext 6787 > > 415.882.0495 (fax) > > www.wikimediafoundation.org > > > > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in > > the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! > > > > *https://donate.wikimedia.org <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > [email protected] > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:[email protected] <javascript:;> > > ?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > -- > wittylama.com > Peace, love & metadata > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > -- Michael Guss Research Analyst Wikimediafoundation.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
