My 2 cents? The carrot would be a different approach of the committees in the evaluation and a better "consideration" of the role of the women.
When I said to several women that there will be a session of grants dedicated to the women, the answer has been really positive, I would say that they felt like "receiving more consideration". What would be the feeling of a woman if you are sitting in a bus and you offer her your place? Having a "softer" approach is a big added value and it may be the carrot. Regards On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Fæ <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Sydney, > > I understand your perspective, but I also understand the "where is the > carrot?" question. I would actively support the campaign if it had > been run as one of stating that for X weeks or months that the WMF > grants system would give priority to gendergap related proposals and > that we would have other themes during the year. This is effectively > what has been said is happening, it just has been expressed as a ban > against non-gendergap proposals. > > Folks would understand if their proposal then got responses such as > "thank you, with the priority on gendergap we have scheduled your > excellent WLM/Belgium/LGBT Pride proposal for a review in 2 months > time". > > As a founder of a user group and once a trustee of a chapter, I would > be concerned if this same method was applied to my most loved project > areas for a month or two, unless the volunteer group were notified > well in advance so that we could work with the grants team with our > network of contacts and communication channels to ensure a healthy mix > of proposals in time for the limited window available. A community > changing and high impact proposal might take up to a year to assemble > a team of volunteers and have a strong enough vision to put a detailed > proposal together. A month or even 3 months notice puts a huge amount > of stress on the handful of unpaid volunteers prepared to put in the > hard work that these proposals take, not because the system is overly > bureaucratic, but because we are so worried about doing the right > thing, doing it well and keepinhg our network of volunteers on-board > with plans and ready to use the grant to maximum effect when it > arrives. Sadly "burn-out" remains a major issue for our most active > volunteers and we should take care to set up our systems to be > flexible and low stress. > > I hope the experiment is successful and there are some interesting > gendergap proposals that have significant measurable outcomes on our > projects, in terms of active users and content creation. At the same > time I hope that folks responsible for the grants process will adapt > and improve to find a more harmonious positive approach to > prioritization; i.e. lots of easy to understand carrots which are not > too tricky to reach for. > > Fae > > On 9 January 2015 at 15:34, Sydney Poore <[email protected]> wrote: > > It appears to me that you are entirely missing the actual nature of the > > problem and the reason for having a campaign targeted at the gender gap. > > > > The *problem* is that there have been a suboptimal number of grant > requests > > for funds to address the gender gap even though it a listed priority of > the > > WMF. > > > > The purpose of the campaign is to invite requests for funding, have extra > > support available if people need mentoring or assistance of other kinds. > To > > do this campaign well, the WMF staff needs to refocus the time of people > > toward this endeavor. > > > > A wonderful response from people reading about this campaign would be to > > ask: what can I do to help bring in high quality grant requests? > > > > Those of you who are familiar with making grant requests or using the > > IdeaLab, offer to help people who are newer to the process. > > > > Those of you who are developers and see a way to improve an idea with > > technology, step in and make suggestion. > > > > Over the past 3-4 years all around the world people have holding > > conferences and discussing the gender gap. Now is the time to expand on > the > > work that has been done in these conference. Help spread the word. Assist > > with translations to help some who is less comfortable writing in English > > bring there ideas to meta. > > > > The point of this targeted campaign is far more than reserving a specific > > amount of dollars for the gender gap issue. > > > > The biggest obstacle to success will be the lack of human resources to > > refine and execute the projects. > > > > Therefore is the reason that people and organizations are being asked to > > set aside other projects in order to help address this vital area of > > concern. > > > > I hope everyone reading this email will do at least one small thing to > help. > > > > Warm regards, > > > > Sydney > > On Jan 8, 2015 11:04 PM, "Bjoern Hoehrmann" <[email protected]> wrote: > > -- > [email protected] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae > > _______________________________________________ > 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> > -- Ilario Valdelli Wikimedia CH Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera Switzerland - 8008 Zürich Wikipedia: Ilario <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ilario> Skype: valdelli Facebook: Ilario Valdelli <https://www.facebook.com/ivaldelli> Twitter: Ilario Valdelli <https://twitter.com/ilariovaldelli> Linkedin: Ilario Valdelli <http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6724469> Tel: +41764821371 http://www.wikimedia.ch _______________________________________________ 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>
