Hi, the idea is interesting, I am a volunteer in same grant committees of WMF and I can only agree to have a more comparable financial sheets (mainly in the use of the currencies).
But I have some concerns. a) I hope that this project will produce more comparable financial sheets but without leaving the context were chapters are working. An example is the cost per day of an employee because if there is a standardization of these financial data but "out of the context" the risk is that the financial statements can generate not realistic data. It means that the total costs of the staff in a country with high salaries cannot be comparable with another having lower salaries without a "balanced" data. b) I really hope that you will push also the addition of the relevance of the results of the fundraising in each country, because we always think that the cow produces milk, we never think that we have to harvest the cow to produce its milk!!!! The financial statements of a chapters out of the context of the WMF fundraising in each country limits a lot the real value of the costs. Regards On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 12:15 AM, Michael Guss <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi folks, > > We are the Finance Fellows, a multicultural team consisting of 4 young > professionals. We are happy to introduce a 6-month movement-wide project > that focuses on the consistency of how we operate, which is explained > further in this announcement. > > *But here's some information about us*: > > Arda [User:Melmas_(WMF)] < > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Melmas_(WMF)> is > from Turkey. He holds a BA in Economics. > > > Lene [User:Lgillis_(WMF)] > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Lgillis_(WMF)> is from Belgium. She > holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics and a Master's degree in > Business Communication. > > Seyi [User:Oolukoya_(WMF)] > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Oolukoya_(WMF)> is from Nigeria. She > holds a Master's in International Business and a BSc in Economics. > > Walter [User:Wagsegura_(WMF)] > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Wagsegura_(WMF)> is from Nicaragua. > He holds a BA in Applied Economics. > > *About the project "Movement-wide financial report"* > > Driven by the Wikimedia Foundation's guiding principles of transparency and > accountability, our goal is to gather data and develop systematic metrics > in order to provide a better understanding of financial statements. The aim > is to help make financial data and statements more consistent and > comparable across all Wikimedia Chapters, Thematic Organizations, and the > Wikimedia Foundation, to the benefit of the whole movement. > > The idea of this project comes from the WMF Board of Trustee's Audit > Committee and is supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. An initial > quantitative > analysis of Wikimedia Chapters and Thematic Organizations > <https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Chapters_in_Numbers> > demonstrated > at Wikimania 2013 by Michal Buczyński (User:Aegis Maelstrom) > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Aegis_Maelstrom>, highlighted the > importance of meaningful, obtainable and unified data. > > The Finance Fellows have been formed by WMF to spearhead this project. The > intention of this project is to enable Wikimedia Chapters and Thematic > Organizations to benchmark activities and costs in a consistent way. We > will begin by gathering comparable quantitative financial data about > Wikimedia Chapters and Thematic Organizations. Our findings will later be > released movement-wide, on Meta-Wiki. > > Please note that this is not an audit process. We are simply collecting the > data and developing global metrics. The metric is an objective measurement > that will enable data to be consistent, meaningful and comparable among the > Wikimedia Chapters, Thematic Organizations, and the Wikimedia Foundation. > > We will build on existing data sets and reach out to Chapters and Thematic > Organizations if further information is required. After processing the > gathered information, we will confirm the data with each organization. > > In the long run, we envision that this project could be replicated > annually. In this attempt to enable Wikimedia Chapters, Thematic > Organizations, and the Wikimedia Foundation to help make the movement's > financial data more consistent, we rely on the data provided by the > organizations. We believe that there is enough data available to make a new > attempt on capturing the movement's finances as a whole. > > A meta page < > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement-wide_Financial_Report> > was > created for the project, in order to make the information accessible to > everyone and create a space for discussion and/or suggestions. We strongly > encourage you to share with us what types of additional information is > desired. > > And of course: This is all an experiment! If it does not work, we will try > to apply a modified 'agile' process by iterating, repeating, and trying > again based on the feedback we are getting. If this does not seem right, or > if it appears we are missing something obvious, please let us know! > > Thank you, > > WMF Finance Fellows (User:WMF Finance Fellows) > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:WMF_Finance_Fellows> > _______________________________________________ > 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>
