Yesterday the WMF announced that Wikimedia Australia is eligible for the current round of the Annual Plan Grants (APG) program.[1] Well done to all involved in that assessment process.
As part of the process, Wikimedia Australia signed a letter of intent (LOI) [2] sometime before 1 November 2013, which states an estimated amount to be requested. Do I understand the FDC calendar[3] correctly, that the next step is for the organisation to publish/submit its annual plan before 1 April 2014, which is less than two weeks away? In the November and January committee meeting minutes[4] there is mention of an annual plan draft being worked on by the committee. Is this the document, or is another being worked on? http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Proposal:2014_Annual_Plan Last modified: August 2013 If we need to whip that document into shape, there is a lot of work to be done and not much time to do it in. As an aside, in February the WMF board of trustees indicated that they believed the FDC funding total should be frozen at current levels until 2016. The mailing list discussion was robust.[5] The FAQ specifically addresses new entrants to the FDC, which WMAU would be, [6] saying "[WMF] can increase the total of Annual Plan Grant/FDC funds if there are new applicants in the next two years that had previously been receiving significant grants from another process. In other words, we expect grant money to travel with any new FDC entities, to accommodate entities moving between funding paths." That seems to suggest that they are not allowing for new FDC entrants that have not been receiving significant grants from another WMF process. I have asked for clarification on the FAQ talk page. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMF_Board_meetings/2013-11-24/FAQ#New_FDC_entrants_without_a_recent_track_record_at_WMF 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/Eligibility_checklist/2013-2014_round2 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Sample_letter_of_intent 3. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Calendar 4. http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meeting:Committee_(2013-11-24)/Minutes#Forward_directions and http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meeting:Committee_(2014-01-25)/Minutes 5. http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-February/070227.html 6. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Board_meetings/2013-11-24/FAQ#FDC_funding -- John Vandenberg _______________________________________________ Wikimediaau-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
