Talk:2013 Activity Plan

laptops

I've run or helped at several training events, including both ones where we had bought along the chapter's spare laptops, and ones where we hadn't. When a trainee has forgotten their laptop or the laptop they've borrowed has a dud battery and they've forgotten the charger, it is really really helpful to just be able to lend them a WMUK laptop for the session. So much thanks for buying three last year, I'd reccomend anyone who's running a training session that you have one for every trainee who books a laptop for the event plus at least one spare. But rather than describe the budget as "laptops for volunteers" can I suggest you describe it as "spare laptops for training events"? WereSpielChequers (talk) 09:59, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

Fair point as they get used in many contexts - have amendedJon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 17:06, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

WCA funding

Please remove the sentence "This will come directly from the Foundation." No process for funding has been agreed and so this is speculative. I suggest the sentence "We are no longer being asked to provide financial support to the Wikimedia Chapters Association directly (WCA)" is removed unless there is some clarification as to who has now stopped asking for funding, and with what authority. As it stands, this may be mistakenly read as agreement or direction from the WCA. Thanks --Fæ (talk) 13:15, 10 December 2012 (UTC) (Writing as the WCA Chair)

Noted thanks. Have amended.Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 17:05, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

curiosity: monuments

Just out of curiosity (I'm partially interested because of my own involvement in the project): in the ideas page WSC suggested Wiki Loves Monuments and it seemed there was support for it at the time. Does that still have a place in the revised budget? (Was it actually included in the original?) Under which topic would it fall? Lodewijk (talk) 00:50, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

First of all I'm really sad that we did not participate this year as a chapter and hope we will do better in 2013! 'WMUK absolutely loves monuments really' can come under Small Grants for volunteers to organise it, or Glam or even outreach. The key is finding some Wikimedians to drive it.Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 10:03, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Sponsorships etc

Is there a specific reason why WMUK is not seeking sponsorships as part of its income, by offering companies to sponsor conferences etc? I apologize if this was already answered at the original budget, but considering the budget cut it might deserve an extra consideration. Lodewijk (talk) 00:52, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

This is not an impossibilty. Now we have Katherine Bavage as our fundraiser we have more capacity (remember we are still quite kleine) this is a real possibility.Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 10:05, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Seeking sponsorships is a good idea, and is something we will work on. However we're not in a position to put figures in as a guestimate as at this stage we don't have a guiding policy agreed by the board (or relevant approval process), plus restrictions around trademarks make it hard to know how valuable the opportunity would be and therefore how much sponsorship we will reasonably be able to expect. I have made contact with someone at WMDE when visiting last week who I will follow up with to advise me on this with specific reference to the spring GLAM conference which would be a good opportunity to treat as a test case. Katherine Bavage (WMUK) (talk) 16:05, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Tango's comments

Thank you for sharing this draft. The greater detail in the overviews of what each budget item is for are great, but it would be good to see more breakdowns of where the numbers come from (similar to that provided for the conference attendance budget).

The risks for each budget item are also good (in future, we'll need to start quantifying risks where possible, but qualitative statements are a good start), but you are missing the other side of the coin - successes. We should have metrics for success in the budget (I think this was on the agenda for the last board meeting, but got skipped due to time constraints).

I also notice that Daria is down as primary contact for a hell of a lot of stuff - I know she works very hard, but it that realistic? The new GLAM person could probably be the primary contact for most of the GLAM stuff. --Tango (talk) 14:05, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

I doubt that a temporary project manager on contract, intended to be in place for a couple of months, would be the best person to hold authority delegated from the board of trustees for a wedge of the charity's monies. This is a particular issue when that budget is paying for their contract, or possible extensions to their contract should expected outcomes not be delivered on time for some reason. --Fæ (talk) 14:29, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Chicken and egg I suppose. I want to know what is approved before adding the detail and sharing the task on success parameters with these who will be delivering and deciding. On the specific of Daria I am hopeful that if this plan is adopted there will be three other people on staff to share the project areas. Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 10:25, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

The board shouldn't really be approving budgets without approving the metrics for success along with them - how do you decide that something is worth the money if you don't know what it is going to achieve? There may be some items that are not sufficiently well-defined at this point (eg. I think the Wales budget is pretty speculative at the moment), but those should go back to the board for final approval after they have been fully defined and before they are actually implemented. --Tango (talk) 12:22, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

I agree Daria is the primary contact for lots of stuff - what looks like maybe too much. However, some of it doesn't represent all the work being hers e.g. Merchandise and Outreach publications will have part of the responsibility shared with Stevie and myself (membership and donor outreach). In that sense she is the primary contract, but not solely responsible for delivering all the outcomes of that budget. Also, the aim is that she be the primary point of contact but that volunteers are leading the work to better spread the load. Whether this ideal world actually happens...

On a side note, what is 'Technical development to support cultural outreach (GLAM metrics)' about? What does the £5,000 represent - contracted development work? Supporting/Coordinating volunteer development work through expenses? In either case I'm not sure why Daria is the contact (possibly because I don't know what the work will actually be and therefore how it links to GLAM) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Katherine Bavage (WMUK) (talk • contribs)

I'd agree and say that often being the contact means making sure that things happen rather than full delivery. We are also hoping that the GLAM and Education support staff, together with the developing Committees, will help. Not sure about the Technical development either, I was thinking digitisation projects but not sure. Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 16:05, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

It's the fancy name for the Europeana project that's been delayed (Mass upload tool). It may be that this can be rolled into the Europeana one - we'll check. Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 16:37, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

The parts of my job that involve making sure things happen often take up far more of my time than actually doing things myself. The point of having someone specifically named as being responsible for something is to make sure it doesn't get overlooked. That doesn't work if you are too busy to actually take responsibility for them. --Tango (talk) 23:55, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

To clarify, and respond to Fae's point ("I doubt that a temporary project manager on contract, intended to be in place for a couple of months, would be the best person to hold authority") - a 'primary contact' does not (in this case) hold any delegated authority. The budget holder holds the authority and has the ability to make spending decisions: the primary contact is the person in the office who is generally organising things and doing the day-to-day work. For example, Jon may be the budget holder for office rent: but I would be the primary contact, because realistically I'm the 'first point of call' for rent queries. This is so that Jon doesn't get inundated with calls and emails. A second example is travel grants in 2012: Mike was the budget holder, but essentially Daria was the first point of contact (as she made the bookings and organised the flights). It would be appropriate for the new GLAM person to be a primary contact certainly - but possibly not to have spending authority delegated (but that's a different discussion). Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 16:45, 11 December 2012 (UTC)