Finance meeting 2012/Program

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Update edit

All of the information below seems to be entirely irrelevant now. The organizers have communicated the following by e-mail to the participants:

Thanks for everyone who gave us input. We've work pretty hard to have program that fits our needs and would be really productive.

Now I apologise, dear attendees you will not know beforehand the exact details of the agenda. This is not how we usually do, but per recommendations of our facilitator, I'll we share with you the concept but not the detailed content.

So the program has been built around 3 times :

  • Scan : Assessing the situation and defining a common framework. The

goal is to be sure we all speak the same language, using the same words for the same concept.

  • Focus : Working and discussing specific issues. There will be 3 of

them but I can't tell you what they will be. Don't ask me question you'll understand Friday morning :)

  • Act : Have results. We know this meeting is not about decision

making. However it is about helping decision making. So we will have dedicated time to, on one hand, document the discussion and the meeting, and on the other hand, work on specific proposal. Namely FDC and Accountability / Transparency.

Other experimentation. There will be no pause. Ok don't freak out, there will be no preset time for pauses, you can take whenever you want. Again, a recommendation of our facilitator. I kind of didn't like (I'm smoking, so I NEED to have pauses) but I can now totally see why it could be better as discussions won't have to stop due to a break. That being said, we will make sure we respect as much as possible the planning we made.

Finally, we have designed the planning so everyone will have to participate. This is key. In our movement we have people that have a great gift, they're not shy and know how to talk. But it sometime prevent other people to step in and share their thoughts. Sorry folks, but you won't be as able as usual to talk a lot :)

I know this is not at all how we usually organise our meetings, but we felt we could try a new way and see if it's more efficient. If it's not, back to before, if it's more efficient, well it will be up to the organisers of the next conference to use this experience ;)

OUT OF DATE INFO BEGINS HERE edit

Topic proposal edit

From concrete to long-term
  • Common framework: setting common vocabulary, indicators/measures, report templates, discuss about effective sharing of informations…
  • Alternative fundraising methods: sharing of experiences, grant-asking from foundations, governments, NGOs, etc., merchandise shops, donations in-kind, inheritance…
  • Transparency and auditing: sharing of experiences of different countries/regulations, required levels of transparency, global and local auditing, donors privacy…
  • Long-term funding model: centralized funding model, decentralized funding model, hybrid funding model, endowment, accountability, audit/controls; in each case, precision of what is clearly stated (e.g. decentralized dissemination model but centralized online fundraiser, etc.)
  • Global governance: governance (and funding) related to IRL international projects, Wikimedia-projects-related projects (e.g. MediaWiki development, endowment/sustainability), budding chapters and local groups of chapters (Iberocoop, region-specific groups of chapters), Chapters Council, rich/not-rich chapters, accountability; note that this topic could be very large and shouldn’t excessively overlap other topics.
  • Accountability and transparency criterias: Wikimedia organizations willing to fundraise or to receive grants needs to respect a defined number of criterias.
Track Session Type Description Deliverable
Common framework Using the right words Workshop This session's goal is to work on a shared thesaurus defining the therms used in discussions in order to avoid language issues in future discussions. List on meta of all the main words to be defined
Common framework Using the same indicators Workshop This session's goal is to work on a shared set of indicators regarding fundraising and the use of funds in order to have all organizations using the same indicators and the same way to calculate them. List on meta of all the indicators
Common framework How to best share information? Workshop This session's goal is to define how Wikimedia organizations should share financial experiences. Communication process and timeline
Alternative fundraising methods How to raise funds without the Wikimedia websites? Presentation/workshop Presenting experiences to raise funds outside of the Wikimedia websites Summary of the presentations
Transparency and auditing Experience in transparency from the fundraising Wikimedia organizations. Panel Presenting what the fundraising Wikimedia organizations do regarding transparency Summary of the presentations
Transparency and auditing What levels of transparency do we expect from the fundraising Wikimedia organizations? Workshop Defining the level of transparency and audit expected from the fundraising and not fundraising Wikimedia organizations Wiki page with the levels of transparency required depending on each type of organizations
Transparency and auditing Donors privacy, what are the related risks? Presentation Presenting the legal risks regarding donors privacy and how to deal with them (who ?).
Long-term funding model What is your vision of our funding model? Open discussion Getting the participants to share their vision of our long term funding model. Summary
Long-term funding model What are the strengths and weaknesses of each model? Workshop Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the different models. Chart of the strengths and weaknesses of the models
Long-term funding model Experience with grants Panel Sharing experiences regarding Grants both either from Wikimedia Foundation, a chapter or a third party Summary
Long-term funding model Wikimedia grant structure Workshop Defining the structure of our Grant model ? Who can ask grants ? Who gives grants ? On what criterias ? Basic description of the structure
Common framework How to measure impact of actions regarding our goals ? Workshop Defining performance criterias that could be used by all Wikimedia organizations Main criterias

Logistical organization edit

There will be 2 or 3 different rooms, so it’s possible to organize parallel sessions, or not. Note that video conference (to be confirmed if we have video conference) will be available in only one room.

Some background for the facilitator(s) of the meeting: /Facilitator.

Effective Program edit

Thursday, February 16th
afternoon
evening
Arrival in Paris
Friday, February 17th
Room 1
9:00 Opening
9:15 Session 1
10:45 Using the same words and indicators
12:00 What are the issues ?
12:45 Lunch
14:15 Board Panel - Board letter
16:05 TBD
18:00
18:30
19:30
Saturday, February 18th
Room 1 Room 2
9:00 Wrap-up day 1
10:30 coffee break
11:00 Experience with grants
(panel)
Experience in transparency from the fundraising Wikimedia organizations
(panel)
12:30 lunch
13:30 Wikimedia grant structure
(workshop)
What levels of transparency do we expect from the fundraising Wikimedia organizations?
(workshop)
15:00 coffee break
16:30 How to raise funds without the Wikimedia websites?
(presentation/workshop)
Donors privacy, what are the related risks?
(presentation)
18:00
18:30
19:30
Sunday, February 19th
Room 1 Room 2
9:00 Wrap-up
10:30 coffee break
11:00 Wrap-up
12:30 lunch
13:30