Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013 round2/Wikimédia France/Progress report form/Q2/quality approach

Quality Approach
What are the objectives of this program? (include your indicators).

A quality approach refers to the processes, to the professional practices and to their organization, to the satisfaction of the different actors of the association. It is an important and determining step for the evolution of the strategic project, because the quality approach can lead to changing and/or reorienting projects. Thus, it permits us to encourage and legitimate the decision-making on those possible adjustements or changes to adopt.

Launching this project implies the elaboration of a mastered process in a logic of continuous improvement that, in the end, enables one to spare much time. It is first of all a great tool that should enable an association to accomplish its daily job easier, to elaborate its practices, to spot the weaknesses of its organization and to disguise them. Quality matters to all the actors of an association, whatever their place is. In a nutshell, it is a process that produces a ponderate judgement of value, starting from collected factual elements, according to a group of indicators and according to the values system of the assessors.

The general objectives of this project are:

  • Assessing the quality of the association's actions
  • Taking distance in order to build strategic choices
  • Activating a dynamic of change
  • Formalizing procedures
Evolution of your objectives (include your indicators and the # of volunteers/employees implied)?

We would like, first of all, to present you our calendar in order to make the understanding of our objectives' progresses easier.

  • Phase 1: From mid-December to 8 January 2014, a consultation of the quality-group takes place around the ESSEC's Guide des bonnes pratiques et de la transparence associative ("Good practice and associations transparency handbook")
  • Phase 2 : From 30 December 2013 to 15 January 2014, the quality group reviews the matrix written by the staff and the members, and comments on what remains unclear (except for the evaluation part that will be treated separately).
  • Phase 3 : 14 January, the synthesis of this work is published on Wikimembres.
  • Phase 4: End of January, beginning of the use of the new referential.
  • Phase 5: End of June, an appraisal of the setting up of a plan is done.
Progress of your achievements? (Please include your indicators # and the number of volunteers/employees involved) ?

A quality group has been created, in order, among other things, to make sure this process is going smoothly and to favour the implication of the members. This group comprises/includes 6 members of the Board of Trustees and 5 other members of the association.

An intern control group, composed of 2 members of the Board of Trustees works with the Executive Director on the elaboration of the processes.

Achieved activities.
  1. Processes aiming at securing the organization have been set out during this term:
    • Weekly reporting file of the working hours
    • Authorization sheet for the professional trips/travels
    • Authorization sheet concerning overtime
    • Claim form for expenses
    • Recruitment file
    • Note concerning the association’s politicy as far as social networks are concerned
    • Delegation of powers to the Executive Director
    • Questionnaire for the recruiting interviews
  2. Choice of a guide for the general evaluation of the Association.
    This guide (ESSEC BPTA) has been elaborated within the social entrepreneurial chair of ESSEC. Through the creation of an analysis and evaluation plan (about management practices, governance and transparency of French associations of small or average/middle size, it offers the organizations the opportunity to identify their strengths and main lines of improvements for more performant governance and management.
    It covers all the main fields of organizations’ management, from the clearness of the social mission to the society’s responsability, including governance, human resources,management, financing and communication.
    Parallely to the work that will be achieved as far as this guide is concerned, we are going to appeal to an external analyse of our practices by students trained and accompanied by the Chaire Eutreprenariat Social de l’ESSEC (Social Entrepeunarial Chaire of the ESSEC) an the team « ESSEC Bonnes Pratiques et Transparence Associatives ».
    A student with good knowledge of social entrepeneurship, recruited, trained to the use of this specific referential, and supervised by a teacher or an expert associated to the chair, will perform within the framework of a 20 days long mission (within three months, including 3 days on the spot), the analysis followed by the evaluation of the practices of governance, management, and transparency of our association.
  3. Elaboration of a system of reference :
    It is a document that sums up, in an organised and precise way, a whole system of criteria enabling us or not to determine if the qualitative requirements are met.
    But we want to make one more step towards the relevant aspect of this approach by proposing a system of reference for the whole actions, which enables us to increase the objectivity of the results.
    Wikimedia France had already studied the possibilities to establish indicators. Furthermore, within the framework of this quality project approach, we have decided to measure three aspects:
    • Impact on the Wikimedia projects
    • Impact on the mobilization of the association's volunteers
    • Social impact of the project
  4. The staff has completed a project matrix for each action mentioned in the classification on 30 of December.