Grants:APG/Proposals/2017-2018 round 2/Wikimedia Armenia/Proposal form
Proposal by Wikimedia Armenia to support its annual plan with 267,454 USD.
We ask that you please don't make any changes directly to this page after the proposal submission date, but comment on the discussion page.
If you need to review the edit instructions you will find them in the edit intro.
- Use this form if you are eligible to submit a proposal in the current round, to request funding in the current round.
- This form must be published on Meta by the proposal submission date for each round to be considered, and no changes may be made after the submission date without staff approval.
- This form complements your organization's annual plan, detailed budget, and strategic plan. It won't be considered complete without a detailed budget and strategic plan.
- Organizations may apply for a funding period that does not exactly match their fiscal years. Follow the instructions carefully to understand what time period each question refers to.
- Refer to the framework, guidance from the Board, and the FDC's recommendations before using this form, so you have an understanding of the Annual Plan Grants process.
- Please Email FDCSupport@Wikimedia.org with questions about using the form.
A few terms used in the form:
FDC proposal form terms Wikimedia terms Learning & Evaluation terms
Overview
edit- 1. In order to support community review, please provide a brief description of your organization's work in the upcoming funding period.
In May 2018 Wikimedia Armenia will celebrate its 5th anniversary. Our organization is young but already recorded several notable achievements in creation of core Armenian wiki community, large number of content and partnerships with various local and international organizations. We have announced the 2018 as a year of organizational strengthening for Wikimedia Armenia and of deeper, quality content development.
In the end of 2017 we have hired a new accounting company, which regulated all financial documents of previous years and now guides us in our financial planning and expenditure processes. We have regulated our HR documents, paid staff annual leaves for 2017 and now working towards doing the same for 2016. We have established a good partnership with Rostelecom Armenia telecommunication company which provides us free of charge 24/7 high-speed, symmetrical internet. WMAM is revising its Bylaw to match it with reformed local legislation and fill those gaps that were creating financial problems for us. We are on the way to develop internal regulations and Board and Employee handbook, which, we hope, will cover all spheres of organization’s life and make our work more structured and professional. Wikimedia UK, Germany and the Netherlands generously shared with us their experience on this. We have made clarifications in job descriptions of staff to avoid responsibility overlaps and bringing more clarity in who is doing what.
We have started “I create vital article” campaign in November 2017 aimed at promoting creation of quality content by our existing editors and newcomers. This was a major step towards changing our strategy from creation of more content to development of quality content. This campaign positively affected the image of Wikimedia Armenia and Armenian Wikipedia in particular. Previously our WikiCamp and WikiClubs were better promoted, which created some wrong understanding about Wikimedia Movement in Armenia mostly perceived as one consisting of children and youth and thus resulted in some kind of mistrust towards Armenian Wikipedia. We have used new information channels, revised our social media strategy, which resulted in better outreach and engagement of new editors.
We have worked towards diversifying our funding sources in 2017. We had a number of paid camp participants, our individual donors continued funding the operation of WikiClubs, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation continued funding the Western Armenian Program. We have signed a grant contract (37.000$) with “Bridge for CSOs” EU funded program of Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) on running a 1 year project aimed at establishment of 5 new WikiClubs. Another project with around 34.000$ budget will be implemented with the support of Yerevan Foundation for the organization of various events aimed at enrichment of Yerevan related content in Wikimedia Projects.
For the upcoming funding period WMAM has set four major programmatic directions:
To bring the organization to another level of development and ensure better implementation of our strategy and programs, we will work on organizational development, which will be done in three main directions: capacity enhancement both in terms of procedures and staff capacity, outreach, financial sustainability.
- 2. Name, fiscal year, and funding period.
- Legal name of organization: «Վիքիմեդիա Հայաստան» գիտակրթական ՀԿ
- Organization's fiscal year: 01/01-12/31
- 12-month funding period requested: 07/01/2018-06/30/2019
- Currency requested: AMD
- Name of primary contact: Susanna Mkrtchyan, Gayane Vardanyan
- 3. Amount requested.
Table 1
Currency requested | US$ | |
Total expenses for the upcoming year | 171,333,807 | 342,667.61 |
APG funding requested for the upcoming year | 133,727,000 | 267,454 |
Amount of funding received from WMF for the current year | 151,207,564 | 302,415 |
- 4. How does your organization know what community members and contributors to online projects need or want? Does your organization conduct needs assessments or consult the contributors and volunteers most involved with its work?
Prior to development of our 2018-2019 annual plan we have organized a community gathering with active Wikipedians and collected their ideas on further expansion of Wikimedia Movement in Armenia. It was a facilitated discussion where everyone reflected on the work done by WMAM and made suggestions on future initiatives. Besides this, we are holding regular discussions with the community members during our community events. We are planning to hold reflection and planning of large events with the community at least twice a year to report on the work done and engage them in our activities. In March 2018, WMAM hired an independent consultant to carry out a research among our community members and to reveal their view on our projects, their concerns, and suggestions for improvement. The report on this research will be available in the end of April, 2018 and will become a ground for designing of our activities.
- 5. Please provide a link to your organization's strategic plan, and a link to your separate annual plans for the current and upcoming funding periods if you have them.
Financials: current year
editThe purpose of this section is to give the FDC an idea of how your organization is receiving funds and spending funds toward your current plan. Your current funding period is the funding period now in progress (e.g. 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 for most organizations).
Table 2
Financials for the current funding period Revenues or expenses Planned (budgeted) Actual, until one month before the proposal due date Projected Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars Revenues (from all sources) 177,707,564 [1] 355,415 89,577,355 [1] 179,154.71 178,162,260 [2] 356,324.52 Expenses 192,436,813 384,873.63 [3] 84,441,781 168,883.56 159,936,807.6 319,873.5
Table 2 notes:
- Excluded in-kind contributions from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
- Including new revenue sources (Yerevan Foundation and AGBU Bridge for CSOs (EU supported program)
- Including expenses from new projects with Yerevan Foundation and AGBU
Programs: upcoming year's annual plan
editThis section is about your organization's programs. A program is a defined set of activities that share the same objectives and a similar theory of change. Please share the general goal of each program, and then list the specific objectives that the program will meet. Please do not include information about your organization's operating activities in this section. You may provide information about activities like administration, staff and board training, fundraising, governance, and internal IT in another section or in a supplementary document, but please do not include these activities here as programs.
- 1. For each program, and overall
- Include targets for each of the three shared measures for each program, and overall. If one or more of these required metrics are not relevant to any of your programs, please consult your program officer.
- Also choose at least two grantee-defined metrics to highlight in this section, and include targets for each of these grantee-defined metrics for each program, and overall. (Other program-specific metrics may be included in your program objectives, in the detailed program sections below.)
Table 3
- Participants: The number of people who attend your events, programs or activities, either in person or virtually. This definition does not include people organizing activities, social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly.
- Newly registered: The number of participants that create new accounts on a Wikimedia project. These include users who register up to two weeks before the start of the event.
- Content pages: A content page is an article on Wikipedia, an item on Wikidata, a content page on Wikisource, an entry on Wiktionary, and a media file on Commons, etc. This metric captures the total number of content pages created or improved across all Wikimedia projects.
- A: See corresponding activity section
- B: See corresponding activity section
Program Participants Newly registered Content pages A B Quality Content Program - - - - - Thematic councils and Wiki Loves Science 115 81 100 2 3 Partnership with GLAM 20 3 50 3 1 Digitization of content 50 0 2410 40000 100 Research and analysis of articles 20 0 40 1 n/a International collaborations 100 0 180 4 1 Equal access to wiki 10 0 31060 3 n/a Preservation of culture 41 20 50 30 20 Total for the program 356 104 33890 40043 125 Community Program - - - - - Community editathons and meetups 1085 80 645 49 3 Capacity building 190 0 100 9 10 Total for the program 1275 80 745 58 13 Education Program - - - - - Wikiseminar for teachers/lecturers from regions and Yerevan 80 50 160 2 70 Universities 55 50 55 3 1 Non formal education 30 30 30 3 n/a WikiCamps 250 70 3802 4 1 WikiClubs 356 156 33000 5 2 Total for the program 771 356 37047 17 74 Western Armenian Program - - - - - Creation of Separate Western Armenian Wikipedia 3 0 20 3 n/a Trainings for experts 70 35 60 5 10 Summer WikiSchool in Aleppo and other activities 67 40 134 12 1 Total for the program 140 75 214 20 11 TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS 2547 615 71896 40138 223
Table 3 notes:
- 2. Please list your goals and objectives for each program. Please be sure your objectives meet all three criteria for each program
- The objectives listed are each SMART: specific, measurable, attainable and relevant, and include time-bound targets.
- Include both qualitative targets and quantitative targets, and remember to highlight your baseline metrics.
- Provide any additional information that is important to our understanding of this program. For example, you may include needs assessments, logic models, timelines, tables, or charts. Share how this program will contribute more broadly to movement learning, or explain how your program aligns with important Wikimedia priorities such as increasing participation and improving content on the Wikimedia projects.
Quality Content
Assist development of quality content of Wikimedia Projects in Armenian aimed at making those a powerful learning and information source.
Previous experience
editWith the establishment of Wikimedia Armenia, the organization had set a goal to increase the content of Wikimedia projects focusing especially on the Armenian Wikipedia. This initial goal was formed mainly because of the society demand to see the Armenian Wikipedia among larger encyclopedias where they could find more and diverse content. Moreover, Armenian Wikipedia and Wikimedia Movement in general, had almost no visibility among the Armenians. With this primarily goal we wanted to cover these two challenges - the lack of Armenian content and visibility of Wikimedia projects in Armenia with very few Wikimedia community members.
We developed our strategy on planning and organizing different (sometimes too many) events which would allow to engage more editors, community members and increase the number of the articles. These activities were our primarily method of building some visibility around Wikimedia Armenia and Wikimedia Movement in general, which paved a way for fruitful collaborations and initiatives.
In addition, Wikimedia Armenia had some fragmented interactions with GLAM and other data donor institutions, which did not give sufficient and expected results. We always seek partnerships with different institutions, though they often did not recognize that they can afford to support free knowledge seeing us more as a competitors rather than collaborators. With the few institutions that valued the free knowledge our collaboration was non constant and stable enough, WMAM had non-consistent strategy for such direction․
Wikimedia Armenia has an extensive experience in delivering high quality digitized content to the public. The digitization project was not an end in itself, from the very beginning we tried to understand the usage and value of the digitized content as much as possible. We have a high demand of Armenian content from public; in Armenia we have cultural needs and interests that are not met by available digitized content. Digitization surely helped to increase access to valuable literature and scientific works of different authors. We also used the digitized resources to guide WikiClubs participants to improve their writing and proofreading skills and to give editors opportunities for the development of valuable content.
In 2016-2017 WMAM was also dedicated to create positive social change for underserved people across Armenia by providing critically needed information and education through Wikimedia projects. The audio recordings of Armenian Wikipedia articles’ synopses and Armenian Wiktionary word pronunciations were measures to ensure that wiki content is accessible for persons with disabilities.
- Focus on increasing the quantity of articles resulted also on the decrease of quality of the Armenian Wikipedia and created mistrust towards it.
- Thematic and structured initiative approach helps to engage more valuable contributors and generate more quality articles.
- More quality content will result in better use of wiki content by different users and positively affect the image of Wikimedia projects in Armenia.
Activities
edit- Thematic councils and Wiki Loves Science
A - 2 thematic councils formed which revises the created content at Wiki Loves Science trainings and later in the respective field.
B - 3 Wiki Loves Science trainings
This year we plan to support the quality content through establishment of thematic councils engaging scientists and researchers of the respective fields and experienced wiki editors interested in the topic. Every editing event that we organize will have thematic groups which will allow editors to collaboratively work on the same topic or article. In addition, we will perform more events dedicated to particular topic editing.
This year WMAM will continue its “Wiki loves science” (WLS) workshops/meetups. Previously these meetups were organized for both the scientific article editors and the community members who were editing various themes part of those not having a scientific character. We learned that mixing experienced editors who have no scientific background and researchers is not effective enough. Besides, two day events are not sufficient for newcomers to fully understand both the Wikimedia Movement idea and Wikipedia editing. Therefore, we consider to split these events having editathons for experienced editors and WLS meetups for researchers. The duration of the WLS events will be expanded to 4-5 days depending on the participants’ occupation. WMAM will also continue working on 1000 vital articles through “I create a vital article” campaign as a very effective project for involving professionals and creating quality content.
- Partnership with GLAM
A - 3 GLAM institutions which regularly provide resources for the quality content creation
B - 1 public event organized with GLAM institutions on the progress of GLAM program
Wikimedia Armenia will try to build a solid foundation with GLAM and other data donor institutions for effective communication and collaboration with a clear understanding of what needs to be accomplished.
September 2018 marks the 2800th anniversary of the foundation of the capital city of Yerevan. Prior to this date WMAM researched the articles about Yerevan. It turned out there are around 100 articles about Yerevan on the Armenian Wikipedia which are far from being enough. Highlighting the role that GLAM institutions can play in filling this content gap and the role of Wikipedia as the most viewed encyclopedia in Armenia, Wikimedia Armenia with the help of Yerevan Foundation and Yerevan Municipality will start a collaborative project with the goal to support the content development about Yerevan in the Internet via various Wikimedia projects. International GLAM Meetup in Yerevan, Editathons in Armenia and abroad, article writing contests, etc., will support the development of diverse content on Yerevan. It is expected to increase the presence of Yerevan related content in different language Wikipedias with the help of Wikipedians. At the end of the contest the best contributors will be invited to visit Yerevan and participate in the celebrations of Yerevan 2800.
We expect that “Wiki Loves Yerevan” project along with producing lots of quality articles about Yerevan, will have a deep impact and will enable the collaboration with other GLAM institutions.
- Digitization of content
A - 40,000 pages scanned
B - 100 books serve as resources for quality content (at least 10 references from each book)
We will continue to transfer free content to digital form providing easy access to content and resources which is one step close to the quality content.
With the digitization program we will assist “Wiki loves Yerevan” project and other partnerships by converting the acquired non online sources, data into digital form based on which editors will write and improve articles.
Moreover, digitization is the main component of WMAM Wikisource program for WikiClubs. The digitized content is being uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and Armenian Wikisource where secondary school students proofread it and learn the basics of editing tools. Proofreading also helps them to learn reading and writing. This funding year WMAM will prioritize and digitize those free books which are included in the school curriculum as compulsory readings. This will help the students to learn and easily access the literary works that are included in their school program and motivate them to make more contributions to Wikisource.
WMAM has previously created the metadata of authors on the Armenian Wikisource which allows the readers and editors to find out authors whose works entered the public domain. Most of the authors data has been created but due to some technical issues it was not completed. This year WMAM plans to complete the list, thus supporting the digitization process.
- Research and analysis of articles
A - 1 online collaboration dedicated to the improvement of most view articles of 2017-2018
The change of focus from quantity to quality requires data on what content should be improved and has high public demand. We will do constant analytical work on what is being viewed more frequently and work towards improvement of those articles. Using this analytical data and research, we will build our activities resulting in more effective and targeted content development.
- International collaborations
A - 4 international collaborations organized within Wikimedia Movement
B - 1 international project about Yerevan organized by WMAM
International collaborations and partnerships with other Wikimedia chapters have highly importance among Wikimedia Armenia programs. These international collaborations are beneficial and are built mostly around content production․
Forming international collaborations helps editors in two main ways: for the Armenian community it serves as a motivation for quality content generation, for us it enables to better understand the possible ways of interactions among Wikimedia organizations, thereby facilitating our networking and learning.
Wikimedia Armenia will organize the following international writing contests: Wikimedia Armenia-Wikimedia Spain collaboration which is a writing article contest about Armenia and Spain, CEE Spring and any contest that will initiate Europeana, Wiki Loves Yerevan from our side, as described above. Additionally, we will continue to tighten our successful partnership with Wikimedia Norsk on Bodil Biørn project and beyond.
- Equal access to wiki
A - 3 projects aimed at increasing the accessibility of Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia projects are fundamentally designed to work for all people, however Armenian content is not always accessible for public including persons with disabilities. This year we will work on reducing the accessibility barriers of Wikimedia content that make difficult or impossible for some people to use. Wikimedia Armenia will increase the number of the recording of well written article summaries with the help of the Spoken Wikipedia project. With the growing popularity of the Armenian Wiktionary we will continue the recording of the pronunciations of Armenian words for Wiktionary. In addition to these two projects, Wikimedia Armenia will launch the Surdowiktionary project with the aim to record Armenian Sign Language and make them available on the Armenian Wiktionary through videos. This essential initiative will have great contribution to Armenian Sign Language teaching because there are almost no visualized dictionaries of this language.
- Preservation of culture
A - 30 residences have improved data on Wikimedia projects
B - 20 national and folk songs recorded
We value Wikimedia projects also because it is a way to preserve and document culture. As the cultural identity is essential for Armenians, in 2018-2019 Wikimedia Armenia will launch two projects dedicated to Armenian culture. We have articles about all villages and cities of Armenia which can provide a minimum sufficient information to the readers but the 90-95% of them lack photos. We will initiate “My community in Wikipedia” online campaign and exhort people to upload photos of their villages/cities (landscapes, monuments, nature, daily life etc.) to Wikimedia Commons, thus illustrating the corresponding articles in Wikipedias. The second project will be directed to the preservation and recording of Armenian national and folk songs and will be called Singing Wikipedia.
Community
Grow and empower the community to collaboratively assist the development of quality content and contribute to the expansion of Wikimedia Movement.
Previous experience
editIn order to achieve its goal, WMAM actively supports the creation of strong and connected Armenian Wikimedia community, enhancing the capacity of community members and endorsing the social value of Wikimedia projects and free knowledge. Participation in various editathons, meetups, workshops, engagement in mentoring teams of trainings, camps, and other projects created a core group of editors, individuals who value and understand the ideology of Wikimedia Movement and contribute to its enlargement. By expanding its premises, WMAM is now able to engage more people in editing, holding parallel events for different groups, provide space for community members to carry out meetings and initiatives aimed at bringing new editors on board thus strengthening relationships in the community.
Capacity building of our editors via different initiatives and workshops is another major direction of WMAM activities, which gives groups and individuals important skills for quality contributions and participation. We organize various seminars and presentations, such as media literacy, copyright issues, translation tips etc. for our editors to improve their various skills. We empower them to get involved with various groups, individuals and speak about Wikimedia Movement, to initiate projects in Wikipedia. We gave them a floor to express and share their ideas and concerns regarding Wikimedia Movement in Armenia and activities of WMAM through public discussions at our office and focus group discussions carried out by an independent consultant.
We also supported community members’ presence in different local, regional, and international conferences, meetups. Participation in international projects are always good chance for Armenian community members to exchange ideas, learn from others, get involved in the global movement and get motivated for further activities. The main conferences that WMAM is interested to have representatives from community are Wikimania, Wikimedia CEE Meeting, Wikidata Conference, GLAM conference, and Wikimedia Hackathon․
- Engaging community members in various WMAM events as mentors increased the productivity of newcomers and made community members feel ownership towards Wikimedia Movement. Being a part of a Mentoring Team during the WikiCamp and Teachers’ Week motivated our community members to contribute more.
- International writing contests and “I create a vital article” campaign gave us a solid ground to conclude that proposing concrete lists of articles to edit helps editors to contribute more easily and WMAM to do targeted and measurable work.
- Constant engagement with the community members and reporting to them will make the community to feel the ownership towards the Movement and Wikimedia Armenia projects.
- The larger and skilled our community is, the more quality content is produced.
- Providing space and necessary resources to community members to implement their ideas will contribute to improvement of their leadership skills and make events more community driven.
- Community digest; Wikipedians around the world celebrate Wikipedia’s 17th anniversary
- Wikipedia globe under lake Sevan
Activities
edit- Community editathons and meetups
A - 49 organized editathons, meetups and other community events
B - 3 community initiatives, projects organized by community members
The majority of WMAM activities, like the organization itself, are community based and in many cases implemented for and by the community. As we have noted in the Quality content section, WMAM plans to separate community editathon/meetups from Wiki Loves Science trainings. This process will allow us to communicate with new and experienced editors differently and strengthen our interaction with them, increase their engagement in the community projects. Besides supporting quality content, these meetups and editathons also play a vital role in ensuring community empowerment.
We will work on the better assessment of community needs through various community discussions. Activity discussions, for instance, help us to shape our activities in a way that they are more community directed and inclusive, Annual Plan discussions provide us with valuable feedback and suggestions from community to form the upcoming Annual Plan collaboratively. Moreover, we will improve the reporting process in order to report to the community more frequently and in a more comprehensive manner enabling mutual communication and community involvement.
We will encourage and support further participation of our community members in international events, as it gives them a real sense of being part of a large international family and motivates them to come and share their learning with the rest of the community. Their ties with international peers will later work in benefit to WMAM cooperation with others.
- Capacity building
A - 9 capacity building trainings, workshops, meetings with experts
B - Help 10 community members with technical and printed resources
We will continue working on the capacity building of our community by organizing different seminars, trainings and meetings with different experts of their field creating a platform where the editors can dispel their doubts, find answers to their questions, exchange experience, learn, thus having more quality contributions. WMAM will put systematic effort to introduce the new Wikimedia tools to our community thus keeping them up-to-date and supporting the generation of quality content.
WMAM will support its editors with technical resources. We will provide them our laptops and other necessary equipment, office space with good internet connection when necessary. We will make sure the editors have their necessary sources and literature. The latter will be done also with the help of the National Library of Armenia with which Wikimedia Armenia has signed a memorandum.
Education
Educators and students acknowledge and use wiki as a tool to support learning.
Previous experience
editWikimedia Armenia has a strong background on planning and implementation of educational projects. Our initial goal of educational projects was the education through content generation which was the consequence of the situation described above. Nevertheless, with the time, we understood disadvantages of the set goal and began to transform this goal to have educational projects which are not dependent on the content creation.
Educational projects successfully cross over with the other areas of our programmatic directions. Besides being a matter of activities that support learning, they are also essential for community building.
We have impactful experience of working with teachers and educators. Twice a year Wikimedia Armenia organizes Teacher Training Weeks for teachers from different regions of Armenia. The aim of the event is to involve more teachers in Wikimedia Movement who will later use Wikimedia projects in their teaching activities thus impacting on the education on the residential level. Last year the seminar underwent some major changes and resulted in more productive outcome. The most important change was the establishment and introduction of the mentoring system. Since the number of teachers is much bigger than the Wikimedia Armenia training staff, we invited experienced teachers to become mentors of newbies. The aim of this change was to ensure the smooth incorporation of new teachers in the Wikimedia Movement, exchange of experience between teachers on the educational methods and tools, as well as networking of teachers with wiki background. On December 2017 we sent appreciation certificates to the teachers involved in the Wikipedia Education Program, as well as official letters to school principles to express gratitude for supporting those teachers which created a positive mood around our teachers’ wiki activities at school.
Unlike our experience with teachers’ training, our involvement with professors and lecturers is not satisfying. Until now Wikimedia Armenia has worked with individual professors from different universities. These collaborations have brought to coherent but fragmented work with less impact.
WikiClub project is another highlight from WMAM past experience. Wikiclubs are one of the major content development and editor engagement hubs in Armenia, which serve as a place for young people to learn new things via editing. They are mainly located in rural communities and fill the educational gaps that current schools face in Armenia. Club participants edit various Wikimedia projects. As the number of Clubs is growing and it has become difficult for Armenian Wikimedia community to follow the quality of the produced content, WMAM, as a result of discussions with the Club Coordinators, introduced some management and teaching methodology changes in WikiClub work, which will be applied from April, 2018.
Previously our WikiCamps’ aim was to work on creation of as much content as possible. After having the Armenian Encyclopedias under free license, Campers worked on creating articles based on the available free encyclopedic information. For the next years WMAM revised the concept of WikiCamps and introduced also non-wiki activities: physical, intellectual, cultural, aimed at complex development of Camper’s personal skills. Camps covering different dimensions of participants’ development makes the event more effective and with long lasting results, thus contributing to retention of young editors.
- What I Learned: Improving the Armenian Wiktionary with the help of students
- Summer WikiCamp 2017 video
- Lernapat WikiClub video
- Karvachar’s WikiClub: When getting knowledge is cool
- Stepanakert WikiClub։“Wikipedia, because being clever is always in fashion”
- Lernapat WikiClub:Our WikiClub teaches us to collaborate efficiently
- The Brief Story of Mrgavan WikiClub
- Our experience with the mentoring system at Teachers’ training allowed community members to become from a receiver into someone who also gives back, shares, and trains.
- The primary goal of the Educational program should not be the content development itself, but rather the development of participants’ self learning culture by reading and editing.
- Appreciation of teachers increased their motivation to contribute to Wikimedia Movement and use Wikimedia Projects in Education and made school principals to better value and support their teachers.
- The work with individual university professors does not result in large scale impact.
- Regular and intensive communication with various educational units (WikiClub, school, university, non formal education organizations and etc.) will enable us to reveal the issues on time, efficient work mechanisms and direct our work on more productive way.
- Engagement with the whole faculty/ies of any university will result in more cost efficiency of WMAM efforts and will create a culture of using Wikimedia Projects in higher education institutions.
Activities
edit- Wikiseminar for teachers/lecturers from regions and Yerevan
A - 2 organized seminar for teachers, including teachers from Yerevan
B - 70 schools are present at the seminar
The Teachers’ Training being one of the main components of Wikimedia Armenia education program, will be included in the upcoming funding program. As always we will organize 2 seminars based on the teachers’ school holidays. This year we plan to broaden our target group involving also teachers from Yerevan. This will allow us to have new collaborations with various schools in Yerevan. Moreover, with the help of teachers’ activities, international and local experience we want to design an Educators’ Guidline especially adapted for Armenian environment. This guideline will later serve as a foundation for teacher trainings.
We will continue to provide technical support to those teachers who run WikiClubs in their schools and encourage others to establish new ones in their schools.
- Universities
A - 3 university faculties collaborate with us
B - 1 seminar for professors
In addition to schools and colleges, we will establish collaborations with universities in a more targeted way. Instead of cooperating with individual professors, we will try to broaden our target to the faculty level. For this purpose we plan to organize also a seminar for university lecturers. This will be a new experience for us and a good chance to include wiki component in the university activities so targeting professors and their students. First, we will put our efforts in 2-3 universities (Yerevan State University, Gevorgian Seminary and Fondation Université Française en Arménie) which in case of successful collaboration will have high impact on WMAM education program and Wikimedia projects in the respect of quality content.
- Non formal education
A - 3 non formal education organizations collaborate with us
Wikimedia Armenia will enlarge its education partnerships and for the first time, will try to collaborate with non-formal education sector. We believe that organizations and institutions dealing with non-formal education have huge uncovered potential. With their help we hope to disseminate WMAM education programs in the regions of Armenia and reach out to new communities.
- WikiCamps
A - 4 organized WikiCamps
B - 1 designed guide for Wikicamp
In the upcoming funding period Wikimedia Armenia plans to organize 4 WikiCamps - 2 university and 2 school student camps (2 in winter, 2 in summer). As described above, this year we will focus on working with university students and will continue to adapt our camp activities to those students. Following our strategy of quality content, our main goal will not be the quantity but the quality of content. The students will work mainly on 1 or 2 articles trying to cover all the necessary information related to the topic of the articles.
Wikimedia Armenia also constantly works on the involvement of new interesting components to the camp which will inspire and motivate the campers to have a productive and high quality contribution. We will work on incorporation of other non-wiki activities to support campers’ personal development. This include sports, games aimed at improving campers’ leadership, communication and other skills, sessions on active citizenship and etc.
In addition, for the school student camps, we plan to revise “Learning through wiki” part where campers will not only learn through contributing but also learn through reading, checking and referencing wiki. On the base of our periodic interactions and discussions with camp Group Leaders and Wiki Mentors we plan to create “Wikicamp Handbook” in order to document and structurize all procedures and activities.
To expand the concept of WikiCamps and the Wikimedia Movement, WMAM will negotiate with different state and non state stakeholders to incorporate WikiCamp activities in existing youth camps. This will be a good way to export our capacity in organizing camps, reach more people with less resources and reach out to new audiences.
- WikiClubs
A - 5 new donors for WikiClubs
B - 2 meetings with WikiClub coordinators
Wikimedia Armenia with the support of Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) will open 5 new WikiClubs in various regions of Armenia. The project targets rural communities as children and adults in rural communities have poor access to quality, alternative education and knowledge, little opportunities for self-development. A number of activities are planned which involve not only the local communities but the neighbour ones as well. We will put more stress in engaging adults in our WikiClubs and teach them using Wikipedia as a source for information.
During the course of operation of WikiClubs, we have observed its impact on participants’ development be it on their personal skills or performance at school. However, as we actively work on the enlargement of WikiClubs this year, we will do a research on WikiClubs influence to collect data and have evidence based proof of their positive impact on clubbers’ life, education and overall development. We will also tightly work with WikiClubs coordinators on increasing the quality of the content produced in the clubs. WikiClub coordinators will assist us in designing “Handbook of WikiClub coordinator”, so making easy for new coordinators to get engaged and consider all challenges that they might face.
We will introduce new learning modules in our Clubs’ activities, which will include documentary screenings, discussions on various topics, training sessions on different soft skills, such as communication, public speaking, team work and etc., which will make the WikiClubs even a better place for education and personal growth.
Western Armenian
Western Armenian Wikipedia is in place and has a quality content contributed by community members from different countries.
Previous experience
editSince 2015 WMAM has been implementing the Western Armenian Project with the support of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (CGF), which was aimed at development of Western Armenian content in Armenian Wikipedia. Western Armenian Program has all above mentioned programmatic directions in itself, but as it has a special role, different geography, and target group, WMAM decided to put it as a separate programmatic direction.
Previously, the Western Armenian content was created on Armenian Wikipedia, so Armenian Wikipedia now have two language content. Though having two language content in one platform created obstacles, it was a starting base for Western Armenian to be present on Wikipedia.
In the framework of this project we have conducted different types of events such as training of experts in different fields, WikiCamps, networking with various Diaspora organizations, which contributed to the creation of core group of editors and promoted development of articles in Western Armenian.
In January 2018 efforts of WMAM, CGF and other parties resulted in receiving separate ISO 639-3 language code for Western Armenian. The ISO 639-3 code element for Western Armenian - [hyw] was created by SIL International based on our joined proposal. This achievement and the possibility to have separate Wikipedia for Western Armenian will become a base for our Western Armenian program in 2018 and all efforts will be directed towards creation and support of Western Armenian Wikipedia with quality content.
- Western Armenian experts' wikiweek in Armenia video
- Western Armenian WikiCamper promotes Wikiprojects in his school
- WikiCamp in France video
- WikiCamp in Portugal video
- Having two language content in one Wikipedia is a tough and unproductive experience, as it creates technical, language obstacles, and demotivates Western Armenian contributors and readers to use Wikipedia.
- Utilizing possible cooperations with other diaspora organizations and events will expand the outreach on the Western Armenian Program and bring new people on board thus enlarging the community and geography of contributors.
- Having separate Western Armenian Wikipedia will motivate contributors and make their work more visible and useful.
Activities
edit- Creation of Separate Western Armenian Wikipedia
A - 3 editors assist translation and technical improvement of Western Armenian Wikipedia
During this year Wikimedia Armenia will work more actively with the editors to resolve the technical and translation issues in creation of the Western Armenian Wikipedia. We believe that after the separation the encyclopedia will attract more editors, as it will be technically more convenient for Western Armenian people and there will be no language barrier in using the platform.
- Trainings for experts
A - 5 communities of different countries are presented at the training
B - 10 follow-up events organized by the participants in their home countries
Similar to previous years, Wikimedia Armenia will organize a wiki seminar for different Diasporan professionals in Armenia. The seminar is aimed at the dissemination of the ideology of Wikimedia movement in the remote corners of Armenian Diaspora which will allow us to involve more editors and volunteers in WMAM programs. Along with the organization of a seminar in Armenia WMAM plans to have meetups in the Diaspora. These meetups will be both an introductory presentation for those communities who are new to the Wikimedia Movement and a workshop for those communities who have learned editing tools during previous WMAM events but need deeper knowledge to move further and make higher quality contribution. WMAM will also try to be get involved in different non wiki events organized for Diaspora Armenians both in Armenia and abroad, thus reaching out more audiences.
- Summer WikiSchool in Aleppo and other activities
A - 12 individuals from Diaspora attend WMAM events in Armenia
B - 1 collarotion with Syrian-Armenian school
Syrian Civil War weakened and decreased the Armenian community in Syria. In order to diversify the life of Syrian-Armenian students in Aleppo, bring new activities to their daily life and also to use the potential of this strong Armenian Community we plan to build Wikimedia community in Aleppo. Wikimedia Armenia in collaboration with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation will organize a Summer WikiSchool in Aleppo. During one week the participants will be introduced the Wikimedia Movement, Wikimedia projects, how they work. The participants will do their first editing steps during this week.
Along with these activities Wikimedia Armenia will hold a number of online and offline edit-a-thons aimed at the improvement of certain topics in Western Armenian Wikipedia. This will also help to keep in touch with the Diaspora communities.
Continuing the tradition of hosting active wikieditor students in Armenian WikiCamps this year as well the most active editors from Diaspora communities will be invited to participate in Winter and Summer WikiCamps in Armenia.
Organizational development (non-programmatic direction)
As stated above, WMAM has announced the 2018 as a year of organizational development. Along with 4 programmatic directions, we will work towards organizational strengthening, which will be a guarantee for our quality work and sustainability. The objectives of this component will be the following:
- To improve the performance of WMAM through capacity enhancement,
- To make WMAM and its mission well known and respected in Armenia,
- To engage diverse financial resources and ensure financial sustainability of the organization.
Capacity enhancement
editThis component will have two major directions: procedural improvements and skill upgrading.
We expect to have the revised Bylaw by the end of 2016-2017 APG and start operation by the new one since July 2018. After Bylaw is adopted, we will develop and adopt several internal regulations, such as Board and Employee Handbooks, membership guidelines and etc. We will conduct an organizational assessment to reveal our strengths and weaknesses and to create a list of required policies based on the findings. These policies will regulate different spheres of organization’s life, ensure its smooth operation. Based on the assessment we will come up with employee capacity building plan aimed at improvement of the required skills for better implementation of their job descriptions. We believe that these improvements will bring WMAM to a new level of development, which will positively impact its programing and image among the community, partners and society in general.
We will try to tighten our cooperation with our peers in other countries to learn from their experience and to share our skills. WMAM representatives will continue attending Wikimedia Conference, Wikimedia Executives meetups among other Wikimedia events, which we find a great venue for learning, networking and exchange.
Outreach
editWikimedia Armenia has a positive image in Armenia, but very often it is known by its WikiClubs and WikiCamps as those are the most promoted and thus perceived as an organization working only with kids and Wikimedia content developed again by the kids. Currently we are trying to promote our other initiatives, e.g “I create a vital article” and our experienced editors to show also more adults and professionals engaged in Wikimedia editing.
We will develop a Communication plan, where we will indicate the major communication directions and online/offline channels, which will be utilized to build a well known and positive image of Wikimedia Armenia and Wikimedia Movement in general. We will engage in various local networks, participate in diverse events on education, media and content development, youth, voluntarism and etc. We will organize fun online and offline Flashmobs to attract people’s attention. We will further improve our website as our main information platform and engage more people via our social media channels to tell people that Wikimedia Movement is much more than only editing Wikipedia. We will develop outreach materials both printed and online to speak about Wikimedia editing and Wikimedia Movement.
Financial sustainability
editWikimedia Armenia has a great experience in collaboration with local private sector representatives who fund WikiClub establishment and monthly operation. Due to shortcomings in our Bylaw, WMAM is not able to get those funds and spend itself, thus all expenditures are carried out by donors directly. After the Bylaw is revised, WMAM will receive those funds and manage itself, thus ensuring better management of resources. We will establish a reporting mechanism for our sponsors, to ensure the transparency of our operations and to share the success of their supported Clubs.
Currently WMAM works on development of its online donation system integrated with our http://wikimedia.am website. This will help us to engage donors not only from Armenia, but also from Diaspora. We will develop diverse fundraising products to help contributors understand where we need their assistance more.
We will continue fundraising from institutional donors and look for cooperation opportunities with large organizations, companies, and initiatives. WMAM will work on introducing editing training modules as a paid service in youth camps implemented by other organizations.
Staff and contractors: upcoming year's annual plan
edit- 1. Please describe your organization's staffing plan or strategy here, and provide a link to your organization's staffing plan or organogram if you have one.
As stated in the bylaw of WMAM, The supreme body of Wikimedia Armenia is the General Assembly, which has the right to make a final decision on any issue and aspect of the organization. WMAM consists of Board and the President. The Board has 7 members. Under current proposal it is proposed to have 7 staff members with 5.5 FTE in total.
Executive Director - 1.0 FTE
- Develop strategic and annual plans under board supervision.
- Organize consultations with community members for development of strategic documents.
- Ensure implementation of the strategic and annual plans.
- Carry out planning and allocation of all resources in accordance with current APG and Annual Plan and WMAM other commitments.
- Oversee the delivery of the programs and services and efficient and effective day-to-day operation of the organization to maintain or improve quality.
- Administer the funds of the organization according to the approved budget and monitor the monthly cash flow of the organization.
- Provide the Board with comprehensive, regular reports on the revenues and expenditure of the organization as well as on the progress of annual plan implementation.
- Ensure that the organization complies with all legislation covering taxation and withholding payments.
- Research funding sources and write funding proposals to increase the funds of the organization.
- Identify, assess, and inform the Board of internal and external issues that affect the organization.
- Draft organization’s internal management regulations, e.g Employee handbook, job descriptions, appraisal and professional development system, and etc. for Board approval and ensure their proper implementation.
- In addition to the President of the Board, act as a spokesperson for the organization.
- Establish partnerships with public and private organizations, GLAM institutions and donor organizations in cooperation with the President of Board.
- Establish a positive, healthy and safe work environment in accordance with all appropriate legislation and regulations.
- Coach and mentor staff as appropriate to improve performance.
- Foster effective team work within the staff and ensure communication with the Board and the staff.
Education Program Coordinator - 0.75 FTE
- Lead the educational initiatives and manage respective projects.
- Coordinate activities with Education Program stakeholders and maintain partnerships.
- Select new WikiClub coordinators, ensure constant communication with coordinators on Club content issues, introduce new educational materials.
- Design educational content for educators, WikiCamps, and WikiClubs.
- Train educators and Club coordinators on Wikipedia Education program.
- Conduct the statistics of Education Programs and provide reports on monthly basis.
- Contribute to Wikimedia Foundation Education newsletter.
- Contribute to WMAM monthly, progress and annual reporting.
- Participate in design of new grant proposals.
- Jointly with other staff members carry out Quality Content program activities.
Community Program Coordinator - 0.75 FTE
- Organize programmatic part of online and offline community editathons, meetups, trainings, and editing activities.
- Ensure the partnership with international community members and Wikimedia affiliates and coordinate international projects.
- Reveal the needs of community and design community capacity building initiatives.
- Organize community participation in WMAM strategic and activity planning and ensure WMAM reporting back.
- Support the design and branding of community related communication materials.
- Provide community with technical resources and literature.
- Carry out technical maintenance of Wikimedia Armenia web platforms and equipments.
- Conduct the statistics of Community Programs and provide reports on monthly basis.
- Contribute to WMAM monthly, progress and annual reporting.
- Participate in design of new grant proposals.
- Jointly with other staff members carry out Quality Content program activities.
Western Armenian Program Coordinator - 0.75 FTE
- Manage the Western Armenian Program according to the plan and the budget.
- Develop reports on the project implementation.
- Coordinate education and community activities with WMAM respective staff for Western Armenian Program.
- Develop education materials in Western Armenian for Experts training, Summer school, WikiCamp and other activities.
- Develop the concept and agendas of all events in partnership with respective WMAM staff.
- Negotiate with different stakeholders in Armenia and Diaspora and create partnerships for enhancement of Western Armenian Wikipedia and better outreach of Western Armenian Project.
- Implement online and offline workshops, carry out discussions with various community members and comes up with.
- Conduct the statistics of Western Armenian Program and provide reports on monthly basis.
- Contribute to WMAM new grant proposals and reporting.
Treasurer, Administrative Coordinator - 0.75 FTE
- Organize and maintain filing system for important and confidential company documents.
- Support budgeting and bookkeeping procedures, ensure that all items are invoiced and paid on time.
- Address employees queries regarding office management issues (e.g. stationery, hardware) and manage office supplies stock, arrange warehouse, catalog goods and place orders.
- Maintain the office condition and arrange necessary repairs.
- Manage contract and price negotiations with service providers․
- Arrange travel and accommodations.
- Coordinate logistical and administrative aspects of WMAM operations.
- Reporting to Department of State Property Management on the use of office space.
Communication and Social Media Coordinator - 0.5 FTE
- Research audience preferences and discover current trends and develop communication plans and strategies.
- Manage organization’s website and presence on social media to sustain readers’ curiosity and create visibility around new projects.
- Ensure information provision on Wikimedia Movement, Wikimedia Armenia and its activities to community members.
- Create engaging text, infographics, image and video content on Wikimedia Armenia activities for different audiences.
- Maintain communication with WikiClub coordinators, different stakeholders, and media.
- Coordinate the digitization activities of Wikimedia Armenia.
- Assist Wikimedia Armenia reporting.
Event Coordinator - 0.75 FTE
- Organize wiki workshops, seminars, camps, meetings and other events.
- Manage all pre-event planning according to requirements, target audience and objectives, e.g. organising guest speakers and delegate packs.
- Ensure smooth implementation and crisis management of all events.
- In collaboration with program coordinators develop events concepts and agendas. Coordinate activities of WikiCamp Group Leaders and WikiMentors.
- Maintain communication with parents of WikiCamp participants.
- Oversee all logistical and administrative aspects of WMAM events.
- Produce post-event evaluation, analyze the evaluation data and share the conclusions with the staff to inform future events.
- Together with administrative officer research venues, suppliers and contractors to select the best appropriate options.
Assistant to Board President - 0.25 FTE
- Assist WMAM President with daily administrative duties and complete a broad variety of administrative.
- Manage an active calendar of appointments;
- Compose and prepare correspondence;
- Arrange complex and detailed travel plans;
- Arrange itineraries, agendas and compiling documents for meetings.
- 2. List of staff by department or function.
- You can use this table (or substitute your own list) to show us the number of FTEs (fulltime equivalents) for each department or function, where one person working at 100% time would be counted as 1.0. We need this information about the total number of staff (FTEs) you plan to have by the end of the current funding period, and staff you plan to have by the end of the upcoming funding period.
Table 4
FTEs Department or function End of current funding period End of upcoming funding period Explanation of changes Executive Director 1 1 Education Program Coordinator 0.75 0.75 Community Program Coordinator 0.75 0.75 Western Armenian Program Coordinator* 0.75 0.75 Treasurer, Administrative Coordinator 0.75 0.75 Event Coordinator 0 0.75 Communication and Social Media Coordinator 0.5 0.5 Assistant to Board President 0.25 0.25 Total (should equal the sum of the rows): 4.75** 5.5***
Table 4 notes or explanation of significant changes:
* Funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the Western Armenian Program.
** During the course of APG implementation WMAM had to reallocate some amount, which was saved due to change of Executive Director and hiring new ED with less salary.
The following changes were communicated to WMF:
- Mher Bekaryan, Treasurer and Administrative Coordinator, was moved from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation funding to WMF funding, as we were still negotiating with CGF about the future grant and were not sure about the staffing for that project.
- Yelena Khachaturyan was hired as an assistant to President of Board from March 2018.
*** The current APG was full of events, which made us conclude to have two seperate positions to cover the responsibilities of event coordinator and communications and social media coordinator. Thus we have these two positions incorporated into our staffing list as the proposed APG is also packed with lots of large scale events, which require lots of organizational and communication efforts.
- 3. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the current funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
- 54,044,253 (108,088.506 USD)
- 4. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the upcoming funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
- 51,829,000 AMD (103,658 USD)
Financials: upcoming year
editDetailed budget: upcoming year
edit- Please link to your organization's detailed budget showing planned revenues and expenses for the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017). This may be a document included on this Wiki (Meta) or a publicly available spreadsheet.
Revenues: upcoming year
editPlease use this table to list your organization's anticipated revenues (income, or the amount your organization is bringing in) by revenue source (where the revenue is coming from) in the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017).
- Use the status column to show if this funding is already guaranteed, if you are in the process of requesting funding, or if you are planning to request funding at a later time.
- Please include in-kind donations and resources in this table, as applicable, and use the status column to show that they are in-kind resources.
- Do not include money you plan to draw from your reserves during the upcoming funding period.
Table 5
Anticipated revenues for the upcoming funding period Revenue source Currency requested US dollars Status (e.g. guaranteed, application)
Wikimedia Foundation 133,727,000 267,454.00 Application Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 18,154,000 36,308.00 Application Yerevan Foundation 8,600,086 17,200.17 Guaranteed AGBU Bridge for CSOs (EU supported program) 10,852,721 21,705.44 Guaranteed Total revenues (should equal the sum of the rows): 171,333,807 342,667.61 -
Table 5 notes: If your organization has significant funding other than FDC funds, please note how those funds will be used.
Operating reserves: current and upcoming years
editPlease note that there is a policy that places restrictions on how much FDC funding your organization can use to build its operating reserves. If you would like to use FDC funding to for your organization's reserves, you must note that here. You will not be able to decide to allocate FDC funding from this grant to your reserves at a later date.
- 1. What is your plan for maintaining, building, or spending your reserves in the current year and the upcoming funding period? Please use the table below to show the amounts in your reserves at the beginning, year-to-date, and end of your current year, and the amount you plan to have in your reserves by the end of the upcoming funding period.
Table 6
Year Year start Year start (US) Year-to-date Year-to-date (US) Year end Year end (US) Current year (e.g. 2017) 0 0 0 0 0 0 Upcoming year (e.g. 2018) - - - - 0 0
- 2. How much FDC funding is your organization requesting to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period? If you are not requesting any FDC funding to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period, you can write zero.
- 0
Expenses: upcoming year's annual plan
edit- 1. Expenses by program (excludes staff and operations).
- Program expenses are the costs associated specifically with your organization's programs, and do not include operating expenses or staff salaries, which will be described in separate tables. Program expenses may be the costs of an event, the costs of outreach materials specific to a program, budgets for microgrants and reimbursements, or technical costs associated with specific programs, for example. The programs listed in this table should correspond to the programs you have listed in the programs section of this proposal form.
Table 7
Program Currency requested US dollars Quality Content 20,970,086 41,940.17 Community 15,670,000 31,340.00 Education 47,012,721 94,025.44 Western Armenian 12,442,000 24,884.00 Organizational development 5,030,000 10,060.00 Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 101,124,807 202,249.61
Table 7 notes: If your organization has significant funding designated for specific programs (e.g. a restricted grant), please make a note of that here.
- 2. Total expenses. Please use this table to summarize your organization's total expenses overall.
- These are divided into three categories: (1) staff expenses from Table 4 (including expenses for staff working on both programs and operations), (2) expenses for programs from Table 7 (does not include staff expenses or operations expenses), and (3) expenses for operations (does not include staff expenses or program expenses). Be sure to check the totals in this table to make sure they are consistent with the totals in the other tables you have submitted with this form. For example, your total program expenses excluding staff will be equal to the total in Table 7, while your total staff expenses will be equal to the total in Table 4 and your total expenses will be equal to the total in Table 1.
Table 8
Expense type Currency requested US dollars Program expenses (total from Table 7, excludes staff) 101,124,807 202,249.61 Operations (excludes staff and programs) 18,380,000 36,760.00 Upcoming staff total expenses (from Table 4) 51,829,000 103,658.00 Total expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 171,333,807 342,667.61
Table 8 notes:
Verification and signature
editPlease enter "yes" or "no" for the verification below.
- The term “political or legislative activities” includes any activities relating to political campaigns or candidates (including the contribution of funds and the publication of position statements relating to political campaigns or candidates); voter registration activities; meetings with or submissions and petitions to government executives, ministers, officers or agencies on political or policy issues; and any other activities seeking government intervention or policy implementation (like “lobbying”), whether directed toward the government or the community or public at large. General operating support through the FDC may not be used to cover political and legislative activities, although you may make a separate grant agreement with the WMF for these purposes.
I verify that no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation will be used
for political or legislative activities except as permitted by a grant agreementYes
Please sign below to complete this proposal form.
- IMPORTANT. Please do not make any changes to this proposal form after the proposal submission deadline for this round. If a change that is essential to an understanding of your organization's proposal is needed, please request the change on the discussion page of this form so it may be reviewed by FDC staff. Once submitted, complete and valid proposal forms submitted on time by eligible organizations will be considered unless an organization withdraws its application in writing or fails to remain eligible for the duration of the FDC process.