Grants talk:Conference/WCI/Wikimedia+Libraries Meetup 2022

Remote participation?

Hi, it looks like this event will be fully in person? Will you also be enabling remote participation by those who are unable or unwilling to travel due to the ongoing pandemic? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 10:17, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

Hi @Mike Peel, No, we will only be in-person because we don't have the staffing capacity to support online attendance. Assuming this meetup is successful, in the future the event can be repeated with a longer timeline for planning and more support for a hybrid event. Bridges2Information (talk) 19:53, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

This doesn't make sense to me given the last several years of experience with online meetings. If more planning, staffing, and support is needed for an event that includes an in-person component, why not just have an online meeting for now, and figure that out later? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 07:24, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

This in-person Wikimedia Meetup is the weekend before IFLA, the largest international conference of librarians. This year IFLA is in-person in Dublin. Therefore, we hope to attract librarians who are already planning to attend IFLA. Bridges2Information (talk) 19:11, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

@Bridges2Information: OK, but you seem to be flying over 20 people in through this grant, that doesn't match up with attracting attendees of the IFLA that are planning on travelling to the conference already? I see that this has been approved anyway via @CAlmog (WMF):, but this still seems really weird to me. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 21:28, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

Hi Mike, yes, we hope to attract IFLA attendees. But, we don’t expect the entire event to be exclusively IFLA attendees. As you can imagine, many librarians who would like to attend IFLA do not because of the costs. It traditionally attracts a higher percentage of Europeans. Bridges2Information (talk) 20:43, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

WMF comments

Hi Laurie and Rebecca,

First, I want to thank you for a very good and well written proposal. It's clear, it's detailed (but with the most relevant information), and you convey a very clear message as for why this gathering is important and why we should target libertarians in our efforts. You are correct that librarians were not a target audience in past events and it does not align with their impact and leading role in many Wikimedia education and academic initiatives across the movement.

I have just a few questions and comments:

• 87 responses to the survey is really great and it also seems like you used many channels of communication. Moving forward, the Wikimedia Foundation's communication team will also be able to help in using our channels to promote the event. We should also loop in the Education team when time comes.
• I see you identified translation as a risk. Do you have any plans on including translation services? If so, I recommend you budget for it accordingly. Usually translation services are very expensive and if you do plan to incorporate those, you should add the budget before approval. We can talk more about your options on a call if you wish.
• Can you please clarify the participants breakdown? Around 100 participants: 20 full scholarships; 20 partial scholarships - and what about the rest? Will they be self funded? locals?
• I see you have the venue as in-kind. That is great!

Thank you again for this proposal. I'm very excited for this new initiative. Please respond at your earliest convenience so we can finalize the process.

Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 13:18, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

@CAlmog (WMF) Thank you for the time you and the committee have taken to review our proposal. We appreciate your thoughtful comments and questions. We have discussed the two questions, and agreed on our response:

1. Translations: After discussing possible translation services we have decided we will not offer translations for this meetup. We made this decision because we are working with a short timeline and because it's our first time coordinating this event. We are hopeful this event will be a success and that future events can include translation services, which would be easier to coordinate with a longer timeline and a larger planning committee.

2. Scholarships: We estimate 100 attendees. 20 will receive full scholarships (accommodations at Maynooth University and travel). We will use the remainder of the funds to award partial scholarships. We plan to award partial scholarships to more than 20 people. How will we do this? The remaining funds will be used to award accommodations OR travel (we've already reserved 20 rooms for the partial scholarships for approximately $3,300 and the remainder of the funds will be awarded as travel scholarships). We expect that participants who are not awarded scholarships will be local, self-funded, and/or attendees who are adding this event to their IFLA annual conference plans (self-funded). Bridges2Information (talk) 20:39, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Grant approved

Hi Laurie and Rebecca, Thank you for your work on the grant request and for responding to our comments. We are glad to inform you that we have reviewed the final proposal and we are happy to support it in the amount of US$77,244.00. You can expect an email in the next few days with more instructions and next steps. I will also circle back soon to schedule our first meeting. Looking forward to working together! On behalf of the Conference Grants Committee and Community Resources team. Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 15:53, 6 May 2022 (UTC)