Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Celebrating 15 Years of the Afrikaans Wikipedia

Hi Oesjaar and Discott. Thank you for submitting this grant request and congrats on 15 years of the Afrikaans Wikipedia! It's especially exciting to see so much progress made in the last three years. We are happy to support celebrations around the anniversary and have a few questions/comments below.

1. I updated the budget numbers in the table and the infobox. It looked like the addition was off. Please confirm the sum is what you are asking for.
2. From the budget breakdown, it looks like you are requesting flight and accommodation for two Wikipedians and you expect 30 people to attend the cocktail event. How did you come up with those numbers? Did you already post about the event and get a sense of the level of interest?
3. We understand that there is a benefit for Wikimedians to meet in person, especially for a small community. Beyond just the face-to-face benefit, are there projects or challenges that the Afrikaans community has raised that they would like to work on or address during an in-person meeting? These types of opportunities are few and far between so it's great to make the most of them.
4. As I've noted before, we cannot approve this request until all of WMZA's outstanding reports have been submitted.

Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 18:28, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi AWang (WMF), some very good questions most of which I have tried to answer below in the order that they were asked in:

1. I have just double checked the requested budget and it all adds up, not so sure where the off addition is that you are referring to is other than a $17 which I have now corrected. Could you be more specific please? The amount we are asking for is $1 915.20.
2. Great question. One of those individuals is for Oesjaar who is based in Pretoria and is, in addition to being a co organiser of this event, a pillar of the Afrikaans Wikipedia community. He is also a member of Wikimedia ZA and we will be having our AGM around the same time. Flying him down kills many birds with one stone so to speak. The other person is to be decided by the Afrikaans Wikipedia community and awarded as a scholarship. I am going to ask that Oesjaar expand on this second flight further as he knows the Afrikaans Wikipedia community better than me.
3. Great question but I am going to ask that Oesjaar and other Afrikaans community members expand on this point further.
4. Working on those reports. Almost done with the big one, will wrap up the second one soon. --Discott (talk) 18:27, 26 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi Guys! Let me try to assist on these questions:

1. Douglas has reacted.
2. The news is that NaudeFJ who I was eager to have present as well can unfortunately not make it. My 2nd choice User:Aliwal2012 is still deciding he is the 5th biggest contributor in terms of article (close to 3000) and edits (passed 32,000). There are enough Afrikaans contributors in Cape Town, the bulk in fact!
3. Regarding the Afrikaans community having Wiki meetings: the Afrikaans community users are the older generation and not the young whiz kids that have every conceivable electronic gizmo and the community does all its communications and arguing via our version of the Village Pump (https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geselshoekie). We are not really interested in meetups as it becomes like work! It works for us! The Afrikaans Wiki is growing in leaps and bounds and is set to create a new record for articles created in a calendar year for 2016!
4. Douglas busy with it!

In General: I have requested to be interviewed on 16 Nov (our birthday) on an Afrikaans radio station - Af:Radio Sonder Grense and a TV show called Die Groot Ontbyt (The Big Breakfast). A media house Af:Maroela Media have offered to assist with a press release.

Regarda

Deon Steyn

Ready to approve

Hi Oesjaar and Discott. Thanks for the responses. We are ready to approve once the WMZA Kiwix report and documentation of expenses has been completed. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 00:17, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

Hi Oesjaar and Discott. Now that WMZA is back in compliance and able to receive grant funds we are happy to approve this grant. However, since the event has passed please let us know if you would like to move forward. Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:39, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi AWang (WMF), since we have not spent a significant amount of the Bridging Funding grant I would suggest we take it out of that.--Discott (talk) 17:28, 5 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi Discott. It's my understanding that you have unspent funds from the Jun15-Dec15 grant. We can deduct this grant from that underspend. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:42, 5 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi AWang (WMF), that sounds perfect. My thoughts exactly. Discott (talk) 10:46, 6 December 2016 (UTC)