Grants talk:Project/Rapid/San Diego Wikimedians User Group/Mid 2019/Report

Report accepted

Hello RightCowLeftCoast and San Diego Wikimedians User Group, thanks for submitting this final report and apologies for our belated review. We appreciate the time and resources you have put into this grant to organize various activities aimed at engaging and sustaining volunteers. And even though you have not gained new volunteers in this reporting period, your hard work towards sustaining the user group volunteers have been overall successful. I have reviewed your report and have the following questions and comments:

• You have mentioned in the report that changing guidelines of the Rapid Grants have restricted your activities in many ways. Could you please elaborate on the changes that especially impacted on your planning?
• Have you been able to find a contact within WMF who would support you to scale up and engage new volunteers?
• What is the current state of the San Diego Wikimedians User Group? Is the group active and extended?

Thank you again for your contributions to the Wikimedia Movement. I have accepted your report and expense documents. This grant is now complete. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 08:32, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

@DSaroyan (WMF): one of the contributors to the report was @DrMel: who was instrumental in writing the initial grant and writing the report. Thanks to @Vahidmasrour: for informing of these questions. The rapid grant restrictions, to the best of my knowledge, restricted how funds could be utilized, which hampered some current and potential members ability to continue with the level of organizing and outreach activities which they had envisioned were possible upon receiving the grant. If I am wrong on this view, I will invite other members of the user group to reply to the questions presented above.

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge we have not been able to find a contact within WMF who could support us. We understand that we are one of over 100 user groups, and not every user group can have an individual mentor. We have made contact with many members of the greater Wikimedian community, some very supportive, some who do not view the group as a whole in the best light. We hope to mend relationships with those who do not hold the entirety of the affiliate in high regards, and hope to lean on those who have so far been supportive and learn from their experiences how to expand our affiliate in terms of content productivity and size of active participants/volunteers.

San Diego Wikimedians User Group, has a core active membership of four Wikimedians, and one non-Wikimedian; we have other members who are less active as they were in the past. Up until restrictions placed upon our entire community by the current pandemic, we have held monthly events, and were partnering with local GLAM and education organizations to hold meetups which often involved Wikipedia editing and Wikimedia Commons content production.

If there are any other questions, please let us know, and we will do our best to provide answers.--RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 23:59, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Hello RightCowLeftCoast, thanks for your responses and feedback! I'm really sorry that your affiliate still lacks support from WMF. In any case, I'm wishing you good luck in establishing new connections and fostering existing ones, as well as in expending the San Diego Wikimedians UG. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 13:38, 20 April 2020 (UTC)