Grants talk:Project/Rapid/UG GLAM Macedonia/Awards for students

Budget

Thanks for the submission. Delivering awards to students participating in the planned events can be a strong motivational tool and is certainly welcome. Nevertheless, the budget requested, which accounts for about 45% of the total budget requested for the planned activities and almost 90% if we subtract the cost for honorarium, seems unrealistic and artificially inflated to me with some items being excessive. My suggestion is to make significant cuts from the budget and merge the request with the one on the lectures and edit-a-thons. Please find my detailed evaluation in turn.

• Paying 120 euros for T-shirts is not necessary. I can check how many T-shirts from the package that Shared Knowledge received two years ago left undelivered and will grant them for the sake of this project. They are black in colour with the logo of Wikipedia depicted on its obverse and a compilation of the name "Wikipedia" written in different languages depicted on the reverse.
• Delivering notes and mugs for promotional purpose is excessive. I remember that we were advised to reduce the cost for Wiki Loves Monuments 2015 by discarding mugs while preparing and submitting our annual plan for this year. I checked that we have about 70 pens and 100 badges undelivered from the promotional package received two years ago and would not mind granting it for this project.
• Paying 0.70 euros per certificate is too much. We pay 0.25 euros for high quality coloured certificates delivered to participants in our edit-a-thons and shall give you contact information of the printmaking company. I am also puzzled by the fact that this item is listed as an in-kind donation in the other request.

The high portion of the budget going for food and refreshments during the monthly meetings of the jury and organisers is also concerning and unreasonable compared to the cost for food and drinks during the lectures and edit-a-thons from the other request. Spending ~34 US dollars (30 euros) for five people (one of the jury members lives in Germany and it is hard to believe that he would be able to attend each meeting) differs significantly in proportion from the planned spending of 50 US dollars for at least 10 people per lecture/edit-a-thon. My suggestion is to revisit both calculations.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 15:35, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for suggestions Kiril Simeonovski, and if you (Shared Knowledge) are willing to give 12 T-shirts for our Wiki Clubs student winner, you are welcome to do so. Please check how many T-shirts you can donate to GLAM Macedonia User Group for this purpose, so we will minus them from the costs. About certificates, they will be colored, of course, and given to the winners, monthly, that's why the price is higher, because we'll have to purchase less than 20 in a month. In the other request, certificates are only for the participants in the workshops, which will be given by the institution we will collaborate with.

One Wikipedian who will help, lives in Germany (I pointed that in one or other request), and he could help only in on-line activities. I have to say that Wikipedians are not the only organizers which will have to come on several meetings monthly. Regardrs, -- Violetova (talk) 02:15, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

I checked that we have 10 T-shirts remaining and we are ready to grant them for this project. As for the certificates, we will give you the contact from the printmaking company that offers it for 0.25 euros per unit. Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 06:37, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

Thank you Kiril, that is a big help with T-shirts. About certificates, the price of 0.25 euros per unit is everywhere if we pursue a hundred of them in advance, no need for printmaking company contact. Thank you anyway for that offer. But when one pursue ten or twenty (as we plan to do), the price goes up. Maybe we should think about the content of the certificates, i.e. to leave a lot of empty lines in order to be able to print 100 units at once with lower costs. Regards, --Violetova (talk) 08:22, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

Considering the large difference between the retail and wholesales price, one can conclude from a simple calculation that it would be better to purchase 100 for 25 euros instead of 50 for 35 euros. However, we will check if it is possible to purchase the certificates in the requested amount at a wholesales price for you, having in mind that we regularly purchase from them and therefore they might offer us concessions. Best.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 15:50, 4 October 2016 (UTC)