Grants talk:Project/Rapid/UG LK/Global Voices Conference 2017/Report

Follow up questions

Hello Rehman and Azeez thank you for submitting your report. We really enjoyed looking at your photos as well. We especially enjoyed the t-shirt design. I have a few follow up questions for you before we can accept your report:

1. Can you tell us more about what the six wikimedians participated in at the Global Voices Conference other than the sessions presented by the user group?
2. Can you also share a couple of highlights from your session? What did participants want to learn about? What was their engagement like?
3. Lastly, regarding the remaining funds please follow the instructions [1] to request reallocation. I do agree using the funds on future projects is a better use than sending them back with an expensive fee.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 19:33, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Hi Jifar. Thank you! Please find the answers below:

1. As mentioned on the report, four Wikimedians attended as part of this rapid grant project. The other two were not related to our events and came separately to the general conference. They were mostly organizing as part of Global Voices and/or attending other sessions.
2. Across two sessions, attendees were shown insights into the activities and progress of the Tamil Wikipedia. A live editing workshop was also conducted, where we showed the editing environment, and explained the tools in the toolbar, inline citations, categories, interwiki links, article links, section editing, article history, and also the same in their language Wikipedia (i.e. Spanish). Attendees was very much interested, but engagement was somewhat low due as everyone being tired due to the hot/humid weather, and also due to the fact that our sessions were soon after lunch.
3. A new section will be created below, for requesting to re-use the balance funds in a new project.

Thank you so much! Yours truly, Rehman 06:57, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Hi Rehman and Azeez, I really appreciate your thoughtful responses to my questions and comments. I am circling back to check on the remaining funds that are still outstanding. You had mentioned in your last response that you will let us know how you plan to use the funds in a new project. We require this to be stated within 30 days of your last project. Could you let us know your plans by next week? Please note that we will not be able to fund future projects until the issue of these remaining funds has been resolved. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 22:18, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

Hi Jifar. Thank you for checking back, and apologies for the late reply. I've posted a thread on the UG-LK talkpage to obtain suggestions on using the balance funds, but unfortunately there wasn't any feedback. I am interested in using those funds to add/improve photographic coverage power stations and dams in Sri Lanka, as that is something I am quite familiar with. You could also see some of my work here. Please let me know how much of details you require for that project, as I would have to create a route map with places of interest marked, create a page to obtain additional photo requests from the wider community, as well as plan logistics and expenses. Yours truly, Rehman 15:14, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Additional Comments

Hello Rehman thank you for responding to my comment. In order to approve your mission aligned activity for the remaining funds we would like you to follow these instructions and provide the information on this discussion page. I believe you have most of the information above just add a budget outline and start and completion date for the activities and I can approve the reallocation. Please let me know if you need anything else. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 23:19, 2 February 2018 (UTC)

Dear WJifar (WMF), thank you for your note and please accept my apologies for the late reply (again). I needed some time to sort/prioritize articles needing images, and was finally able to prepare a usable map as a start, with the ability to add further placemarks prior to the project. I will also do my best to cover some of these requests as well.

In order to reduce the cost, I intend to make use of my friend's vehicle, so that vehicle cost could be avoided. Would that be fine? And in the event the project exceeds available funds (due to lots of travelling involved), I am willing to cover the additional costs myself. Is that permitted per grant policies? I intend to start the photo project from 16 Feb 2018 to 15 Apr 2018. As transportation would be free (per above), the budget would include fuel (~8,800 / 40%), incidentals, basic overnight accommodation to cover some remote areas, and licensing/tickets for entering premises of high security power plants [i.e. Kelanitissa, Kotmale Dam, etc] (~13,200 / 60%).

Please do let me know if there is any further questions or clarifications. Best regards, Rehman 09:07, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

Approval of Remaining Funds

Hello Rehman all of this works on our end. I am approving your use of remaining funds and accepting this report. Will you please update us once you complete your project on this discussion page? Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 17:29, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Hi WJifar. I will update here post-completion. Thank you for your support! :-) Rehman 00:49, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Thank you Rehman! Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 21:20, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Hi Jifar. Hope you are doing well :-) Please find the report on the follow-up project below. I will soon start on updating the relevant articles with the new photos. Please do let me know if you have any clarifications. Also, do you want me to email the scanned bills/receipts for this project? Best regards, Rehman 15:37, 8 April 2018 (UTC)

Report on follow-up project

Summary

Three users joined the photo project to cover hydroelectric dams in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. User:Rehman handled the photography, while User:Azeez and User:PasinduBR handled logistics and route planning. PasinduBR is a prospective Wikimedian who helped sort the vehicle and was kind enough to handle all +570km of driving.

Although we had a target to cover at least 8-10 dams, we were able to cover 11 dams in addition to a number of additional subjects along the route. The project lasted for two whole days, starting at 6am on the 24 March 2018, and concluding at 9pm on the 25th.

The entire project went very smoothly. The overall expenses was below budget, as detailed in the sections below.

Travel log

Day 1 of 2

Travel log (Day 1 of 2). See full collection at Category:UG-LK Photowalk - 2018-03-24.

Photo	Date and time	Subject or checkpoint	Distance from previous checkpoint (km)
	2018-03-24 06:50	Veyangoda Railway Station (Start of project)	0.00
	2018-03-24 08:50	Broadlands Dam	67.1
	2018-03-24 09:06	Polpitiya Power Station	0.0
	2018-03-24 09:10	Polpitiya Power Station (Penstock from Laxapana Dam)	1.5
	2018-03-24 09:27	Old Laxapana Power Station and New Laxapana Power Station Drove past entrance to the Laxapana Power Stations (access restricted).	8.6
	2018-03-24 09:55	New Laxapana Power Station (Penstock from Canyon Dam)	7.8
	2018-03-24 09:55	Laxapana Dam, Old Laxapana Power Station, New Laxapana Power Station	0.3
	2018-03-24 10:31	Virgin Hills	3.5
	2018-03-24 11:06	Laxapana Falls (return climb by foot lasted from 11:42-12:30)	1.7
	2018-03-24 12:46	Canyon Reservoir (Entry to Canyon Dam restricted, and no direct sight of dam)	8.7
	2018-03-24 12:55	Canyon Power Station (Penstock from Maskeliya Dam)	1.0
	2018-03-24 12:58	Canyon Power Station (Drove past entrance only, entry is restricted)	0.5
	2018-03-24 13:10	Maskeliya Dam	6.0
	2018-03-24 13:30	Adam's Peak	3.3
	2018-03-24 15:33	Castlereigh Dam	25.1
N/A	2018-03-24 15:53	(Short rest on roadside, near Norton Dam)	7.5
	2018-03-24 16:16	Wimalasurendra Power Station	0.5
	2018-03-24 16:20	Norton Dam	0.9
	2018-03-24 16:22	Martinair Flight 138	0.0
	2018-03-24 17:32	Kotmale Dam	43.3
	2018-03-24 18:07	Kotmale Dam (Crossed dam, enroute to accommodation for the night)	1.7
	2018-03-24 18:34	Wildfire	13.2
N/A	2018-03-24 20:00	Arrived at B. Rose House (lodging)	26.3

Gallery - Saturday

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Day 2 of 2

Travel log (Day 2 of 2). See full collection at Category:UG-LK Photowalk - 2018-03-25.

Photo	Date and time	Subject or checkpoint	Distance from previous checkpoint (km)
	2018-03-25 08:50	Check-out and depart lodging, after breakfast	0.0
	2018-03-25 09:12	Kotagala Tunnel	9.6
	2018-03-25 09:17	Devon Falls	3.7
	2018-03-25 09:22	St. Clair's Falls	1.7
	2018-03-25 09:32	Upper Kotmale Dam	2.3
	2018-03-25 10:21	Lake Gregory	24.5
	2018-03-25 10:29	Hakkgala Botanical Garden (Passed by entrance only)	6.2
	2018-03-25 10:57	Puhulpola Dam	20.1
	2018-03-25 11:26	Dyraaba Dam	8.5
	2018-03-25 11:26	Haputale	21.2
	2018-03-25 12:43	Surathali Falls	26.6
	2018-03-25 13:03	Samanala Dam (Exit dam premises at 13:10 and end photo project. Enroute to Colombo)	15.4
N/A	2018-03-25 17:15	Carwash at Homagama; exit wash at 18:10. Volunteers back home at 20:00 and 21:30.	132

Gallery - Sunday

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Funds breakdown

The project was successfully completed below budgeted cost (LKR 22,000 / $141). All three participants were used to rough travelling, thus allowing to spend minimal on food and accommodation, and instead in spending more on stretching the project coverage to a much larger extent than planned. Subjects covered are showcased in the section above. Although we were not able to get a vehicle for free as initially planned, we were able to find a economical alternative, which cost us a total of about $48 (LKR 7,500) for two days unlimited distance, inclusive of an agreed end-of-journey wash.

For accommodation, we stayed at a place called B. Rose House, which was surprisingly good, considering the extremely low price of Rs. 4,466 ($28.61) for three persons, covering one night with bed and breakfast.

LKR 675 ($4.32) was left after the project, which was credited back into the Usergroup's bank account. Summary of account activity for the period are also mentioned below (in LKR). The actual account statement will be emailed to the grants team.

Funds breakdown

Expense	LKR	USD
Car rental (2 days)	7,000.00	44.84
Fuel (1 of 3)	2,500.00	16.01
Lunch	730.00	4.68
Dinner	953.00	6.10
Accommodation	4,466.00	28.61
Snacks	326.00	2.09
Fuel (2 of 3)	3,000.00	19.22
Lunch	620.00	3.97
Vehicle wash	500.00	3.20
Fuel (3 of 3)	1,000.00	6.41
Snacks	230.00	1.47
Total	21,325.00	136.59

Bank account activity

Date	Description	Transaction	Balance
2018-03-01	Opening balance		23,549.17
2018-03-24	Approved funds for this project	-22,000.00	1,549.17
2018-03-27	Balance credited back	+675.00	2,224.17
2018-03-27	Closing balance		2,262.35

• Note: As mentioned at the time the account was setup, the bank requires us to maintain a minimum balance of LKR 1,000.00 (approx $6.5). To avoid issues in the event of an unexpected bank charge, we try maintain a healthy balance of 1,500-2,000 instead.

Accepting report of additional project

Hello Rehman, thank you for providing this follow-up report and it's great to see the success of the project. Yes, please send us the receipts so we can include it on the grant and close it out properly. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 15:58, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi WJifar (WMF). Thank you for accepting the report. I have sent the receipts and bank statement to the rapidgrants email address. Best regards, Rehman 08:38, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Hello Rehman, I'm replying on WJifar (WMF)'s behalf to confirm that we received the bank statement and receipts you sent us. Thank you! -- Best, JTud (WMF), Grants Administrator (talk) 19:31, 26 April 2018 (UTC)