Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey/2021

Comments from DSaroyan (WMF)

Hi Basak and Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey, congratulations on submitting your first sAPG application! We are really excited to welcome you in this program. I’ve completed the initial review of your application and have a few questions for you:

• How did you engage your community in the development of the Annual Plan and proposal?
• What is the current governance structure of Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey? Do you plan to recruit any new Board members in the upcoming year(s)?
• In general, how do you ensure healthy and transparent governance processes in the affiliate?
• In the upcoming year, do you plan to carry out any capacity building activities for the governing bodies (e.g. Board, President) and organization’s members?
• Given that this is your first experience in hiring staff members, how did you calculate the staff compensation rate? Is this rate aligned with the compensation rates in Turkey?
• How do you plan to manage the staff members? Does the board or other governing body of Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey have any experience with working paid staff members?
• Why do you prefer working with two staff members, each with ~0.3 FTE engagement, instead of, for example, holding a single staff position for 1.0 FTE?
• In the detailed budget table, could you add the unit price and number of units for each budget item? This would facilitate the review process and support us in understanding the planned expenses.

Thanks again for your work on this application. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 10:58, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Answers

Hi DSaroyan (WMF)! Thank you for reviewing our proposal. Please find the answers below:

• How did you engage your community in the development of the Annual Plan and proposal?

The suggestion of applying for sAPG came from came from the discussions of a 5 person-leadership group after the experiences in 2020-2021 under the Reintroducing Wikipedia to Turkey project. Based on the evaluation of the activities and budget spent for realizing those activities, it was decided to continue the activities under four programs and apply for an sAPG from WMF for funding. The draft proposal was written by two and it was shared with the larger community in the general meeting where 25 members of our legal entity were present.

• What is the current governance structure of Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey? Do you plan to recruit any new Board members in the upcoming year(s)?

The user group formed a legal entity registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs under Dijital Bilgi Derneği. In 2020, the number of members increased from 7 to 25 (Those are some announcements on tr.wiki Village Pump to join 1, 2). Not only active contributors of wikimedia projects in Turkey but also active contributors of other open culture projects (i.e Creative commons, Openstreet map) were invited to become member of the organisation and bringing their experiences. Those 25 members constitute the general assembly. In 2020, a temporary board of five was the governing body. After the election in 2021, we have a board of five principal members (the same team was reelected) and five alternate members. If any of the principal members abstain from their role, one of the alternate members will replace. Additionally, there is also an auditors board of 3 principal and 3 alternate members to perform auditing and submitt a report to the board of directors and general assembly once a year.

• In general, how do you ensure healthy and transparent governance processes in the affiliate?

After the removal of the Wikipedia block in Turkey, the affiliate members decided to establish a formal entity as it was seen as a way of establishing healthy relations between wikimedians and the official bodies in addition to being a way of becoming a more healthy and transparent organisation. The members continue their efforts according to the Law on Association. The activities, annual return and tax declarations are submitted on the Information System of Associations (DERBIS) and the association accepted to publish financial information on internet. In terms of relations with the larger community, we see tr.wikimedia.org site as a very important tool of transparency about the activities of the group. The activities are being suggested, discussed and shared in online biweekly meetings which is open to everyone (wikimedians who are members, wikimedians who are not a member of the user group, internet users who are not a part of editor community yet but interested in the wiki-projects). We made sure that notes of those meetings are being published on the tr.wikimedia.org site the next day of the meeting to ensure keeping informed those who do not attend and allow everyone to join discussion or make suggestions even if they do not attend (See the all meeting notes here). The notes on partnership talks, the reports of participants of international events, monthly reports of the project grant, notes of every activity under education program and edit-a-thons are also being shared on the site. Since it's a wiki-site it is very useful for wikimedians to read, comment and discuss. Upon the request of the some members of Turkish Wikipedia editor community who says that everybody do not necessarily follow tr.wikimedia.org pages; a member of the board wrote a bot which update News from the User Group page every night, so that the updates on the group activities are directly accessible from Turkish wikipedia.

• In the upcoming year, do you plan to carry out any capacity building activities for the governing bodies (e.g. Board, President) and organization’s members?

In carrying out the activities of the group there were some skills that the organisation needed to develop. Effective social media management, press-bulletin writing, video-producing, mentoring development were some of those skills needed most. We do not plan to have separate professional support for those areas but willing the members develop such skills and use them for the organisation. At the moment there is not a planned training activity but we are willing to use peer-to-peer support between the community members and also collaborate with some partners on this.

• Given that this is your first experience in hiring staff members, how did you calculate the staff compensation rate? Is this rate aligned with the compensation rates in Turkey?

We calculate the compensation rates on a salary basis regarding the salaries applied to university graduates with similar job description in non-profit organisations. For an idea on Turkish salary rates you can visit here. We would like to note that last year two contractors were hired to manage the education and partnerships programs; the social security premiums and salary taxes were applied according to the taxation system and social security regulations under current legislation.

• How do you plan to manage the staff members? Does the board or other governing body of Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey have any experience with working paid staff members?

The staff will be responsible to the Board of the group. The job descriptions aligned with the general duites and responsibilities of the position are made by the board. To stay coordinated and map the progress on the programs, we plan the staff submit bimonthly progress report to the Board; and the Board to use the staff reports to track the progress and identify possible irregularities that may need further investigation. The board also annually evaluate the staff's performance and provide honest feedback. The group had worked with two contractors last year; that's the only experience.

• Why do you prefer working with two staff members, each with ~0.3 FTE engagement, instead of, for example, holding a single staff position for 1.0 FTE?

Our annual plan includes four programs; we would like have two staff members each responsible from two different programs; one for "Stronger Community" and "Effective Outreach" programs, the second responsible for "Synergic Partnerships" and "Students Editing WM Projects" programs. We believe part time work would be sufficient for organizing two programs, but a full time work may not be sufficient for coordinating 4 programs. Two positions share some common required skills sets (i.e skills related to project management, reporting, communication); however the Board expects those two roles be filled by program officiers from different backgrounds (i.e one more education oriented and other more volunteer relations oriented). Board also expects the two staff coordinate their work and support each other and therefore benefit from the synergy created by working as a team as opposed to alone.The staff is expected to work from home; and online working would allow hiring staff from different regions of the country. This could create an advantage in establishing relations with local organisations in different regions which in trun will be useful in balancing the regional diversity of the group's activities.

• In the detailed budget table, could you add the unit price and number of units for each budget item? This would facilitate the review process and support us in understanding the planned expenses.

Please see the updated budget table here: Table --Basak (talk) 07:20, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Simple APG Committee recommendation

We recommend that Wikimedia User Group Turkey receives funding of $47,000 for 12 months.

We continue to be encouraged by the progress made in engaging with the community and with developing partnerships with various institutions. We recommend that Wikimedia User Group Turkey creates a risk assessment framework to support the identification and preparation of instances that relate to safety; taking into consideration political factors that may influence the work and safety of the community, including staff. With the support of a program officer, you can work with trust and safety on this as well.

We also recommend that the group reviews and clearly identifies the roles and responsibilities of the board, the staff and volunteers to avoid instances of overlapping or duplication of efforts or conflict. There are opportunities for capacity building to support this process.

Overall we are pleased with your proposal and look forward to seeing the impact you achieve.

For the committee, Philip Kopetzky (talk) 16:21, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

APG approved in the amount of 47,000 USD

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 47,000 USD, with a grant term starting 1 July 2021 and ending 30 June 2022. We warmly welcome Wikimedia User Group Turkey to the Simple APG program and congratulate you on your first successful annual grant!

The Annual Plan of Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey includes activities in four programmatic areas: Stronger Community; Effective Outreach & Content Development; Students Editing Wikimedia Projects; Synergic Partnerships.

The Stronger Community program aims at empowering community members and contributing to their capacity building through different meetups and training sessions. The Effective Outreach & Content Development consists of a series of projects to contribute to the content development on the Wikimedia projects. With the help of these projects, the User Group also plans to raise awareness of Wikimedia projects. The third program — Students Editing Wikimedia Projects — represents the educational projects of the User Group. Finally, the Synergic Partnerships is based on building and strengthening partnerships with ally organizations and groups.

We are glad to learn that you are planning to hire staff members, and we agree with the committee’s recommendation to create a risk assessment framework to ensure the safety of UG leadership, staff, and community members.

In terms of strategic planning, we highly recommend working towards developing a long-term Strategic Plan that is closely aligned with the Movement Strategy Recommendations and Principles.

We wish you all the best for your planned activities and look forward to working with you in 2021-2022.

Best regards from the SAPG Committee and Staff--VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 16:31, 16 June 2021 (UTC)