Grants talk:TPS/HstryQT/American Association of Museums

Registration fees

Could you provide some context for the exorbitant registration fee? Could it be that AAM is eager to have Wikipedians present, but is charging them $330 for the privilege of providing star content for their conference? If so, that's lousy. Can they be talked out of it? Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 23:13, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, AAM's registration fee is regrettable. You can see their rates here. In their mind, their act of good faith comes in the way of the $1000 that they've stated they're putting towards Liam's travel and the probable $500 they're putting towards Alex's travel. Additionally, while Sarah's registration is currently listed as the accurate rate, she may very well get the scholarship and have zero registration. If she does not, then I will argue that they honor their Early Bird student rate at $225 rather than the $265. I've always felt that their scholarship schedule is messed up and they should still honor the Early Bird rate if the applicant doesn't receive the scholarship. My two cents. :) HstryQT (talk) 03:31, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

I see, thanks. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 21:15, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

I've since been double checking with our session's sponsor and my main contact. I've been told repeatedly that Presenters get one day of registration waived, yet the stated presenter's registration is only $40 less, not a full $200+ less that you'd think (based on the daily rate.) While the current registration rate is the accurate Presenter's rate, we're going to look harder at having two days waived for us, since we were ranked the top session and we're presenting twice (and doing a Marketplace session.) I'll update the budget accordingly if this ends up coming through. Thanks again. HstryQT (talk) 01:18, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Update: I've been put in touch with some AAM staff in order to ensure again that we are receiving as much financial assistance from them as absolutely possible. I received a detailed reply regarding the costs of registration, and it does look like what I have posted is the accurate rate and the lowest that they can do. (I do have the more detailed numbers describing this, if needed.) We are still waiting to hear back on Sarah Stierch's scholarship. HstryQT (talk) 15:59, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Number of participants

4 participants in 1 conference does seem like a lot! Would you be able to expand upon the roles of Dominic's and Alex's roles in the conference in order to highlight how essential their participation is? For example, being familiar with Dominic's work, I can see why his perspective would be valuable (in terms of bringing an "archive" perspective to a museum conference), but this is not very explicit in the grant request as currently written. Wolliff (talk) 17:41, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Added additional information to the individual roles heading. Thanks! HstryQT (talk) 19:56, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Special nature of the conference

Please include in your request justification for funding this large number of participants by offering us insight into the special nature of this event and the uniqueness of this opportunity. We are unlikely to regularly fund requests this large, which is why we need this additional justification to move forward. Wolliff (talk) 17:41, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Also added Note on number of participants. HstryQT (talk) 19:54, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

I've added a section on Significance and made an attempt to more clearly articulate what makes this conference and this opportunity so unique. There are also additional details in the "Note on number of participants" section. I hope that this helps in illustrating why this event is worthwhile to support at this level, and that it's clear that we wouldn't assume for a large grant like this to be a regular occurrence. Thanks so much! HstryQT (talk) 22:29, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Request/updates with funds disbursal

There are some updates to the budget which I would like to have approved before moving forward.

Alex did in fact receive a $500 AAM scholarship (this was not reflected in the grant request because we did not have confirmation from AAM, while we did have confirmation for Liam's scholarship.) Rather than return this money directly to Wikimedia, we're proposing that it be used to remedy a number of discrepancies in the original budget. These include:

• Dominic verbally requested that I update his hotel room request to 4 nights instead of 3 (as was reasonable for the length of the conference) but this wasn't updated in time for the request. (Dominic's total discrepancy is $156.)
• Liam's disbursal had an unanticipated $180 fee during transit. We are working on getting an explanation from his bank and a receipt for proof of this discrepancy. (Liam's total discrepancy is $180.)
• I neglected to add a fourth night for Sarah onto our shared hotel room. My personal expense report will pay for the three nights, but it'd be helpful if Sarah could have the fourth covered in the grant. (Sarah's total discrepancy is $149.)

All added up, it means that we are within $50 of Alex's $500 (technically it would cover all but $45 worth), so that money could all be used toward remedying these discrepancies.

Again, we're working on obtaining a specific explanation from Liam's bank. In the meantime, we hope to have Alex cash the scholarship check in Minneapolis and distribute these funds in person so as to avoid additional fees and lost cost. For this reason, if there are no issues an approval before Sunday, April 29 is appreciated.

Thanks so much. HstryQT (talk) 20:51, 25 April 2012 (UTC)