User:Jean-Frédéric/FDC proposal 2015
Some layout tests for Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015 round2/Wikimédia France/Proposal form
Optimising our partnerships
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The sectors concerned are: secondary and higher education, GLAM, social and solidarity economy, cultural associations or groups, sport and gastronomy. The aim of priority 1 for this campaign is to optimize our partnerships. |
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Results for the past year
Strengths / weaknesses
Over the previous year, 9 new partnership agreements were signed, 5 agreements are currently being signed or drawn up and over 25 other partners have been met; for half of them, an initial action has already taken place with the association (outside the framework of an agreement). Wikimedia France has seen a near-100% increase in the number of its partners compared to the last campaign. Wikimedia France’s activities attract a wide range of groups: cultural associations or groups, local authorities, town councils, education authorities, members of the social and solidarity economy, ministerial working parties or public consultation groups. A recurrent event format is emerging from among the actions carried out to add to Wikimedia projects: edit-a-thons, which are popular with partners and involve the volunteers. This trend should be correlated with the growing external demand for training in contributing to Wikimedia projects. This demand is often prior to or concomitant with the holding of contribution days.
However, the association has taken little time to promote its actions internally or externally, being more concerned with responding to demand and ensuring actions are carried out. Similarly, we lack the ability to step back and formalize methodological tools or policies that could help implement actions and mobilize stakeholders (partners and volunteers) more quickly.
The budget allocated to this priority is commensurate. Even though the actions we carry out are not necessarily costly in financial terms, they account for a considerable proportion of the Wikimedia France association’s activities and are also a major investment in terms of time and employee and volunteer resources. The budget has allowed us to recruit a trainee for 6 months, which is crucial in helping us cope with the time required for preparing and monitoring our priority 1actions. We have recorded a large number of donations in kind, mainly during edit-a-thons, where rooms, computer equipment, etc., are regularly made available to us.
Differences / similarities sought for the forthcoming campaign
During this campaign, a large number of actions were carried out that had not been planned (seized opportunities). This had three causes: the transition with the previous employee team, which did not allow us to use the whole of the new employee team to draw up the previous demand; the reorganization of the activity and the increase in employee numbers, which enabled us to deal with incoming requests; the lack of criteria for prioritizing these incoming requests (apart from members’ enthusiasm for and interest in these actions).
Another feature of this campaign is that several “in-depth” actions made little progress (or moved forward more slowly than expected). The essential aspects of formalization (e.g. in the form of practical factsheets or “learning patterns”), capitalization and sharing were not covered as effectively as they should have been.
Lessons learned
The involvement of members of the association (and future members) and of the community of contributors is essential to this priority. Volunteers are central to the association and their involvement is crucial. We realize that the involvement of members from the beginning of an action (when the first contacts are made, etc.) is vital to their commitment and to the monitoring of the action, particularly with regard to partnerships. This involvement then leads to emulation within the association and contributors and is a major factor in the success of an action. We have collected this information into a learning pattern presenting a partnership in the process of being drawn up, the obstacles we have to face and the means used to do so: here.