 You wanna go first or me, butch? Okay, thank you Veronica for giving the floor for Regional Grand Committee. So as Veronica mentioned, this session is actually follow up for the Regional Grand Committee session in Wikimania. So I think in the conference some people are asking to have a session to have a chat with the Regional Grand Committee to answering some more questions that they are wondering like why the question about the proposal is too much for them and then how the Regional Grand Committee review the proposal and making the decision. So I will just review a bit in the conference, we talk about what is the Regional Grand Committee, basically it is a group for reviewing and making the decision to support the Wikimedia foundation for grantee for proposal who applied to be funded. By the Wikimedia foundation and then I think I will jump to some question that may be important from the conference so the first question is about how long are the term limit of Regional Grand Committee. It is 2 years and a person can renew the term up to 4 years and then the second question is about the eligibility for Regional Grand Committee, how they are being recruited. So it's actually a various consideration, some of us actually apply to be a Regional Grand Committee and some of us actually to be appointed to be a Regional Grand Committee. And then the third question is about flux guidance for beginner, it's actually if you put, if you search from the meta page, there is a poll tutorial for flux how to apply, how to manage the proposal. And then the last question is about the conflict of interest for Regional Grand Committee if they are applied for a grant. And because Regional Grand Committee is not a staff, it is a voluntary role, it is under community resource team. If a person happened to be applied for a grant, there will be rescue from the review and the making decision. So the person cannot review and making decision about their proposal. Ya, I think that's for me the next is someone from, if anyone from Regional Grand Committee want to add, I will give it a floor. Okay, just for the benefit of everyone. The Regional Grand Committee is selected by application, each one of us submitted an application expressing interest to join a to the Regional Grand Committee. And then from there we were given some set of questions on how are we eligible on this position. And then after such as our experience with communities and also how we are getting involved in the process. And then after that, after we have selected that we were briefed on the structure of the Regional Grand Committees. As the word says it is regional in nature, it is not global as it was used to do. And then now we review applications that are based on the region. So these applications include the Community Annual Grant and the Alliance is a Fund. We are also sometimes consulted in some applications related to rapid grants. However, it is still within the discretion of the program officer on the final decision for rapid grants. Then probably we could also give it to the other Regional Grand Committees on their processes as well. Harriet, do you wish to add something? Thank you. I hope you can hear me. Yes, we can Harriet. And just to highlight that sometimes as a committee when we realize that there's the need to add an extra person who might be missing in terms of gender bringing in diversity to the committee. We reach out to people or individuals that we think would be of great help to us and if they are available, they can join us as part of the committee. And like we said, there's the issue of conflict of interest. And then we do well as a committee to ensure that there's a fair review. Ensuring that people with any form of conflict of interest do not take in the review process. So I'd like to share that as well. So maybe as we wait for anyone else, if anyone, does anyone have a specific question, something you've been curious about the Regional Funding Committee, whether it's its composition, its role, its future, where we have responses, we will provide them where we need to get back to you, we will do that. But at this point, just creating this space for people to voice their questions or comments or something you've been curious about that you would love to ask directly because we have Regional Funding Committee members from all of the different regions. Umar, Musa? Good day Veronica and good day everyone. I hope you can hear me. Yeah, I mean, it's wonderful to be here with you guys. It's a very nice conversation having you all around. There is this and I've been very curious to ask, though it's slightly different with the rules of the committee. I think around, is it March or February, there have been application for the, for community members to be able to join the Regional Committee, more especially the African Regional Committee. And we've, we've did the application and there were a time that we received an email that the final result, the final outcome of the application will be posted on meter and around. I think it's July, June or July. I cannot really recall the date. So what I really want to ask is, I don't know if it is me that I did receive any further information regarding that. Or maybe I don't really know what really happened. So I wanted to ask what's really happened regarding that, because I don't think I received any other information on that. The last email I received was the plan on revealing the outcome of the applications. I think is it 7th July, I cannot really recall the date. So I wanted to ask what's been happening. Or is it me that I missed the email? I don't know. So that's my question. Thank you. Thank you, Mar. It's a good question. So depending on the region, sometimes a committee may need to do a number of calls, especially when the initial call does not bring out as many people or does not want to say result to as many people applying. So because of that, there could have been delays here and there. However, for the Middle East and Africa region, that process is coming to an end. There was applications at the very end. We got about 40. The current Regional Funding Committee took time to review and shortlist the final list. But then there's an additional process where a program officer needs to interview each of those shortlisted members to verify on a few eligibility criteria points. Depending on requirements or language support needs, that can take long than expected. But I can assure you that process will be coming to an end by mid-September. So you should be hearing from me because of the program officer. And for the other regions, you should be hearing the final outcome from your program officers, especially if there was a need to do a number of calls just to get members to join the committee. But our hope is that by the time we begin the review process of wrong one of applications, the committee is set and ready. Great. Thanks, Masa. Question to committee members? Or are there committee members who would love to share what their experience has been so far in the Regional Funding Committee? Yes, Constan. Hello. I would like to ask a question. After, as we call it, the list of candidates and for those who will join the Regional Funding Committee, after this final list, the people who will be joined by us, what will be the next? Saat we join the committee, there has been a phase of training that has lasted for a short time. Will this training, the new ones, and how will they adapt to the future? For us who are a little more experienced, we are already used to it. Thank you. Thank you, and I'll invite my fellow program officers to jump in as well. Yes, there will be training just like we did with the first outfit cohort of committee members. When we started, we did have a number of trainings. Some of that training that will be shared with the new members will require some self-paced learning. Others will emerge as we go. A good example is within, for example, the Northwestern Europe, there will be an upcoming training around diversity, equity, and inclusion. That's a new training that wasn't there before. Then we will be rolling it out to other regions. Of course, we are looking at different things, including current, what's on the plate of committee members. So if this is happening during a funding round, the funding round is typically very tight and busy for committee members. So we would want to make sure that we are pacing and spacing the trainings to accommodate the needed flexibility around time. But yes, there will be training. Part of it will be that they will be using past recorded sessions from trainings that past committee members and current committee members have control. As we go along, as we continue to see emerging needs around areas that need either strengthening of existing capacities or building on new capacities or tapping into something that's happening within our movement, then we are always open to bring that on board. So if there is a training that you would, you, as committee members, you realize this is a good training that we need to bring to support our process of ensuring equitable distribution of resources, please let us know. But I'll post here in case any of the other program officers have additions as well to make. Yeah, if I may add, hi. This is Mercedes from the Latin American and Caribbean region. We are given the fact that these past two years have been kind of a very important learning experience for all fronts. We're also going to make sure that existing committee members align to all the new changes that are happening. So I would say that this training for new committee members will also, for those existing committee members will also be useful. And in some cases, we will do them together because particularly regarding changes to, like recent changes to the process. So I would like just to say that this is, we also, we want to maintain this effort of continuous learning and continuous training to our existing committee members. Pansang is does the response have the question? All right. I will go to a question on the chat that was quoted by Mikal. My question that is about the one year renewal are regarding the required work plan mentioned in question five, which parts should it include? Is there a recommended template we can work with? So, I would like to say that when I look at question five is does your organizational group have an affiliate or organizational annual plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. So, this question, sorry. Yes. So, we are as an organization might have an annual plan that is, for example, resourced 100% by the foundation. In some cases, the annual plan not all of it is resourced by the foundation. So, and when we look at again different organizations at the different levels they are in, we want to achieve in the next year or in the next two, three years. In this case, when we request for it, if you have it, the word if you have it is that it does support us in understanding a little bit more about your work. So, while it is required to respond, it allows us to know do you have an annual plan that is able to support us in your plan and compared to your second part to question aid to the strategies or programs you are putting or proposing for the foundation to resource, is it something that can support us in knowing a little bit more about your work holistically. In case you don't have it as a group because of the stage you are in as an organization, that's okay. You don't have to have it we do want to understand what is Affiliate X working on for the next year when we look at question aid are we able to assess what are the specific strategies that you are looking to achieve they may be the same in some cases they are not the same and in some cases the annual plan to some groups is a separate document very separate from the application you are making for the general support fund for example but could have similar language around the programs or strategies you are focusing on. I hope that's helpful Mikal and in case not please let me know now I'll try verify or elaborate further. Sandra I don't get your question and may have missed something else Veronica I think Sandra is asking about the difference between question 5 and question 10 while question 5 is asking about the annual plan question 10 is asking about the timeline so I think Sandra wanted to understand the difference yeah so question 5 yes so question 10 is about the operational calendar so it's almost like a work plan it's a simplified work plan without the roles, the time to each program while the annual plan is for example a good indicator is like the APP the APP is the foundation's annual plan but within that we haven't specifically say that we will do this in Kotawan or in January, February March we haven't gone into the detail of a timeline and I know different groups here have examples of timelines so if anyone is open to sharing that timeline you can put it here if you have an annual plan you can put it here so that people can see the difference as well but I do hope that clarifies David yeah and to add what you said if your annual plan includes a timeline of your activities you can simply upload your annual plan in that question so no need to create another timeline on top of your annual plan Sandra, does that help? I'm going to try to look for a few examples but if anyone, I know we have different affiliates represented here if you have a timeline you've worked with before you've seen before so feel free to put it in on the chat okay, we'll get that example other questions as I look onto the other part if we have a few questions is the question posted by Yumiko had been answered already let me would you maybe repeat that because when you were answering I think Yumiko wasn't in the call yeah I'll put it on the chat so I'll read it Yumiko, your question is about asking keywords for community grant application Yumiko, the question is about the role of keywords so too much for experiment in addition to broader gaps between okay okay so this is a good question about fiscal partnerships so a fiscal partner is a partner that comes into support where there are barriers in fulfilling a grant so you've applied for a grant and Morgan is here so she can also add to what I live out so of those partners who have been very important and critical to us supporting partners who are not able to fully fulfill the receiving of a grant so they become the middle the fiscal partner depending on the fees attached to the transfer from keywords in this place to your user group is added within the grant so at the very beginning we would check with keywords do they anticipate any changes let's remember with global economics there's a lot of fluctuation around the forex so we are always updating ourselves so if that's happening in your end the main thing to do is just write to Stefan who's our main contacts together with Morgan so that we are able to know that we are either experiencing a forex loss that then limits the full amount that you receive as a quantity and let Morgan add a little bit more on the fiscal partnership in case anyone is curious hi everyone thanks Veronica as she mentioned I'm Morgan administrator and I know I've worked with many of you so please let me know if there's anything I can clarify about fiscal sponsor organizations and any type of logistics that entail with that type of partnership generally especially in the application process when you submit your application as a grantee we would ask you in advance if you have a fiscal sponsor and whether there is like Veronica mentioned a fee that could be attached to the management of your grant if it's funded typically this could be a percentage of your grant that is added but it could be at any depending on what the organization prefers yeah there's anything other than that that's more specific around how we review these organizations or how we work with them and just to answer yes as what Sandra said in the chat we also are open to existing affiliates within the movement to service fiscal partners we kind of we discuss with them what their role would be if they are unsure about that and yeah thank you Veronica so I think I will answer based on the last review from the issue region one of the consideration about the fiscal sponsors when the new affiliate doesn't have bank account and then the money goes to personal account that will be review by the government that will be like the organization had not been legalized in the country so that's the consideration about the fiscal sponsor so no money like all the money goes to in the personal account he has good thank you for the chat just to clarify what goes he had mentioned there are banks who have a remittance alert if they receive a huge amount if a depositor receives a huge amount of money especially in their personal account or average deposit monthly deposit for instance they are only receiving $300 or $500 per month and then suddenly it spiked to $25,000 it will flag an anti-money laundering alert so they will need to hold the remittance or hold the wiring of the account and investigate if this is coming from an unknown source that's why it is really best that proper coordination needs to be done before the money is remitted to a personal bank account that is why some small organizations tend to use a fiscal sponsor to ensure that the money is not being held by their personal bank thank you what options that people have so probably I could also use the floor to share one of our practices here in the ECAP region for instance there is an applicant who has a lot of concern the grant application is still questionable needs further clarity rather than we reject the application outright we leave some rooms for improvement for instance from the regional grant committees as the program officer if they consider adjusting how they describe each and every how they describe their budget how is it aligned on their goals so with that the program officer goes back to the grant applicant and then further improve the grant application and then from there we could deliberate again in the regional grant committees if we will consider the answers of the grant applicant with the improved answers probably some coaching as well on how they would improve their grant application there are cases that officer or the grant regional grant committees have ideas on a specific question so an answer I mean to our specific question so sometimes we call on the grant applicant to join one of our meetings and then allocate probably about 10 minutes of their time on our meeting to clarify the answers that they have to provide it this clarifies the ambiguation how the ambiguation that we understand on the the grant application so from there our grant application was eventually approved with some adjustments of course with our based on our deliberation discussion and then grantee were able to perform their functions with the how they would circumvent or probably made a creative way on working on their the grant that was approved from them so basically there are times that when we got into each others in wikimania the success stories that they have on their projects courtesy of the grant that they have received and were elated that they were able to complete the segment of their report or particular section of their report because they know how to do it next time that's one of the things that we could share discussion so basically we're not just doing a binary yes or no on grant application we usually find ways for a grant applicant to have some second or third chance to further improve their the grant application thank you budge I see Mikau your question on can someone share an example of question 8 asks about strategies approaches theories of change and programs so for question 8 I'll just speak a little bit about it and then I know within the Asia Middle East and Africa South Asia there's been recent submissions of proposals so we could quickly take a look at that and share with you a few examples but when we talk about and especially Jessica as well especially because you mentioned about the theory of change what we're hoping to understand is there is a problem you're looking to solve for what is that problem what do you want to achieve how are you planning to achieve it so it's almost like what do you want to achieve is consolidated summarized and say outcomes of if we do this we will get this so once you talk about this is what we're hoping to gain when we think about the change we want to see then we want to understand and how will you do that and then and then depending on how you then you could you could using the word you could add activities to say yes this is the strategy we're looking to work with education to support us in moving or adaptation of a policy that will mean that Wikipedia will be used in every classroom as a tool for digital skills to teach digital skills to secondary school students for example but then you will go further in terms of activities and this could be within that or within the question when we talk about the annual plan where you now say for the activities with education key education stakeholders we will further enrol secondary school secondary schools and in each school we will have about 20 high school students for example so we're looking at this story you're sharing around this is the problem and with this problem which could be big and ambitious this is what we hope to achieve at the very end of our effort the contribution because in most cases it's a contribution we can't fully solve the problem so the contribution to solving the problem is this and this is how we're going to make this contribution then later within the metrics we want to understand from you and how will you know you've made progress what is this that you will measure that then tells you we are making progress one policy has been adopted by various maybe the ministry of education in your country or in your county or province depending on how you you organize in your country in some cases you just want it to be tabled in a specific space maybe you want to work with 200 students that's an output outcome but then the outcome is that these students are able to use Wikipedia to inform the information they're taking in they're able to analyze it and they're using it to improve their digital skills so that's another when we think about impact outcomes so that's when we think and that's the theory of change simplified we hope it's simplified and I will put a few links here of a recent completed learning clinic to support grantee partners in unsyedomestifying or having a better or strengthening their current understanding of the theory of change to each program specifically yes so once you speak on the outcomes then you will not state and this is how we hope to address this program number one education program and two maybe gender and within gender this is what you know you could summarize I always say different groups are different the groups that will summarize the education program and you fully get what the education program is about and then the groups that will need to break it down a little bit because for them that's the way they're able to articulate what the education program is all about yeah but in a nutshell that's what that question is about yeah welcome and I'll put the slides and on the chat if anyone else have another question we have many committee members in this call we also have quite a number of grantee partners program officers as well feel free to share your question or comment or something you think could be clearer we could do better something that's working as well Harriet has a question so I'm also a grantee so I'd like to ask them some clarification concerning the new proposal for renewal that is the flux questions so while trying to fill the form I had a hard time trying to find where I should document impact for the entire year so I didn't know if I should place it under the question 8 program, challenges dan strategi dan kemudian mempunyai impact atau mempunyai plan anual jadi itu suatu yang saya ada Harriet kamu akan datang di mana suatu suatu suatu ya suatu suatu di mana untuk mempunyai impact untuk like the whole proposal so I didn't know if I should write it and that the question is where we ask to talk about our programs the strategies or the challenges that we are trying to address or whether to write it ya in talking about the challenges we are trying to address and this is good feedback because then it allows us to I won't say polish up the application form to check on the wedding as well so in our hope was that in addressing in speaking to this is the problem you want to address you will also speak to and this is the change you are hoping to see and that for us when people talk about impact sometimes impact can come of as a very complex term so we did try to break it down a little bit more so that then when you address that this is a problem we are trying to solve and this is to the extent that we want to see change in relation to ABC so that's where to put the impact again like Butch mentioned as we review your proposal and we may be having a challenging fully grasping the idea you're putting forward not that I hope we will include steps in place for avenues for you to provide more clarity whether that's using the feedback we provide on meta or on a face to face session or a call a virtual call with the committee members but that's where we're hoping to understand and what is this change you're hoping to see from you having implemented your proposal in the future Thank you Butch I received this question from random wikimidians also that I encountered during wikimidians at what time does an organization is already eligible to apply for an annual community grant or at what time that they are not yet prepared and they should start at a rapid grant only I can go and pass it to the later anyone else so for a very long time before the new grant strategy only I won't say affiliates or set up organizations or registered groups would access the annual the more long term funds but with the new grant strategy we eliminated these requirements and criteria in some cases there were barriers we were also very keen that we didn't want to create this sense of engineizing communities for you to access more long term funding that supported long term programming you needed to form an NGO we didn't want that especially because we know that comes with a lot of responsibility as well and in some cases takes away the focus or the strengths of a community what that means in short is that individuals and this has happened already groups that are informal to mean you're locally registered you're not locally registered can get an annual grant so it is not tied to you being a recognized affiliate we have funded individuals for long term project whether it's individuals coming together for collaborative project we've funded communities that are organized in their own ways with annual grants we know however that comes with a challenge of depending on country as well I've be able to have for example a joint account which is an enabler or is a useful instrument in supporting further accountability or putting in place those financial structures for your community to build on more financial accountability and management and that's where the fiscal partner comes in we talked about earlier that they become that element to remove the barrier of we can't have a bank account we can't have an organization account because maybe you don't even want to and that's okay but does that mean you don't get long term resources? and that's why we bring in a fiscal partner who you could know one and you can let us know who you're considering and we will do or we could suggest a partner who is willing and we have a number who are willing and ready to support groups that can benefit from their support Sandra, is it a direct? Hello I would like to ask my question Arabic please Okay There is a question the first question is will we be able as a group of users to give a quick presentation if we can change or if we have an additional project in general for the group this is the first question with the lighting the second question is what is the right for the new users if we want what is the right way for them to give a quick presentation or to give a quick presentation and what is the right way for this to do a big topic but this question needs to be answered and thank you I can so so the first question was can a grantee who is a general support fund partner apply for a rapid grant and the answer is no why so a grantee partner who has a general support fund has already resources to give them the opportunity for long term planning, long time they already have that of course we know sometimes as you go along and your project comes up that maybe you hadn't included in your existing annual plan in that case and we have done this so we're not just speaking from theory we have done this if you already have a general support grant ask for an amendment ask make a request and we will make an amendment on your existing grant agreement we also want to make sure that we're creating space for everyone to be able to access resourcing so if we have a general support fund grantee who already has the privilege of having the long term funds to also tap into the rapid fund where it's more supporting short term low resource projects we think it's only fair to let be rapid funds and for the general support fund grantee to request for additional funding but within their current grant agreement through an amendment yeah what is the best way to ask just from your program officer just letting your program officer know we have this new program it will cost us X amount and that's it Morgan is here she's our support for all amendments yeah Morgan, did I miss anything on the amendments no no you didn't Veronica I would just want to emphasize that we would like to have these requests in writing so this could be in the form of you posting on the discussion page of your application or an email to the program officer who can then review and discuss with you and ultimately formalize an approval over email so we just want to have that kind of documented and to confirm that this additional funding is indeed for your proposed or requested projects or activities yep and I think I should add once the approval for the amendment has been made then I or the grants administrators would work with you just confirming your current information your bank information nonprofit status if you have one so that we could issue those additional funding to as soon as possible and this should all occur within your current general support period so for example if your grant is ending on the 31st of December 2023 we would advise you to make your request as well before that date so that we could still include it in your current grant period so I hope that makes sense alright thank you more than the second part of your question you're a new group for you're looking for resourcing what is the best plan it all depends on the plan if your plan requires that you need I won't say advance commitment of resourcing more than the the required rapid fund bund then it makes sense that you're looking into the general support fund we have funded a number of new projects new ideas on general support fund and the main thing is that within that current question 8 we are able to understand what is the problem what impact you want to achieve the strategies overall that is a clear plan for you to that is guiding the implementation of your work so I can't say in some cases the groups that want to pilot a plan so a rapid fund is such a fantastic program to get started on these pilots and then with time depending also on the scope of the pilot it could be that the scope is big enough that it requires an initial general support fund resourcing or it just requires a rapid fund resourcing type of funding and test a few things before then you're venturing out on a long time path alright which Masiri anything else I see we are on clock yeah just one common question that I receive what is the process if there is funds they have a surplus do they have to return the money do they just reallocate it in the next fiscal period or what very good question our hope and Morgan is here so our hope and in some cases depending on country it's very difficult for you to send back to the United States we would hope because we know the resources will be useful either in your next plan that you two things you're able to identify opportunities for these underspend to be used within existing programming or a new program that you want to test experiment on land with number two that you nothing is changing nothing is going to happen so in that case we deducted from your next quote and this happens also for rapid fund so if I had a rapid fund and the balance was let's say $500 in my next rapid fund we would deduct a $500 because you already have that money so same thing can happen for your general support fund especially where there is no avenue for reallocation or no need additionally where there is no you haven't already identified an area or new program you want to test on all while being aligned with your existing what is already committed within existing grant agreement but this is something you can just share with your program officer and you will figure it out together alright before I pass it to gochang goes it to close my needs to say thank you very much for taking the time on your Sunday to join this space interact with the committee the program officers and share your questions clarifications and comments and looking forward to the next one thank you gochang for inviting us as well to Mercedes, Morgan, David I think Jessica was here as well and all the regional funding committee members and grant departments for taking your time and to interpreter, thank you so much so thank you everyone for attending this session if in case you suddenly have a question after this conversation feel free to email your program officer have a nice day thank you everyone you can open your voice you can unmute and say bye bye and thank you take care everyone have a good week ahead bye bye thank you goch take care thanks David okay bye bye channel