User talk:MIskander-WMF

SpBot archives all sections tagged with {{Section resolved|1=~~~~}} after 3 days and sections whose most recent comment is older than 90 days.

October update

I liked almost all of what I read in the October update. The Foundation seems to be heading in the right direction and thinking about the right questions. If it gets onto a stable financial track, at low or no growth, and refocuses on technology, legal issues, and long-term sustainability, it will be doing very well. Good work so far, Maryana! Ganesha811 (talk) 13:39, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

Good to hear from you again @Ganesha811 and thanks for your message about the direction we are on. The invite to Talking:2024 mentioned in my update is now open if you'd like to talk more. Also, congratulations on your successful RfA - glad to see new admins join. MIskander-WMF (talk) 18:21, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you! I'll see if there's an option there that makes sense. Ganesha811 (talk) 17:14, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

Potential misappropriation of grant funds

Hi! Over a month ago, I raised an issue about a grant that was apparently awarded in clear violation of the published criteria, because the team members had been repeatedly flagged for issues that bore directly on their fitness as trainers. It took until January 5 for me to get any response from WMF staff, and I have yet to receive any substantive response. I have wider concerns about how grantees are assessed as potential trainers for projects like Wikidata. I don't want us to be in the position where grant money is effectively being spent only make extra work for project volunteers while tarnishing the reputation of the foundation. This seems like an important issue, and I don't understand why I am finding it so difficult to get a response from the WMF. A week ago, I contacted Lisa Seitz-Gruwell and Megan Hernandez about this lack of response, but I did not hear back from either of them. Can you help? Bovlb (talk) 00:19, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Bovlb,

Thanks for reaching out. Yael here, Vice President of Community Growth, which includes the Community Resources function. I report to Lisa Gruwell, who you mentioned. (Megan is the VP of Fundraising and has less insight into grantmaking).

You posted your original comment on December 20th, and my colleague Yop replied on January 5th. As I noted in a comment tagging you on 9 January, WMF was closed for the end of year holidays, so the 4 business day response time seems reasonable. You kindly agreed in your reply to me that this made sense. I did not see that you had since moved your comment to the Rapids Fund page, as requested by Yop, and appreciate you doing that.

I will respond there, and link to the comment I made with regards to the same complaint that was raised about this grant on BilledMammal's recent RfC around process improvements to grantmaking. In short, you'll see that we agree that this is a concern, and we have committed to a few changes going forward in the short-term as well as are reviewing some longer-term ways to address your core concerns.

Feel free to tag me in future comments if you're not getting a response on Community Resources issues. Thanks, Yael RWeissburg (WMF) (talk) 22:44, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

@RWeissburg (WMF) Thanks for following up. Just to clarify, when I said above that " It took until January 5 for me to get any response from WMF staff, and I have yet to receive any substantive response", I do now appreciate that the WMF offices had an undocumented closure during the initial period of non-response. It nevertheless remains the case that many WMF staff that I have contacted about this issue have made no response whatsoever and I don't feel that I have yet received a substantive response to my core concerns. As I said elsewhere, my core concerns are:

• What does the WMF do to ensure that grants are not simply funding disruption and making extra work for volunteers?
• How did we come to approve grants that did not meet the criteria?
• How can we improve the grant review process going forward?
• How are people accredited as "Wikidata trainers"?

As you noted elsewhere, this is not the first time such concerns have been raised. Bovlb (talk) 16:29, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

@LMixter (WMF), @KFrancis (WMF): On December 20th, I reported that it appeared that a grant had been issued in violation of the relevant conditions. My investigations indicate that this problem may also affect other grants. Since then, despite contacting numerous WMF staff members, I have been unable to get a substantive response regarding this potential misappropriation of funds. Is the Compliance team the appropriate people to contact about this? Thanks, Bovlb (talk) 18:53, 9 February 2024 (UTC)