Thinking as a member, I would prefer an organisation of which I'm a member to be able to decide on a case-by-case basis what it wants to give grants out for. Thinking as a potential applicant for a grant, I think WMUK's process, at least for microgrants, looks more efficient than deferring to a committe over which WMUK has limited influence.
 
If the WMDE/Foundation initiative is mainly focused on larger grants (ie bigger than thsoe covered by WMUK's microgrants scheme), then there could be benefits to WMUK's participation, and it could be interesting to see what kind of things people are applying for grants for as possible inspiration to Brits.
 
Harry

From: Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton@gmail.com>
To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Tuesday, 1 November 2011, 13:12
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Should we join in the Foundation grants scheme?

On 1 November 2011 12:48, Chris Keating <chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Foundation, and Wikimedia Deutschland, have set up a "participation
> grants" initiative to fund people going places to do things in the Wikimedia
> movement. We've already identified giving travel grants of this nature as
> something we should do in 2012. We've been invited to take part and commit a
> sum of money towards it, but aren't sure whether we should or not.

If we want to fund our own choices of global activities, or give
grants for UK activities (or UK residents doing things overseas), then
we should do so directly. If we want to fund global activities without
deciding for ourselves, then we should just include the money in our
donation to the WMF and let them get on with it.

As I've mentioned in the discussion on internal-l, this new scheme
seems very confused in terms of what the roles of chapters and the WMF
are.

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org