Proposal: Regional WikiAcademy program

{{proposal|member1=John Vandenberg}}
This proposal is to establish a WikiAcademy program for wiki workshops to be held in regional areas of Australia, and allocate funding for the first round.

== Annual program ==
Wikimedia Australia will annually allocate a pool of funds for this program.

There will be one round per year.  An expression of interest (EOI) for applications will be sent out in the first quarter of each year, and the results will be published before the end of the second quarter.

;2012-13
The committee allocates $50,000 to this program for workshops to be held in the 2012-13 financial year.

The EOI will be sent out in the middle of March, with a closing date around mid-May.

The committee will approve between 10-15 applications and announce the results in June.

== Prerequisites ==

=== Host town ===

This program for holding a WikiAcademy in areas outside of the main population centres of Australia.  As a rough guide, the host town should be at least 1 hr away from an urban centre of 50,000 or more people, and 2 hrs away from an urban centre of 200,000 or more people, using the 2006 census data which can be found at [[w:List of cities in Australia by population#50 largest Urban Centres by population|Wikipedia]].

A cultural organisation or government body located in the host town must agree to be a partner.  The partner organisation should provide the venue, if that is within their reach, however each partner will have different strengths, and Wikipedia Australia will evaluate the partnership proposal with this in mind.

The partnering cultural organisation doesn't need to be a historical society.

=== Attendance ===
Before the committee of Wikimedia Australia will lock in resources to support the WikiAcademy, eight people must have committed to attend, including:

* five Wikimedians, of which two must be Wikimedia Australia members residing in the state the WikiAcademy is held.
* three distinct historical societies, represented by at least one person

We will not be at all concerned if only those eight people turn up.

== Organisation support ==

With the host town and attendance prerequisites in place, Wikimedia Australia will provide organisational support, including, but not limited to, the following:

* Transport costs of taking Wikimedians from the major cities to the host town, inc. picking up people en-route as appropriate. (e.g. hire a bus; pay for petrol for cars with at least two Wikimedians in the car, etc)
* Transport costs for three Wikimedians who do not reside en-route from capital city to the host town, up to $100 to each.
* Transport costs for five historical societies, up to $200 each.
* Accommodation for up to 10 people who must be either Wikimedians or historical society members
* Catering for two meals, limited to people who have an appropriate reason to be attending.
* Attendance by a committee member

Anyone in the host town who provides overnight accommodation will receive free membership.

Any society member who turns up is eligible for half price membership. (as we did at the [[GLAM-WIKI]] conference).

== Expectations ==

The organisation will expect that, in addition to the links forged between people and the organisations, the Wikimedians will pack their cameras and notebooks, and will invest some time into developing content about the host town and the topics of interest to the societies that attend.