Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Road trips

There is the possibility that WP:NRHP could get a grant from the WMF to help fund road trips to get photos of NRHP sites that are in fairly isolated places that otherwise we couldn't get. This is a draft page to outline how such a project would work. Feel free to change any part of it until we come to a general consensus. General comments welcomed on the talk page. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 17:18, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Goals

Even though we have now illustrated over 76% of NRHP sites, most of our photographers are located in the red areas of the progress map on the right - areas that don't need many more photos. The photos needed are in the blue areas such as in the Dakotas, Montana Idaho, North Carolina, Mississippi, and New Mexico. Our goal is to get the photographers out to the blue areas. Our volunteers do make these road trip, and enjoy them very much, but even when cutting expenses to the bone, these trips can be expensive. We want to be able to pay about half of the expenses for a limited number of road trips just to help cover "gas and motels".

A secondary goal is to help bring in new photographers who live in the blue areas, but who would have some difficulty in covering some of the vast areas in the US without a bit of financial help. Totally new photographers, however, might have some difficulty in uploading to Commons or finding NRHP sites, so minimum experience requirements would have to be met.

Financial aid (I'm sure there will be lots of comments on this - this is just a starting place)

$500 maximum per trip, one trip per year per user unless it appears that there will be remaining funds. No payments below $200.
$1.00 per mile for the one-way distance on the main road between the starting and ending points (minimum of 1 photo per 20 miles), or
$10 per NRHP site photographed (previously non-illustrated) with a $500 maximum

Applying for funds

An applicant for the funds should present a request before the trip on the xxxx page, or by e-mail showing

the proposed dates of the trip
proposed one-way mileage between the starting point and end point via main roads
an indication of which and how many sites he/she intends to photograph based on the county lists
evidence, if needed, that the applicant is familiar with Commons' uploading and licensing requirements, as well as experienced in finding NRHP sites.

A committee of 3 members of WP:NRHP volunteers will be formed. For any application any member of the committee can perform one of these services:

Review the application before the trip to make sure the trip is eligible. Reserve the funds needed a month before the trip begins.
After the trip is complete and information is available on how many sites photographed, approve payment (with the help of the 1st reviewer) and request payment be made from ?
3rd member will be available for a final appeal if the two other reviewers or the applicant disagree. The 3rd member should also be available to users who need help with the process.

How to make payments? I assume that the WMF won't want to make $200-$500 payments. We could ask WikiDC or WikiNYC to handle the payments if the amounts are too small for WMF.

Where to go after the end of the grant?

If this program is successful, we could reapply for a new program grant (probably from another WMF program), perhaps for larger funding

Anything else needed for the mechanics?

An application form to Rapid Grants for the overall program will have to be filled out. I'll post it here when it looks like we're ready. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 17:18, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]