Governance review – interim review and progress report

  • October 21, 2013

The Wikimedia UK logo

Wikimedia UK has just received the independent interim review and progress report which records the progress the charity has made since January in implementing the recommendations of the Compass Review.

This interim report comes around halfway through the 18 month period established for embedding excellent governance practices as recommended in the initial review. It was prepared by Rosie Chapman, an independent governance consultant, with support from her assistant Sarah Loader.

The report highlights that good progress has been made although of course work remains to be done. Of the 50 recommendations made in the initial report good progress has been made on almost all, and half of the recommendations have already been fully implemented into the charity’s practices.

We were particularly pleased to note the consultants’ view that:

“To have adopted so many of the first Governance Review’s recommendations within the relatively short time scale of eight months is very impressive, particularly given the charity’s size and resources. WMUK has clearly spent a great deal of time and effort discussing policies and putting systems and processes in place, and it is admirable that the Trustees have made such good progress in implementing so many of the recommendations. Indeed, for an organisation of its size and relative ‘newness’, WMUK’s general documentation is more robust and effective than we have seen in many similar sized organisations”.

It is also gratifying to see the report notes that “a number of features, such as [Wikimedia UK’s] commitment to transparency, represent good practice which could be of interest to other membership charities.”

Chris Keating, Chair of Wikimedia UK, said: “I’m really pleased by the progress we’ve made in improving Wikimedia UK’s governance over the last year. The recommendations of the Compass Review last year have been immensely valuable in this work. We’re committed to the continuous improvement of our governance and our publication of this audit is part of that process.”

Wikimedia UK would like to place on record its thanks to Rosie Chapman and Sarah Loader for their significant work on this report. You can read the report in full here.

On a related note, Wikimedia UK is to host an international workshop for Wikimedia chapters in March with a view to sharing governance best practice. More details are available on Meta, here.

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