As you all know, since Wikimedia UK was founded, one of our goals has been to become a Registered Charity. The process hasn’t been easy – our activities as set out in our Object don’t easily tick the necessary boxes on the Charity Commission’s checklist.
The Board has been doing a lot of work on this in the last two months. The advice we have received from the Charity Commission and our lawyers is that for the best prospect of success, we need to amend Wikimedia UK’s Object, and also make some minor changes to our Memorandum and Articles of Association.
To do this, we are calling an Extraordinary General Meeting on 16th October 2011, to coincide with the 50th London Wikimeet. There will only be one item of business: the amendment of the Memorandum of Association with revised Objects. The Board is unanimously supporting the amendment of the Memorandum and we hope the new Objects will not prove controversial. The intention of this motion is not to actually change anything Wikimedia UK does, just to re-define our objectives in a way that better fits in with charity law.
You can see the proposed amendment on the EGM wiki page. Members of the WMUK board are happy to answer any questions you have about the amendment; please ask them on EGM talk page.
If you are able to attend in person, please sign up here. The EGM will be at the Penderel’s Oak on Sunday 16 October 2011. We’ll be in the room downstairs (as you may remember the most recent London wikimeet got a bit crowded).
If you are unable to attend then please vote by proxy. This is particularly important to ensure that we have quorum at the EGM in order to pass the amendment. Details on how to vote by proxy are included in the EGM notice.
All Wikimedia UK members will receive an email with formal notice of the EGM. Only current Wikimedia UK members can vote. If you aren’t a member, but would like to get involved, then you can join online for just £5.
This is an important milestone in our development and we are very happy to have got to this stage. Please help us take it one step further.