ARC minutes 2017-12-01
Attendees
Carol Campbell, Greyham Dawes, Kate West, Jordan Landes, Lucy Crompton-Reid, Davina Johnson, Nicola Furness
Apologies
Alistair McCapra, Megan Griffith Gray
Notes of previous meeting and matters arising
None
Quarter 3 QFMR, Year-end projections and commentary
DJ and LCR went through the QFMR and commentary for the first three quarters of 2016-17.
Income figures are accurate with Gift Aid up to date. Donations are down £10k against budget, which had already taken deterioration into account; however it’s likely this was budgeted against last year’s budget rather the actual figures.
Membership income will be adjusted upwards as some fees had come into the PayPal account and initially been treated as donations.
Budget lines 80, 81 and 82 will be condensed into one External Relations and Advocacy budget heading in the QFMR for readability.
There was a discussion led by GD on what the final percentages represent and whether these should be included considering the recent SORP changes. DJ agreed to delete the percentages for now while we can work on a more accurate measure.
Draft budget 2017/2018
LCR and DJ presented the draft budget for next year.
We discussed IT expenditure and DJ informed the committee that she had recently purchased a number of new machines, some of which had been capitalised. DJ is planning to introduce a year rolling three programme of for computer/laptop replacements.
The Finance Assistant role will be two days a week rather than the three agreed in September. This post will be recruited through an agency early in the New Year. The current finance temp is likely to be with us until Christmas.
DJ confirmed that all staff members are enrolled in the pension scheme and that auto-enrol is active.
The topic of salary sacrifice was brought up, but aside from child care vouchers, does not apply to Wikimedia UK. The fact that the contingency has been increased to 15k was explained, in order to take account of the impending office move in 2017 and to support the costs of interim cover for anticipated staff leave which is likely to take place next year.
LCR was asked to draft a short budget commentary for the board meeting.
Risk Register
Following the consensus at the last meeting that both the format and content of the risk register needs updating, LCR presented a number of alternative new template registers to CC and the most appropriate format for our context has been agreed. Rather than transferring the existing register to the new template, it was agreed that LCR would lead an SMT planning meeting on risk and that the new register would be created from scratch to reflect the current situation and to act as a robust, working document owned by the SMT. This will be ready in time for the March ARC and board meetings.
Changes in key risks since September were outlined by LCR and discussed and agreed by the committee. The only notable change was a decrease in the short-term risk of a reduction in our Annual Plan Grant.
Office move
DJ presented a paper on the strategic issues relating to the office move and reiterated that questions of location, standard of accommodation and likely cost are all interconnected. SMT had assumed various things in terms of the strategic issues relating to the move and this was an opportunity to discuss and question those assumptions, aside from the operational and considerations.
We had a discussion relating to whether there were any advantages to remaining in a charity-only building. The outcome was that although there is a good sense of community and probable price-point advantages, it was not necessary to disregard the possibility of an office outside of ‘charity only’ developments.
The possibility of being hosted or leasing an office from a partner has been explored, but does not seem like a feasible option at this point. (Jordan Landes approached LCR after the meeting with the possibility of space availability in Senate House, which she will explore further).
There was a discussion relating to staff consultation with regards to the location of the new premises.
DJ and NF are continuing to look into options aside from the Cambridge Heath Road and will be in touch with ARC between now and the end of February for advice and input.
Membership and Fundraising
LCR discussed plans to increase fundraised income and grow membership numbers in 2017-18, drawing on key points in a paper going to the December board meeting. Chris Keating has been very helpful in advising on the individual giving plan, which in the next year will focus on consolidating and increasing donations from our existing donor pool (with a current average monthly donation of £4). We are in the process of re-engaging with donors and have planned regular communications with this group over the next six months. There will be a call to action for donors to become members in Q1 and Q2 next year.
Corporate giving was discussed and the consensus was that this is not currently a viable income stream.
DJ confirmed that she has found a technical solution that will enable members to pay by direct debit.
AOB
ARC kindly requests that all trustees submit outstanding expense claims by the end of January 2017
Signatures to the Co-op bank account were discussed and resolved – a new mandate is needed.
The issue of a company debit/credit card was discussed. DJ to report costs relating to a Unity card back to ARC however it was agreed in principle that a new card can be taken out following the closure of ALTO cards.
The possibility or changing the year-end date from the end of January to a calendar year (in line with the Wikimedia Foundation) was discussed. It was agreed that ARC would recommend this change to the board from the 2018 financial year (which would then be an 11 month year).
Date of the next meeting
This will be arranged by doodle poll