Govcom Agenda 2015-08-24

Govcom meeting Mon 24 August at 2.30 pm, at the WMUK office

Minutes of last Govcom meeting

• Minutes

CEO transition update

D'Arcy to report.

2015 AGM follow up

Board resolutions to amend the articles: (1) enabling non-trustees to become full members of Govcom, ARC and any other board committees that may be constituted; (2) relaxing the requirement that the board may delegate powers only to a committee of two or more trustees; (3) clarifying the power of trustees to make resolutions via an on-Wiki vote; (4) reducing the main board quorum to a more usual level; (5) clarifying that the board may delegate the task of approving membership applications (eg to the CEO); (6) updating and correcting the Election Rules.

Member resolutions to amend the articles: (7) Give members notice of deadline for resolution to AGM; (8) Set out clear procedure on how resolution may be amended.

• All approved except (7).

Updating board committee charters to allow non-trustee members.

Board committee memberships.

Discussion of board officer roles.

Board and board committee minuting.

Volunteers strategy day follow up

D'Arcy to report on staff follow up work to date, and ongoing plans.

• Plans for advisory boards

Board development, engagement and continuity

• Trustee engagement
• Filling spaces on the board
• Additional apointments to Govcom

Govcom issues for the next 12 months

• Change outdated policy into bye-laws, with less procedural stuff that needs board approval
• Work with Lucy on improved scheme of delegation
• Update articles based on Charity Commission model

Transparency

A quarterly narrative is required from us for transparency compliance against the transparency KPI "Transparency compliance as determined by Govcom against published transparency commitments". This relates to Strategic goal G2b.2: "We have a high level of openness and transparency, and are recognised for such within the Wikimedia movement and the UK charity sector". See Strategy monitoring plan.

Proposed

G2b.1

The charity's quality of governance has been formally recognised by our independent reviewer, and we are proud of the progress we have made over the last 12 months. That said, some aspects of implementation continue to cause inefficiencies, including our CiviCRM computer system which remains problematic. Our new staff structure, with greater focus on volunteer-facing roles, will take time to bed in, and inevitably the reorganisation has required significant internal effort to audit and improve our office systems.

G2b.2

3/5

The need to improve openness and fully bring volunteers into the heart of everything we do remains a top priority, as evidenced by last month's volunteer strategy day. Work still remains to be done to incorporate these ideas into our day to day practice, and to ensure that everyone builds the questions 'how can I help volunteers?' and 'how can volunteers help me?' into all activities.

Dates of meeting

Define board and Govcom dates for 2016

• Next Govcom Thur 12 November at 2:30pm (provisional).