Govcom minutes 2019-09-05

Housekeeping

Present

Josie Fraser (Chair), Sangeet Bhullar (online) Staff: Lucy Crompton-Reid

Apologies

Rosie Chapman

Kate West

Declarations of interest relating to matters on the agenda

None.

Approval of Minutes and Matters Arising

The minutes of the last meeting were approved. There were no matters arising not covered on the agenda.

Planning for board away day on Saturday 21st September

Lucy outlined her thinking regarding the agenda for the board away day. The following priorities for discussion were agreed:

• Wikimedia UK’s strategy for 2016 - 19
• Global movement strategy
• Theories of Change and Evaluation Metrics
• Upcoming priorities

It was agreed that Lucy would circulate the draft agenda to GovCom prior to distribution to the full board.

Review of board and sub-committee membership

Following the elections at the July AGM, the Wikimedia UK board currently has ten trustees including two new members, Andrea Chandler and Rod Ward. As Kate West will be stepping down from her co-opted role in September - after six years on the board - a vacancy will arise for another member. There is also the opportunity to co-opt an additional trustee - bringing the total number to eleven - if there is perceived to be a skills gap that needs filling.

Action: Josie will lead on identifying and recruiting potential candidates for co-option, and GovCom will make recommendations to the board at the December meeting.

There was also a discussion about the current membership of the board’s two sub committees, ARC and GovCom. After Kate’s departure from the board at the end of this month, both GovCom and ARC will be down to two trustees and one external member. As the ideal number for these committes is between three and five, with two trustees required for the meeting to be quorate, it was agreed that increasing membership on both committees is a priority.

Both GovCom and ARC would benefit from legal expertise, and this will be a priority for Josie when identifying potential new trustees. GovCom also discussed and agreed that we should be flexible about this, and consider lawyers who want to join one of the sub-committees as an external member, as it may be too big an ask for someone to join the full board and both committees.

Actions: Lucy to add committee membership to the agenda of the next ARC meeting to discuss and agree any other priorities for membership in terms of skills and experience.Josie to follow up with the lawyers previously suggested, and explore other avenues for recruitment.

Update on new Advisory Boards

Lucy reported that she has had a favourable response from everyone she has approached about joining the new Development Advisory Board - to be charged with exploring and advising on fundraising and business development opportunities for the charity. In addition to trustees Marnie and Nick, the following external people have agreed, in principle, to join the group, with an initial meeting to take place in October or November. Lucy also has one-to-one meetings arranged with the people she hasn’t met before (Lily and Cath):

Lily Harris, Director of Development and Alumni Engagment at the Royal College of Music

Chris Keating, Head of Supporter Retention at tthe National Deaf Children’s Society

Ed Saperia, Founder and Dean of Newspeak House

Cath Taylor, Senior Partnerships Manager at the Prince’s Trust

Lucy will convene and chair the Development Advisory Board unless agreed otherwise, and Katie will attend the meetings.

Davina is leading on the new Technology Advisory Board and is working with Lucy to identify potential members from the staff, board and volunteer community.  

Plans for board induction and training

As previously discussed, Josie will be leading an in house training session on relevant copyright issues, as the two quotes obtained by Lucy were too expensive. This will be open to staff and board, and will be combined with editing training by Doug.

It was agreed that Katie would find out first who is interested in attending, before finding a suitable date.

Review of Annual Returns

Lucy advised that she will circulating by email a copy of the charity’s annual return to the Charity Commission, that is due to be submitted in October. This is a statutory compliance issue and it is good practice for the return to be reviewed by the board in advance of submission.

AOB

None