Meetings/2010-02-09
Wikimedia UK Board meeting Tuesday 9th February 2010, 8:30pm GMT on Skype
Present: Mike Peel (MP) (Chair); Andrew Turvey (AT) (minutes); Joseph Seddon (JS); Tom Dalton (TD); Zeyi He (ZH); Steve Virgin (SV)
Apologies: Tom Holden (TH)
Minutes
The Minutes of the meeting dated 2010-01-19 were approved.
Email decision
Since the last meeting, the board has agreed on email to ask for a quote from our solicitors for help with the Chapter Fundraising Agreement. AT will request - ACTION AT
Reports
The Chair's Report was noted. The draft blog post on Geograph images was approved. It was agreed there would be a jury of three people to judge the Britain Loves Wikipedia competition made up of:
- AT representing WMUK ACTION: AT
- Someone from MLA/V&A - MP will recruit ACTION: MP
- Someone from Wikimedia Commons - JS will recruit ACTION: JS
It was agreed that one Wikimedia branded T-shirt would be awarded from WMUK to each prize winner and a budget of £50 was set aside for this.
Agreed to sign the Public Domain Manifesto following discussion on the email list. MP will arrange to sign on our behalf - ACTION MP
The Collections Trust has arranged a meeting on 22 February about Linked Data - MP agreed to attend. ACTION MP
JS agreed to deliver a session on 11th March on "evaluating and downloading reference content" for the Dublin City University Learning, Innovation and Knowledge (LInK) Research Centre per their request. ACTION: JS
AT agreed to start a wiki page for a response to the Ordinance Survey consultation on releasing data. ACTION: AT
The Secretary's Report was noted. AT agreed to email round a summary of the changes to the Child Protection Policy for an email decision. ACTION: AT
The Treasurer's Report was noted. Twenty new members (#s 36-8, 53, 55, 57-71) were approved per the email sent round.
TD gave a verbal report. AT asked if he could check whether we have complied with all the obligations in the (unsigned) Fundraiser Agreement.
The Conference Report was noted. JS will try to get a speaking slot at the Museum Next Conference on 30 April and it was agreed to fund travel for JS to attend. Entry costs £120 but MP noted that we have been able to get free entry to events like these in the past. ACTION: JS
The Initiatives Report was noted. ZH will feedback on email the results of this meeting.
SV gave a verbal report. SV met with Bristol Museums today. Also had discussions with Bristol City Council, trying to get Council to put a workshop for interested parties to come to. SV suggest someone else from WMUK would be good to get involved - e.g. MP or AT. He is presenting at various events including BRISSM - SV to send through what he will say for board to approve.
AGM
The planning of the 2010 AGM was discussed.
Board member nomination / election / resolutions process (AT)
AT agreed to email the mailing list asking for volunteers to do telling for the election. ACTION: AT
There was a discussion about TH's proposal that people would be encouraged to give frank feedback on candidates' performance, particularly for board members standing again. This would be in addition to the Questions & Answers section that was used for the Initial Board election. Concern was expressed that this would risk creating tensions for the new board. By majority decision it was agreed that the election process on the wiki would have Q&As only. AT and JS dissented, supporting a feedback section in addition to the Q&As.
AT agreed to do a timeline for the election. ACTION: AT
AT agreed to email the mailing list encouraging people to submit motions for the AGM. ACTION: AT
Conference plan: Speakers, etc.
As an outline it was agreed that we would have two hours for the formal business of the AGM (hustings, reports, election) and four hours for talks, including a panel discussion. Various names were discussed which AT agreed to put on the wiki at Meetings/2010_AGM/Planning#Speakers
JS, TD agreed to take lead on arranging speakers. ACTION: JS, TD
JS agreed to draft a "call for participation" first on the wiki and then on the blog. SV offered to copyedit. ACTION: JS, SV
JS will also email WikimediaUK-L asking for suggestions for speakers. ACTION: JS
Annual Reports
It was agreed we would produce a report in a similar format to the Wikimedia Foundation's annual report so that it could be handed out as promotional material in the year to come. MP obtained an estimate of £104 for 200 copies of a report of 6-8 A5 pages, 130gsm full colour with a 200gsm glossy cover.
AT agreed to compile content for the report by the end of February at Meetings/2010 AGM/Board's Report. TD and SV agreed to assist. ACTION: AT, TD, SV
AT agreed to approach a colleague to see if he would act as a Independent Reviewer. ACTION: AT
Budget
It was agreed we would pay for travel to the AGM for all speakers and board members if they requested it. £500 would be made available for members who would otherwise be unable to pay for travel or attendence at the Open Knowledge Conference. Costs were estimated at:
- Members' travel/attendence: £500
- Travel from continent: £300 x 2 = £600
- Travel from US: £600 x 1 = £600
- Travel within UK: £80 x 15 = £1,200
Total: £2,900.
SV agreed to approach Hewlett Packard to see if they would sponsor. ACTION: SV
JS will add details of the budget to be discussed again in three weeks'. ACTION: JS
ZH left the meeting
Chapters Meeting Representatives
We have been invited to send up to two representatives to the Chapters Meeting 2010 on April 16-18. It was agreed that AT and MP will attend.
AOB
JS has forwarded an email regarding funding that the Joint Information Systems Committee has set aside for "community content creation".
After a discussion about the format of board meetings, it was agreed not to change at the moment but to discuss further by email. Board members are encouraged to take the initiative to organise informal discussions and working groups - perhaps simialar to the WMF "office hours". It was agreed that Skype was more productive than IRC, although there were more technical problems and fewer opportuntities to involve members.
AT agreed to chase the Charity Commission's response. ACTION: AT
JS will email National Archives this week re a digitisation project; SV may also have interest for similar project with Bristol Museum.
Next meeting
The next meeting was agreed for 16th February, to focus on the budget.