Minutes 2010-08-10

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These minutes were approved at the Board meeting on 11 September 2010.
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Wikimedia UK Board Meeting Minutes

Tuesday 10 August 2010, 7.30-10.30pm BST. Via Skype

Present:

  • Andrew Turvey (AT)
  • Mike Peel (MP)
  • Thomas Dalton (TD)
  • Steve Virgin (SV)
  • Joseph Seddon (JS)

Apologies for absence

All present.

Approval of Minutes 20Jul10

The minutes at Minutes 20Jul10 with in camera meetings at http://board.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Minutes_20Jul2010 were approved, subject to one typo fix and some minutes being moved from the in camera minutes to the public minutes.

Expecting the first draft of the Foundation's fundraising agreement on Thursday.

Email decisions

The board decided to postpone the in-person meeting that was planned in August.

Actions and reports

Chair (Andrew Turvey)

AT's report at Agenda 10Aug10/Chair's Report was noted.

Toolserver working group invoice: bill received by email, but no invoice received.

ACTION: AT to request an invoice for the participation in the toolserver working group.

Some chapters have two representatives; should we also have two? Germany, France and Russia have two; rest don't. Up to the individual chapters. AT preference to keep the group manageable. MP queried whether it would be useful to have TD there to share his views and experiences. JS doesn't think we are at a disadvantage having just one. MP: should have a backup in case AT is away?

ACTION: AT to approach the group to clarify whether we can have a second representative, and if so TD will be added to the list.

Accountants: deadline was 22 months after the date of incorporation. As the financial year was longer than 12 months (November 08 to January 10), so less than 10 months after year end. So deadline was 05/08/2010. Fine is £150; goes up to £375 for 1 month late, £750 for 3 months late. TD's accounts are now in order, so can update accountants. AT will contact TD when the lawyers provide the list of required details. TD is not able to make the meeting on 1 September. Accounts will be incorporated into the annual report; this should mention that they were late and a fine resulted.

Secretary (Mike Peel)

Mike's report at Agenda 10Aug10/Secretary's Report was noted.

Media contact from the Sun; hasn't gone anywhere. Email from Moka put the reply well. Also an enquiry from the Essex Chronicle regarding vandalism of a high school article.

Treasurer (Thomas Dalton)

Tom's report at Agenda 10Aug10/Treasurer's Report was noted.

TD was trying to provide an update on the accounts, but did not manage to complete this; just the part under the Foundation grant was done.

ACTION: TD to provide a complete set of updated accounts for discussion at the next meeting.

AT queried whether there were any more members. One member that hasn't paid; assumed that he was paying by cheque. SV will be meeting him next week so will ask him.

One new membership application, which was approved (membership number to come).

Steve

Steve's report at Agenda 10Aug10/Steve's Report was noted.

Email sent around about the Somali project. SV will meet them again on Friday.

Seddon

Seddon's report at Agenda 10Aug10/Seddon's Report was noted.

Nothing to report: is now home, and has been catching up on emails.

BLW judges: Duvora offline, approached SJ but had no response. Other judges are AT and Nadia Arbach.

MP: currently thinking that we will not do BLW in February next year. Instead: do GLAM-WIKI, and depending on the outcomes of that then possibly do BLW in Summer 2011.

Office administrator advertisement & Budget

Advertise internally. Outstanding query over budget before the advertisement gets sent out.

JS left the meeting at this point as he is considering applying for the role.

Budget: currently rough outline on the wiki. Expenses expected to be small compared to paying their hours. Work on individual projects would be billed to the budgets for those projects. Will need detailed timesheets so that this can be done. Expected ~£250 for stationary, ~£100 for phone. Total cost would be just under £3k.

Advertisement: Overtime will be paid at the same rate as normal. Query over the number of hours due to the amount of work involved in the fundraiser. Don't really have sufficient information. Fundraising work is mainly responding to emails from donors. Refinements to the advertisement were made on the wiki.

Going to have to run a payroll. Have to pay NI and tax. Will probably be tax-free, but the paperwork is the same. Will have to register with inland revenue. Will likely be done by the employee themselves. Other option is for the accountants to do it, but this is expensive for one person. But planning on hiring more in the future.

ACTION: AT to ask UHY how much it would cost for them to run our payroll (1-5 employees).

TD asked whether they would have authority to sign cheques in place of a board member. MP didn't like this idea; conclusion was for board members to retain this responsibility. They would be able to help with the paperwork.

Advert was put up for approval, and was approved unanimously.

ACTION: AT to send around an email to the wikimediauk-l mailing list and draft a blog post to advertise the office administrator position.

GLAM-WIKI

Discussed in camera.

Chapters Meeting

TD needs to chase Pavel about costs. Rough cost from Sebastian was ~€56,000 plus 500 hours. Decision in principle: can't do it this year, but could do it in the future.

MP: Last year offered £1k towards other chapters. This year: support with a larger amount, e.g. £5k? Also support UK developers - cover their travel/accommodation/etc. Discussion on this was left until the in person meeting.

TD: Main cost we would have with hosting the conference is with staff. Impractical to hire a full time event organiser in time for them to start. Difficult to commit to before knowing how much we make in the fundraiser.

ACTION: TD to send an email to the chapters list letting them know that we are not interested in hosting the chapters meeting.

TD: would we be interested in hosting the fundraising meeting in May next year? Conclusion was yes, we would be interested in hosting this.

MP: also potential to have a cultural partners meeting, which could be done in the UK. Could also offer to host a developer's meeting.

Aim to host an international meeting next year. The discussion of this was delayed until the in person meeting.

AGM

Date

Should avoid chapters meeting (25-26 March); Easter weekend (22-25 April); May bank holiday (2nd May).

Weekend of 16/17 April 2011. Saturday better than Sunday. So 16 April 2011.

Location

Want to have it outside of London. Manchester would be easier than Birmingham. Alternatively Bristol (offered by SV). Bristol isn't an easy place to get to from the north (although train from Edinburough takes 5 hours, train from Manchester takes 2 hours). Watershed would work as a venue.

Provisionally say Bristol.

MP wanted it noted that he is worried that we are focusing too much towards the south.

ACTION: JS to talk to OKCon regarding the sponsorship of OKCon2010.

ACTION: SV to pin down a specific location for the Wikimedia UK Annual Conference by end of August.

Attendance

2009: had about 30 attendees. Had much less the next year. Need to improve attendence this coming year. Aim for 50-75 people this year. Have a conference around the AGM.

"Wikimedia UK Annual Conference"

Could use Eventbrite to distribute free tickets.

Mistake last year: not advertising it widely enough or far enough advance.

ACTION: MP to send around a 'save the date' email to members about the Wikimedia UK Annual Conference.

11am-5pm. Would have a couple of speaker sessions. An hour and a half for the main AGM. Meet at 10am for tea; afterwards retire for the pub.

Could have two tracks: one on Wikipedia (content), one on 'meta' or chapters (partnerships etc.)

Costs

Travel for outgoing board members and some members.

Board meeting following from the meeting: could have this the next day? The issue is that candidates would have to stay over for the night.

Next fundraising meeting: would ideally be done later on in May than before.

Would be useful to flesh it out on the wiki. Potential speakers, fleshed out schedule, etc.

AOB

Possible Cancer Research UK Wikipedia Academy

MP recieved contact from Cancer Reaserch UK about a potential Wikipedia Academy

Two parts. First part a short 2 hour presentation style around November. Second part a full day workshop should the response be positive.

MP to approach WMF to see if they are willing to send a representative. Consensus was against being able to pay their travel. MP could also approach chapters to see if they could attend - would be able to pay for travel in this case.

Approval; travel funds; volunteer recruitment; representation from WMF/other chapters

Date, time and content of next meeting

Proposed: in person meeting?

Consensus of doodle poll was for Saturday 11 September. Previously decided that we would not go ahead with the meeting with only 3 of 5. Not have next telecon: instead the next online one would be on 5 October.

Location: London. Several locations which cost £60-£70 for a day, which we could go for. SV to investigate a possible location.

ACTION: MP to locate a location for the in-person meeting.

There is a London meetup scheduled for the 12th.

Actions

  • AT to request an invoice for the participation in the toolserver working group.
  • AT to approach the Toolserver group to clarify whether we can have a second representative, and if so TD will be added to the list.
  • TD to provide a complete set of updated accounts for discussion at the next meeting.
  • AT to ask UHY how much it would cost for them to run our payroll (1-5 employees).
  • AT to send around an email to the wikimediauk-l mailing list and draft a blog post to advertise the office administrator position.
  • TD to send an email to the chapters list letting them know that we are not interested in hosting the chapters meeting next year.
  • JS to talk to OKCon regarding the sponsorship of OKCon2010.
  • SV to pin down a specific location for the Wikimedia UK Annual Conference by end of August.
  • MP to send around a 'save the date' email to members about the Wikimedia UK Annual Conference.
  • MP to locate a location for the in-person meeting.