Minutes 2024-06-11

Wikimedia UK board meeting

11th June 2024, 10 am - 12:30 pm (in person)

MEETING MINUTES

Chair’s Welcome

1. Present, Apologies, and Introductions

Present: Monisha Shah (MS), Vivan Wineman (VW), Rod Ward (RW), Mark Cruickshank (MC), Alex Ashby (AA), Lucy Crompton-Reid (LCR), Sharon Mitcheson (SM), Belvin Tawuya (BT), Sarvesh Ramachandran (SR),  Caroline Ball (CB), Daria Cybulska (DC), and Chuks Ogbonna (CO) (minutes).

Apologies: Sangeet Bhullar (SB), Julian Manieson (JM) Sammy Tarling (ST), Adrian Beidas (AB).

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting, and Belvin Tawuya was particularly welcomed to the meeting as the new Head of Development and Communications.

Declaration of interests: None

1. Review and Approval of minutes of the previous meeting Approved

Matters arising                                                                       Nil

CEO Report (LCR)

LCR welcomed Belvin to the team and wished Robin Owain the best in his forthcoming retirement.

LCR spoke about recent international trips, including the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin in April and her visit to Santiago, Chile where she attended the first global Advocacy meeting and also represented Wikimedia UK at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day.

LCR updated the board on where things currently stand with ratification of the Movement Charter, and responded to various questions from trustees. It was agreed that further deliberation was needed before the Board made a decision on whether or not to ratify the text.

ACTION: LCR to arrange a further call with trustees to discuss the movement charter

Board members appreciated seeing the list of external events and meetings mentioned in the CEO report. LCR thanked the board and said that she would continue this practice if it’s helpful.

1. Report on Staff Culture & Values Survey (LCR)

LCR spoke to her paper on the most recent Staff Culture and Values Survey (this is the third year this has been shared), which was broadly very positive. She also noted that all staff completed the survey, although responses are anonymous. LCR shared that it shows an organisation with a high degree of trust, knowing that issues of harassment would be addressed effectively.  One area which wasn’t as positive was that one person felt they couldn’t bring their “whole selves to work”.  But a culture of support within the team was very clear from the findings.

There were a number of comments and questions from trustees:

• AA observed that positive responses above 80% would generally be considered a great result, and that the outcome of this survey is therefore excellent.
• MC asked if  it is possible to benchmark against other charities? LCR responded that she wasn’t sure but that she could ask other charities or Wikimedia chapters to share their results.
• MS suggested that perhaps we can get aggregated data from the Charity Commission, etc. She also suggested that the staff survey only reinforces already known things to the CEO and asked what LCR is achieving by this, LCR answered that things are flagged up and she has made amends to operations to accommodate everyone or at least make sure that staff members are happy.
• MC requested that he would like to see the questions shared to the board

ACTION: LCR to share the survey questions with the board

Organisational Dashboard for Q1 (LCR)

The dashboard was taken as presented, LCR reported on Knowledge Equity, Information Literacy, Climate & Environment, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion amongst other important areas.

• SR asked if we have a weighted timeline and expectations on how the various items might change going forward, LCR responded that is is something we can do that going forward

Programmes Report (DC)

DC reported the members that she highlighted in the report. On a sector level, we are continuing to work with the National collection and because we are prominent, we are feeding into those. On intangible heritage, the elections have delayed the work in this area a little bit.

She concluded bringing the opportunities for people within the Heritage environment by inviting trustees to take part in the Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) and Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) competitions. She requested that people can get in touch with herself or Richard Nevell for any questions/enquiries.

• SR thanked DC  for the work and asked how we know that we are investing time in the most important projects. Is there a way to think about if these projects are the right ones? DC answered that the strategic framework is the best tool to answer the question, stating that she marries the programmes against them.
• LCR commented that it is part art and part science, Where there’s something that’s new or complex, this is something that LCR & DC talk through.
• MS also talked about doing a dashboard under each ticket item, what are the opportunities we are not pursuing because of our focus on the things we are doing? She however added that she will not like to overburden the management team and staff with too many activities.
• SR emphasised that the board should not be choosing projects but instead be getting to an understanding of where we are and where we should be going with them
• LCR explained that we’re coming to the end of a strategic framework, and starting a new one. We have a partnership's advisory board meeting once a year where it is a useful exercise to have someone come in externally to support us to look at this.
• MS asked for an update and possible presentation on the work on Congruence Engine, National collections, etc and the impacts of doing these projects, DC suggested that these will be presented during the next board meeting.  

Development and Communications Report (BT)

BT reported that we are on target for Q1 regarding small donations, project funding under target due to awaiting results of some grant applications, however there is not a lot of concern this early on in the year.  t He reported that we are also slightly under target on major donations and Gift aid. BT reported that the sessions with Fireside Fundraising has been very useful and that the benefits will come through as we move forward.

On Comms, we have currently surpassed our annual targets in Q1 even though our X (Twitter) followers have dropped slightly, BT will continue to focus on this in the coming weeks. He pointed out that we would like to showcase our work more on our social handles, also sharing that he will be interested in applying for google ads grants to take advantage of that medium.

On Fundraising, BT also said that corporate fundraising is an area we will be focusing on in the coming weeks and would like to develop a strategy for this.  It would need the buy-in from the whole board and we will potentially put together a pack to share across networks and with introductions to corporations.

• AA suggested sharing a strategy for Dev & Comms and asked for that to be shared. He also suggested adding benchmarks into the report.
• MC asked if we are looking at engagements and BT answered that we are interested in working with influencers to drive engagements.
• MS suggested that she would like to know the demographics of Major donors, LCR replied that it is mainly male and young unlike other charities who the majority are female. She also expressed how interested she is to see the demographic of both major donors and legacies.

Finance and Operations Report (SM)

SM gave the report, and it was taken as read, she stated that as RW’s term as trustee comes to an end after the June meeting, he will need to be removed from the bank mandate.

On Operations SM said that focus will be on the audit and preparation of the accounts for 2023/24 and added that we are off to a positive start

• MS stressed that the British Library is an important relationship and that she is meeting with Roley, the Chief Executive, on 25th June.  As he is leaving, it is important to cultivate new relationships.
• AA emphasised that rates might go up so to sign the lease quickly

Draft Strategic Framework for 2025-2030 (LCR) (11. am)

MS suggested we take this offline for discussion, find a one-hour session for board members to dial in and have a chat about it.

Scenario Plans for possible future cuts in our core grants (LCR/SM)

LCR spoke through the Scenario Planning and what it looks like for 10%, 50% and 100% cuts in the budget over the next few years.

Questions received by the Board included:

• MS invited the board to discuss whether there’s a key assumption missing; and to bring this back to the board for further discussion, she talked about the need to include Chapter status also. What is the purpose of the organisation with this staff?  If we only had two Programme Staff and which projects are we saving?
• SR asked what would the catastrophic scenario be? VW emphasised that this is fine and enough work done, but it’s not realistic. AA agreed.  VW asked what our relationship with the foundation is like? LCR emphasised that she believes that things are really positive between us and there’s nothing more we could be doing.
• MS asked what’s the timeline for the submission to WMF; LCR assuming the end of Sep. MS: the board would like to see this and feed into it.

ARC, 30th May (Finance Report from SM, additional comments from AB & AA)

Finance Commentary:

• SM didn’t have much to add to the commentary except that the WMF grant shows in designated rather than being deferred due to new SORP guidelines.

ComDev, 8th June (CB)

CB said two members (including Lucy Moore, Ceryl Evans and Dr Kiran Sahota) are expected to join the committee in the next committee meeting.

• Mainly discussions were had around Community Leaders surveys and Community Development Day.  It was asked if anyone has any suggestions we could do for the community day? Any suggested themes?  Please pass to Caroline or Sara Thomas.
• The Committee formally thanked Rod and emphasised that he would be missed.

1. Board to Approve new members of subcommittees (LCR)

Consent items:

• Need to formally approve new members of subcommittee meetings.
• Acceptable Use Policy approved by the board and glad to see that it is in place

DECISION: Approved by the board

1. Thanks to outgoing trustees (MS)

Two outgoing Trustees:

• Thanks to Julian and look forward to engaging with him as a member of the movement
• Thanks to Rod thank you and how valuable your tenure has been, engagement has been massively appreciated, never afraid to challenge, and the insight and kindness with which you represent the movement.

Any Other Business

Nil

2024 meeting dates - all meetings 10 am - 12.30 pm unless stated:

Monday 26th September: Q3 board meeting, online

Saturday 21st September: AGM, online morning meeting

December: Date to discuss