Minutes 2010-07-20
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Wikimedia UK Board Meeting Minutes
Tuesday 20 July 2010, 7.30-10.30pm BST Via Skype
Present:
- Andrew Turvey (AT)
- Mike Peel (MP)
- Thomas Dalton (TD)
- Steve Virgin (SV)
In camera minutes are at http://board.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Minutes_20Jul2010
Apologies for absence
Seddon has given his apologies
Approval of Minutes 29Jun10
The minutes at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes_29Jun10 were approved, with one correction made to them during the meeting (see the history).
Microgrants committee: Steve approved this.
This board resolves, effective intermediately, to:
1) create a Microgrants Committee under Article 21 with the Terms of Reference stated here: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Committee 2) recognise the Treasurer, Thomas Dalton, as an ex-officio member of the Microgrants Committee 3) appoint Mike Peel as a member of the Microgrants Committee 4) allocate the Microgrants Committee a budget of £1000 for the remainder of the current financial year
This resolution was approved unanimously.
Email decisions
- Appointing UHY as accountants
AT has had their letter of engagement. Need passport + utility bill from 3 trustees. Received from MP and AT.
ACTION: SV to send a copy of his passport and a utility bill to AT.
Once appointed, will need accounts. Set on Wiki: near-complete as of end of the financial year, except it doesn't include lawyer's fees. AT to find out what other information they will need (probably bank statement and expense claims forms).
- Approval of GLAM-WIKI organizer advertisement
Went out; to be covered later.
- Instructing solicitors re charity application further work and employment contract
AT sent an email around about this. Employment contract: they are ready to go with this. Awaiting a copy of the advert; the details of the contract will be written based on the advertisement.
Actions and reports
Chair (Andrew Turvey)
AT's report at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Agenda_20Jul10/Chair%27s_Report was noted.
AT and TD haven't managed to meet to talk about the annual report + chapters grant report. To reschedule to next week - Tuesday 27 July at 8.30pm.
- Wikimania 2010 report back
First time AT was at an event like this - found it enjoyable + interesting.
Open Street Map collaboration: have been working closely with WMDE to improve links between OSM and Wikipedia. One of the OSM directors wants to meet up the next time he's in the UK - so can foster that relationship.
MP: lots of interesting bits, but none jump to mind.
TD: lots of interesting conversations; primarily relationship-building.
Secretary (Mike Peel)
Mike's report at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Agenda_20Jul10/Secretary%27s_Report was noted.
AT: received a call (whilst looking after the WMUK phone) from Guardian asking about Jimmy Wales. This led to http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/19/jimmy-wales-mediaguardian-100-2010
MP: talked with Schiste about communications. Suggested changing the facebook group to a page. Has benefits in reporting, inserting donation forms. Support from AT, MP, SV - so this can be done.
Also suggested changing the followers approach with Twitter so that we follow more people, plus change the registered address. Worry about work - can pipe Twitter to Facebook. AT, SV happy to make this change.
Identi.ca. - AT, SV happy for to MP open an account on identi.ca.
Treasurer (Thomas Dalton)
Not much to report, apart from Wikimania.
Signatories form
Original form must be lost in the post.
AT spoke to the co-op on the phone yesterday, and ordered a copy of the form send to his address. AT to complete and send to MP. Previous form required Tom Holden's signature to change the signatories. AT to investigate.
Emails from Pawel - spoke to him at Wikimania, but haven't received communications yet. AT has also chased him on the toolserver but hasn't had anything back.
Membership approvals: 9 applications to be processed. All approved unanimously.
ACTION: TD to update register of members and send around welcome emails.
AT: 2 cheques received in the post, will send them to TD.
Steve
No report was given on the wiki.
SV has been busy; has just become less so, so will focus more on Wikimedia from now. This includes Somali, university, academy plus a wikimeet to support it.
Bistol City Council queried about whether we would be interested in supporting a bid for funding for the the Somali project. Timing was wrong to make this happen, but this sort of thing will likely happen again in the future. In future situations like this, SV to find out details, then send around for email approval.
Seddon
Seddon will be back soon. AT has spoken to him and updated him on what has been happening.
GLAM-WIKI organizer hire
Discussed in camera.
Fundraiser
See in camera minutes.
Decision in Principle on participation
See in camera minutes.
Approach - Direct Debits, cheques, Joomla, PayPal, CiviCRM, Agreement
See in camera minutes.
Who? - TD, AT, staff
See in camera minutes.
Lawyers
Had emails from Tom regarding Mike Godwin's contact.
AT: Francis was talking about having a firm of solicitors plus a barrister. Wouldn't want to do this in addition to having our existing solicitors. Wouldn't want to change our solicitors until we reach the next milestone - not finishing the CC, but having the conference call with the CC. (TD, MP agreed). So should review our solicitors after that milestone. This response will be at the end of July / first week of August, and have the conference call in the couple of weeks after that. Will get a report from the solicitors after that. So would be mid to late September.
TD: should approach our current solicitors, and see whether they are interested in a more long-term relationship.
AT: so meet with them late September.
MP: would be putting them on a retainer?
AT: not necessarily. Can phone them up - essentially retaining for nothing. Benefit is having a firm that knows what WMUK is about, so no new setup time. Have learnt a lot about the type of service that we can expect, and what we need.
MP: worry about worst case scenario where we get a lawsuit and we need to get a quick response.
AT: agree, this is something we should talk with the lawyers when we meet them.
SV: retainer buys a number of hours, and then the lawyers justify those hours with a report.
AT: paying for work, but committing to a minimum amount of work.
SV: in a similar instance to this where he had experience of, had to pay for 12 months of time regardless of whether they were used or not. Hours could be shuffled around months as needed.
TD: becomes much easier to give the lawyers little jobs as and when needed.
So put this off until September. TD to email Mike to say this.
MP: Mike Godwin had the specific question of whether we want him there.
TD to word the response as us appreciating MG being there if possible.
A.O.B.
Ireland
TD: Discussion has started about setting this up. Should establish what we want to do to support this. e.g. would we be willing to accept microgrant requests from Ireland?
AT: got to be led by WMIE. Willing to help and support and wait for them to ask us if we can do things.
TD: might be useful to take a proactive role, which is what the Foundation is doing as a feet-on-the-ground thing. Actively encouraging chapters rather than supporting.
First step: making microgrants process available to Ireland.
After some discussion, have two options: 1) Extend microgrants to people involved in Wikimedia Ireland. 2) Have a seperate system and budget for chapter support.
With 1) difficulty is with how "involved in Wikimedia Ireland" is defined. Makes it easier for Irish people to get involved than British people.
Agree in principle that we are happy to ofter Wikimedia Ireland some funds to get started.
Send an email to the list saying that we are able and willing to provide funds for this. TD to send as a reply to AT's email.
AT: guy at Wikimania from Wikimedia Kenya. AT had a discussion with them - they are interested in setting up an office in Nairobi, after they are established as a chapter.
Date, time and content of next meeting
Proposed: Tuesday 10 August 2010, 7.30-10.30pm
Next meeting: 7th and 8th August. AT to look into arranging where + when. Could just go to Pendrel's Oak. MP suggests approaching the British Museum / V&A to see if they have a spare meeting room. MP to send them an email asking this.
Date for next online meeting: probably 7 September.
Agenda: possibly 2011 Budget, plus usual board meeting discussions.
MP, TD likely to stay after the meeting. AT and SV unlikely.
10.30-12.30, lunch, 13.30-15.30, coffee, 16.00-17.30.
10.30-12.30am - Normal agenda
13.30-15.30 - budget 2011 + where do we want to be in 3 years time
16.00-17.30 - current activities, microgrants, meeting, etc.
Closed meeting. Minutes will be published.