Minutes 2012-01-24
Minutes for the Executive Board meeting held by Skype on 24 January 2012.
Attendees:
- Roger Bamkin [RB] (Chair)
- Mike Peel [MP] (Minutes)
- Andrew Turvey [AT]
- Jon Davies [JD]
- Martin Poulter [MLP]
Meeting started at 19.33.
Apologies & Board Agenda
Richard Symonds sent his apologies.
The agenda for the meeting was modified to discuss edu wiki first.
Edu Wiki conference
This will be delayed until September so that there is more time for planning it. The current budget will be carried forward into the next financial year. There will be someone organising the program and contacts, working with the event organiser for the logistics. It was noted that it would be good to set a date earlier rather than later. It would be a Thu-Fri event, possibly on the 6th-7th September. It doesn't want to be too close to GLAM-WIKI, but reasonably close might help overseas attendance since they can come from both.
Registration costs are likely to be a nominal amount (~£30). The location will cost circa £7000 from Leicester University, for 2 rooms, catering aside from dinner, and a local organiser. It might be worth looking into alternatives for a comparison quote, e.g. other universities.
Finance status report - AT
The transaction report is available on the office wiki - see [1].
The international transfer payment system is now being tested with low-value payments before being fully utilized.
Signatories for new current account, and international transfer payment system, are currently being sorted out. A proposed board resolution will be sent around for board approval before the documents are sent to the bank.
JD - Chief Executive Report
JD's report was filed at Agenda 24Jan12#Chief_Exec_report. The subsequent points were raised and discussed:
- It was noted that we need to be better prepared to deal with media storms such as that which happened as a result of the Wikipedia blackout against SOPA/PIPA - such media storms have happened before, and we need to get used to them.
- ACTION: Comms person to look into organising a media training day for staff, trustees and volunteers.
- ACTION: Jon to push forward the QRPedia transfer of ownership.
- ACTION: Jon to write a blog post on the events organiser appointment when completed.
- The process for appointing someone needs to be discussed at the next board meeting.
- Financial policy: with the latest modifications, as per the decision at the last meeting the policy is now approved.
- ACTION: Jon to integrate the text from the google document into 2012 Activity Plan, and to use that as the main point for developing the plans for our activities this year.
- ACTION: All budget owners are asked to complete the details of their items by the next board meeting.
- There was extensive discussion about the fundraising debate. CK and MP are attending a Finance meeting in France and CK has asked for a mandate from the board. RB will ask CK to prepare a proposal based on the WMDE document for discussion at an emergency board meeting which RB will organise, possibly on Thursday.
- ACTION: RB to add an agenda item to the next board meeting about WMF activity in the UK.
Proposed 2012-13 Budget authorising individuals (JD/AT?)
The budget needs a list of who the authorising individuals are. The following is a straw man proposal assembled during the meeting:
- Toolserver - Board
- Mass Upload - Board
- Train the Trainers - Martin
- Extended Reach - Martin
- GLAM - Fæ
- Digitization - Roger
- World War - Chris
- GLAM scotland - Fæ
- GLAM conference - Fæ
- Outreach events - Fæ
- University outreach - Martin
- University conference - Martin
- Annual conference - Roger
- Office rent - Jon
- Office equipment - Jon
- Staff travel - Jon
- Insurance - Jon
- Merchandising and publications - Jon
- Projects grants - Mike
- Travel grants - Mike
- Board - Andrew
- Legal fees - Jon
- Accountancy - Jon
- Fundraising - Chris
- Contingency - Board
- Staff - Jon
- Developer - Mike (Jon supporting)
- WMF grant - Board
ACTION: AT to send the list of 2012 authorising individuals around to the board for approval
ACTION: JD to integrate the list of 2012 authorising individuals into the 2012 activity plan.
Preparation for the next Board meeting
Approval of policies
- Finance Policy: Done.
- Staff Handbook - status & process. 12 policies that Jon is currently drafting. To be done by the end of next week. To be discussed at the next board meeting.
- Volunteers Policy: Jon doing a piece on volunteering in the office. Tom Dalton has been asked to draft something. JD to chase.
- Trustee Code of Conduct: Draft in email. To be wikified and added to agenda for the next meeting. JD to ask Fæ to post it on the wiki.
- Participation: Also friendly space policy. Also links in to Tom's work. Should be a board-approved policy.
- ACTION: RB and JD to rank policies by order of importance, so that trustees can focus on reading and approving the most urgent first, and work out what should be on the agenda.
- Jon and other policy leaders to talk through the policies at the next board meeting.
Board interest day
Will last for around 1.5 hours, covering:
- Practicalities of the election (AT to ask James Farrar to talk about this)
- Being in the public eye, and loss of anonymity
- Potted history of the chapter and its rapid development, to give insight into what to expect in the next year (AT to ask Tango to talk about this)
- Activities this year - RB
- Next year - activities, culture shift - AT
- Trustee expectations - (AT to ask Steve Virgin to talk about this)
Treatment of CVs received
JD and RS will sort through any received CVs to identify those that would clearly not be suitable for being a trustee, and will feedback to the board about progress identifying if there be a problem in terms of number of attendees.
New staff
Events organiser will hopefully start next month; comms organiser sometime in March. Induction planned.
PQASSO - Proposed contract - see Fae's email
This was discussed, with those present being generally in favour. Would come out of board costs, as part of the delegated budget.
Wikimania bids
Two unofficial bids have been moved to meta; the deadline for them being made official is this Friday. RB will send an email around to wikimediauk-l to start discussion about this.
Next Meeting
11/12 Feb Board Meeting at our Offices - Board Interest Day.
Proposed to hold next exec meeting (March) in Leicester at the Space Centre if available to us. The meeting was moved to 3 March so that Jon can participate.
An extra telephone board meeting will take place on Thursday from 7.30pm.
The meeting came to a close at 10.30pm.