Reports 11Feb12

Below are the Board reports to the Board Meeting on 11-12 February 2012; see Agenda 11Feb12.

Templates for actions: {{done}} Done, {{cf}} Carried forward, {{canc}} Cancelled.

If something needs discussing for longer than a minute, then please add it to the Matters Arising section on the agenda.

Board

All board

1. All board members to look at the Executive Committee proposed definition, and to ask members for input.
2. All budget owners are asked to complete the details of their items by the next board meeting.

Roger Bamkin (Chair)

Actions

1. RB, AT, JD to decide on success points on a successful Wikimania bid Done
2. RB and JD to prepare a draft on Metrics by 3 jan] <- see CK offer Carried forward
3. RB to invite WMDE/WMF/WMNL trustees/execs to give feedback on the WMUK board, and to assemble a summary paragraph for the annual report. Sue/Jommy/Ting tick
4. Closing off the Wright Challenge - 90% done Carried forward
5. 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. Done
6. RB to add an agenda item to the next board meeting about WMF activity in the UK. Done
7. Fæ and RB to ensure that strategy is on the agenda for future meetings. Done

Other stuff

• January - "Wikipedia & Me" - reserve for Fiona at the Herbert
• January - Library Camp North West - Unconference on Libraries in Manchester - remeet Simon Bains from John Rylands re "Grand Project"
• January - QRpedia Paper accepted for New York Conference. Lori has been asked to present.
• Met Anna ??? re exciting major project based around the Domesday Book - see grand projects
• January - QRpedia paper reject by Museum Next Conference in Barcelona because they had two in their final programme. Nice one Alex.
• February - Presentation to Welsh Gov, Monmouth CC and other public bodies re Crowd Sourcing and QRpedia.
• February - SMART UK Event at Westminster Conference Centre to show off QRpedia. Links for Wikimedia UK too with Science Museum and Crowd Sourcing
• 3 February - Ruben Demos and Anna from Wikimedia Austria visit Derby QRpedia

Coming up

• 6 February - MonmouthpediA steering committee meeting and University of Wales
• 7 February - Presentation in Chepstow re MonmouthpediA
• 11 February - Board meeting
• ? February - Meeting with John Rylands Library re partnership with Manchester University
• ? February - Meeting with ??? re partnership
• ChapCon
• Wiki Loves Monuments - London
• Coventry wikimeet

Michael Peel (Secretary)

Split into roles:

Board

• Membership approvals - one batch approved on 24 January, next batch to be approved at this meeting. Please see in-camera report for list of names and locations.
• Need to know attendance numbers, and number of votes, for Annual Conference 2011 AGM Minutes (AT recorded these) Discuss
• Participated in the hiring of events organiser
• Will be attending the Finance meeting 2012 on 18-19 Feb
• Lots and lots of emails worked through...
• Budgets that I am (nominally) responsible for:
  • 2012 Developer budget: To be expanded.
  • 2012 Travel Grants budget: Wikimania and Finance Meeting sponsorships are in progress. We need to make a decision about the Chapters Meeting sponsorship. Discuss
  • 2012 Grants budget: Some microgrants already approved (see below); needs development.
  • 2012 Event Tech: This is not currently covered by a budget line. Should it be? The current draft covers some things that we have already purchased, but also a number of additional items. This may come under other budget lines somehow. Discuss

Grants

• Microgrants
  • Microgrants/RMS Titanic research in England and Microgrants/RMS Titanic research in Northern Ireland Discuss - grant is over the £250 microgrant limit, needs a board decision.
  • Microgrants/Wikinews reporter IDs Discuss - implications need board consideration.
  • Microgrants/Oxford Law Competition - approved 8 Feb
  • Microgrants/Gibbons Stamp Monthly Digital Archive 1890 - 2009 - approved 9 Feb
  • Microgrants/World War I resources - currently a draft microgrant.
  • Microgrants/Core Contest (prizes) under discussion - likely to approve shortly.
  • Microgrants/Microphone needed - approved, but subsequently stalled; archived for now.
  • Microgrants/Brighton Hackathon 2011 - closing off, one expense claim outstanding.
  • Need to set up a page for operating Microgrants/BL photocopies
• Travel grants
  • WikiSym Scholarships - being closed off (only outstanding thing is transferring money for SanFran hotel to WMF)
  • WikiConference India Scholarships - now closing off (still pending expense claims)
• Other grants
  • Need to reformat Microgrants to incorporate standard grants - rename the microgrants pages to grants, with small grants to be dealt with as microgrants, and larger grants to be brought to the board. To investigate making the page into a form.

Administrative

• Reports/2011/November, Reports/2011/December, Reports/2012/January (including SOPA) - need completing and sending out. Reports/2012/February being prepared. Task needs transferring to office.
• Need to improve Minutes 27Aug11, Minutes 19Nov11, Minutes 14Dec11 and get Minutes 1Nov11 online Done
• Keeping track of budget expenditure at [1] (office only - can we open this up?) (Needs updating.)

Sysadmin

• Normal maintenance and backups carried out.

Volunteer

• OTRS workshop - completed, went well, came in under budget. See OTRS workshop/Wrap-up. Harry will be organising a follow-up event in the next 3 months or so, aimed at newbies.
• Wiki Loves Monuments brainstorm - handed over to Harry since I won't be able to make it due to the fundraising meeting.
• Geocamp - on back burner at the moment, will pick up again once we have events organiser in place.
• Closing off Britain Loves Wikipedia Doing... - two prizes now awarded, with the rest in progress. Need to give Jon info about this.

Actions

• JD, MP, SV and CK to assemble a first draft of the Annual Report by February for the Board to review it. Carried forward not been a high enough priority yet.

Andrew Turvey (Treasurer)

Main activity has been:

1. International Payment system is up & running
2. Payments of invoices & expenses on the wiki
3. Identifying Finance Policy exceptions with JD
4. Working with John & Richard on Sage, Unity Trust

February:

1. Closing accounts
2. Supporting JD/RS re UHY
3. Own budget lines esp Board costs

Actions

1. AT - In camera minutes of 2 February 2011
2. AT - written legal advice onto wiki Done
3. AT to transfer the funds for the £10k grant to WMDE to support the Toolserver Done
4. AT to contact WMF board member Jan-Bart to discuss how to locate new trustees.
5. RB, AT, JD to decide on success points on a successful Wikimania bid Cancelled
6. AT and JD to organise the pensions scheme - Doing...
7. AT to send the list of 2012 authorising individuals around to the board for approval

Chris Keating (incl Fundraiser)

Reports

1. Fundraiser wrapup meeting held. Supporting document is 80% complete.
2. Fundraising & Funds Dissemination - have been leading on these discussions & will attend Fundraising Meeting next weekend. Energy-sapping but important. Regrettably had to pull out of comms organiser interviews in order to attend the Fundraising Meeting.
3. World War I: Productive meeting with JISC. Will attend their Centenary Strategic Planning Meeting on March 27th at IWM. Starting to build some momentum about this on-wiki, e.g. at World War I
4. Meeting with NMM about the progress of the Warship Histories project, more to report at the meeting
5. Drafted Project Metrics and Participation policy as starting points for further discussion.

Actions

1. JD, MP, SV and CK to assemble a first draft of the Annual Report by February for the Board to review it. Not done

Fae (and GLAM programme)

• British Library WIR publicly announced and under recruitment
  • BL Manuscripts event (13 people) and GLAM/BL/Bookbinding collaboration underway
• People's Voice Media (Manchester), enthusiastic for an on site presentation to cover releasing their materials (esp. video) and starting collaboration with Wikinews - volunteer needed
• British Museum, JB in contact and meeting Feb 21 to discuss future opportunities
• Wallace collection initial contact through Head of Collections (JB), only 7 articles at the moment and 400 Commons images
• Toolserver response to questions received, requires final confirmation
• Charity application documents reformatted and released, no significant feedback
• TNA progressing - proposal for stage one received
• Partner follow-up and actions delayed by a month due to stalking and intimidation

Actions (all open)

1. Fæ to compile a briefing for partners on issues and expectations surrounding in-residency projects.
2. MP/Fæ Blogs or reports from the recent India scholarships to be received and published, may require re-prompting.
3. Fæ/JD/PW Trustee training recommendation
4. Fæ/JD/RS Strategy 2 day
5. JD/Fæ Horniman Museum approach
6. Fæ with GTF 1 to establish GLAM Task Force 2 (it's time)
7. Fæ and RB to ensure that strategy is on the agenda for future meetings.

Martin Poulter (incl Education budget)

Recent

1. Met with three organisers of Wikipedians at Imperial College to discuss 1) supporting the FreeSpeechDebate project, 2) ways forward for their society, including possible activities (some written up at student societies) 3) building relations with our student contacts at Warwick University
2. Visited FreeSpeechDebate.com launch in Oxford as invited guest; on separate visit, delivered training to 14 Oxford graduate students for the project, with help from Tom and Ed from Imperial. On-wiki activity runs from March to June. Keeping the Foundation updated.
3. Led training event for Bristol Girl Geeks: heavy publicity but disappointing turnout, seemingly because of the Sunday afternoon timing.
4. Arranged training event for Geological Society, March 30th: three volunteers (Gordon Joly, Charles Matthews, HJ Mitchell) have stepped forward. Venue have been briefed about requirements. Working on similar arrangements with other scientific societies.
5. Going through university contacts, contacting them individually about the possibility of running educational projects. Meetings next week in University of Bristol, with a medic and a historian. Looking to populate the newly created Wikipedia Interest Group for UK HE mailing list.
6. Been in touch with Bath Digital Festival about WMUK involvement; passed on offer to be a financial sponsor of the event, but have offered self as speaker and minor financial support.
7. With SV, met with local app developer to discuss geodata

Actions

1. Strategy, publicity & event preparation for Wikimedia Universities Programme: aiming for a conference in September. A host institution has been identified: now waiting agreement from the institution on finances. Doing... Will present on strategy during the weekend.
2. Follow up on scholarly society contacts, including Food Standards Agency (FSA will get back to us after they have recruited new staff): ongoing Done List of contacts now shared on the office wiki. This isn't an "action" so much as a regular part of my role.
3. MLP to put together a full proposal on a Wikipedia trainers, assessment and accreditation program, in coordination with Fæ and Jon. Done Courses documented on wiki, assessment process nearly finished. Next step is to design events (see next point)
4. MLP to talk to Candy regarding launch events for training the trainers Carried forward
5. MLP to finish off spreadsheet of education contacts and share with Jon in case MLP goes under a bus Done

Upcoming

1. Seeking to run an Exeter Wiki Academy to kick off WMUK activity in South West. Speaking to Exeter University contacts about a venue for an evening in early May and to Richard about mailing to local WMUK members
2. Work with British Psychological society including event for university teachers, conference session and magazine article
3. Visiting Hertfordshire University with RB to discuss a range of possible activities
4. Delivering training to staff at At-Bristol science education centre
5. Presenting in department seminar in Interdepartmental Group for Research into the Arts Media and Society at the University of Leicester
6. Creating area on WMUK site for Bristol Open Geodata initiative: an audit of locally-produced geodata and activities to promote creation & use of open geodata. Hoping to bring together a consortium of local geodata producers & users, including the City Council. Will work with SV to promote

Steve Virgin (incl Wikimania Bid)

Actions

1. Seeking sign off for a Case Study for ARKIVE - thinking approach Andy Mabbett to write it if we get ARKIVE agreement Carried forward (Have asked - and am waiting response from Ellie)
2. Set up small scale Back Stage Pass Events based around Science Museum archive at Wroughton near swindon - purpose to find volunteers from the University of Bristol Societies that can work with this (open to all W'pedians of course as well) - attempting to use link up to consolidate the relationship with the Univ of Bristol and begin one with Science Museum (this end of M4) Carried forward - moved this onwards by seeking to get the AGM at the Science Museum - aim is to get an Official Project/Official Person responsible at the Science Museum end with whom we can work
3. JD, MP, SV and CK to assemble a first draft of the Annual Report by February for the Board to review it. (waiting to be contacted to get involved)
4. Worked with JB on Charity Commission rationale (vis sign off and publication of documentation) - 2-3 calls - JB - available to Board members in mail Done
5. Spotted another PR agency 'manipulating entries' from a non-Neutral Point of View - dealt with see below
6. Met CIPR - enthusiastic support for CIPR drawing up set of Best Practice Principles for Ethical Wiki editing; suggested these submitted to the community for views and then agreed; also offered to support a Summer Social media training school with trainers/training across UK
7. CIPR - also want to video link/record a how to do it training session before end of March
8. Made Contact with PRCA - to keep them in loop with CIPR contact/efforts - have a meeting scheduled early March
9. Wikimania Bristol - made contact with a person/volunteer who has experience designing city tours based on mobile technology, am discussing having something created for Bristol using either existing or new Wikipedia pages about the city - preliminary target for Bristol Wikimania but can be for other issues too
10. Attended Girl Geeks Meeting (editing/training) in Bristol run by HM/MLP
11. Bristol Airport agreed to work closely with a proposed Wikimania bid, giving us fast track access to all arriving in Bristol, welcome desk in airport, fast track & discounts for buses running between airport and city + creating hubs at international airports to shepherd/organise arrivals on to flights, working with airlines to secure heavy discounts on flights by reservation codes in advance + securing official airline support (have two in mind but won't name them here) initial conversation suggest this is likely to occur not a pipedream
12. Destinations Bristol - has agreed to manage and organise *all* aspects of booking rooms (securing dicounts), providing tourist support, and a single point of booking/control/coordination for every guest and visitor attending Wikimania

Volunteers

Andy Mabbett

1. AM to provide JD with an estimate for the costs of a web-streaming system.

Staff

Jon Davies (CEO)

Report to Board.

For the day-to-day nitty gritty see my weekly reports and feel free to email me about them.

In summary

A very busy few months building the foundations of the year ahead, principally meeting people, learning as much as I can and creating an office that can serve the community and deliver our ambitious plans. Thanks to those who have offered friendly advice and Richard for being a great colleague despite having to move house etc.

Here are the key elements that I would like to discuss and response to action points:

Actions outstanding from previous board.

1. RB, AT, JD to decide on success points on a successful Wikimania bid - Cancelled, overtaken by events
2. JD/Office to look into a software solution to track actions and plans. Carried forward On back burner – we need some actions to track first and some staff to be tracked.
3. JD and SV to redraft job description for Comms staff. Done
4. AT and JD to prepare a draft 2012-13 budget by 3 Jan. Done
5. RB and JD to prepare a draft on Metrics by 3 jan. Carried forward See 2 – should all integrate.
6. JD, MP, SV and CK to assemble a first draft of the Annual Report by February for the Board to review it. Carried forward Poised to do my bit when I know what is needed. Doing...
7. JD to set up the process of a trustee induction for new trustees by February. Doing... Agreed support programme. Fae to detail times/places etc.
8. AT and JD to organise the pensions scheme Doing... Working on this.
9. JD to push forward the QRPedia transfer of ownership. Stalled.
10. JD to write a blog post on the events organiser appointment when completed. Done
11. JD 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. Doing...
12. JD to integrate the list of 2012 authorising individuals into the 2012 activity plan. Done
13. 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. Done All published and put for consultation.

Matters for discussion:

Office space.

The office has proved successful, attracting a lot of visitors and volunteers. We will soon have four staff for four desks and this will make us appear a lot less hospitable. Looking forward over the year and into 2013-14 we need to engineer a modest one-off expansion. I believe we have found a suitable location at Development House with good facilities, well located and at an economic cost. I would not like to move. However we will need another couple of desk spaces.

In March the fourth floor is set to be re-organised and at this point we can change our shape a little. I am proposing that we take on another couple of desks (but not phones or ethernet ports). This will allow us to continue to welcome visitors and volunteers and offer intern and training posts as appropriate. Altogether more capacity and efficiency.

This is a helpful synchronicity as after this re-organisation the space on the fourth floor will all be let and our room for manoeuvre will become more limited. I would also have more bargaining power with the management for the introduction of a bean bag/sofa area on the fourth floor that they are considering and would be good for our use. The annual costs will be an extra £8,000. This can be met from our contingency fund. It will make a serious contribution to our outreach work by allowing us to attract new volunteers to the office, use the fourth floor as a small training venue and offer drop in editing sessions on a regular basis whether the basement rooms are booked or not.

Proposal: That we hire two more desk spaces for the financial year 2012-13, the money to be taken from contingency. Discuss

Office equipment.

I am pleased that we have the laptop, chrome book and projector for event and volunteer use. This is a useful support to volunteers and an idea we should continue. In the meantime the costs of setting up the office are higher than we had predicted in the budget. They are however one-offs and we can assume the equipment will last three years. I would like to propose that given the delay for one month in the recruitment of the events post and two months in the comms post we transfer £2500 of this underspend (approximately (£7130) to the office equipment budget to buy their laptops and any other equipment needed. This allows for variations in the comms post i.e. paying them towards the upper end of the pay scale or being able to start a little earlier.

Proposal: that £2500 is transferred from the Comms and Events salary lines to the office equipment line to equip the office. Discuss

Financial protocols – progress report.

We have made good progress on the institution of professional financial protocols. Two issues are causing delay: The opening of the Unity Trust, dual signature electronic banking account. The implementation of the SAGE accounting system. I hope to have good progress to report on these.

These are the outstanding issues to report:

Separate signatures for current and savings accounts: Delay until after the Board elections when we will know who is available.

Two staff present at opening of post - done now whenever possible but arrival of Events and Comms people will make this possible.

Criminal and financial checks for staff and trustees – can start with staff – Trustees after the elections. Believe the CRB check will cover financial as well as it covers all criminal activity.

Monthly reconciliations and reporting to Wikis etc – awaiting SAGE

Gift Aid collection – plan agreed. Application to be made . First receipts June at the earliest.

Pensions – see separate section.

Expenses reporting on Wiki – awaiting SAGE.

Richard Symonds (Office Manager)

Actions

1. RS to assist with chasing and clearing the backlog of outstanding submission of expense claims. Doing...
2. RS to include disputed transactions in the weekly backlog reports. (???? Victuallers 17:10, 3 January 2012 (UTC) Carried forward

   Refers to paypal donations that have been disputed on paypal for some reason by the donor - e.g. if they accidentally donated twice. Mike Peel 18:50, 3 January 2012 (UTC))

3. RS to set up weekly email of pending members to the board for approval. Also to look into 'red flagging' systems to identify any problematic membership applications that might be received. Carried forward

   Currently fortnightly. Richard Symonds (WMUK) 10:29, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Comms

1. Comms person to look into organising a media training day for staff, trustees and volunteers.