On 20 January 2011 23:42, Andrew Turvey <andrewrturvey@googlemail.com> wrote:

Dear All,

I promised everyone I would keep you informed on this list about
progress with our accounts. As you may have heard, we filed our
accounts last week and I can confirm that Companies House are showing
these accounts on
their website and the proceedings for striking off the company has
been discontinued. This now removes any risk to the chapter's funds.

We were able to file the accounts last week as a result of a
discussion I had with Companies House which allowed us to shorten the
procedure. In brief, although we are not yet recognised as a
charity, we have up to now always acted as if we were. This means we
have complied with various additional requirements to the requirements
for other "not for profit" companies. In relation to our accounts,
these requirements include having them independently reviewed and not
being eligible for the reduced disclosures allowed for small
non-charitable companies - so-called "Abbreviated Accounts".

In my discussion with Companies House, they advised that there is no
reason why we, given our current status, cannot submit unreviewed
Abbreviated Accounts to them in fulfilment of our statutory
obligations. This is notwithstanding the requirement set out in our
constitution to prepare full charity accounts for our members.

I therefore completed the abbreviated accounts from our accounting
records, had them approved by our board, and submitted them. We have
uploaded these accounts to our wiki at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMUK_Jan2010_Abbreviated_Accs_FINAL.pdf

Our accountants have not yet completed preparing and reviewing the
full accounts, which we will still continue with in order to comply
with our constitution, and will submit them to Companies House as
revised accounts when they are complete. I am meeting them tomorrow
morning and hope to have a better idea of progress after then.

It's great to have this cloud lifted from us and to get the chapter
back on track so we can focus again on our objectives and events. My
personal thanks to everyone who helped resolve this immediate

situation.

Regards,

Andrew Turvey
Chair, Wikimedia UK
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited.
Wiki UK Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827.
The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL,
United Kingdom.

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 12:47 AM, Andrew Turvey

<andrewrturvey@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> As I promised before, here is a further update on our progress with
> our accounts. As I mentioned in my emails below, we were originally
> given a date of 17th December for receiving draft accounts from our
> accountants, UHY Hacker Young, which would have enabled us to file
> accounts with Companies House by the end of December.
>
> I was in constant touch with our accountants from 13th December until
> they left on 23rd December. Although they started work on the accounts
> on time, when they started to look at the information we had provided
> they were unable to read the GNUCash file which contains the detailed
> records. We have made some progress with converting the file into CSV
> format or similar but this has taken far longer that expected.
>
> They have now completed their work on the numbers but the extra work
> they had to do meant they have not yet completed their work on
> accounting disclosures and the independent review. Their scheduling
> peak regarding tax returns due at the year end and holidays over
> Christmas means they have not been able to dedicate any more staff to
> the work until the first week of January. However, we now have two
> staff dedicated full time to working on these accounts from today,
> Tuesday 4th January, and they now expect that they will be able to
> complete the accounts by 14th.
>
> Although this is all extremely disappointing, we should keep in mind
> that we are still on track to file the accounts before the final date
> for striking off. This means that all money received from our donors
> will be spent on supporting the goals and activities of the chapter
> and will not be lost to the movement.
>
> We are fully aware of the reputational impact this has on Wikimedia UK
> with potential donors, members and the Wikimedia Foundation. As
> mentioned previously, we are putting in additional processes to ensure
> that nothing like this happens again.
>
> Thank you for bearing with us over this and please let me know if you
> have any queries on this situation.
>
> Regards,
>
> Andrew Turvey
> Chair, Wikimedia UK
> Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited.
> Wiki UK Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
> and Wales, Registered No. 6741827.
> The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL,
> United Kingdom.
>
> On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 11:21 PM, Andrew Turvey
> <andrewrturvey@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Dear All,
>>
>> I promised I'd keep everyone on this list information about progress
>> with our accounts. Our accountants have now given us a date of 17th
>> December for completion of the draft accounts, subject to us providing
>> them with adequate explanations and information. The board is
>> committed to meeting its side of the agreement, which means we will be
>> in a position to file the signed accounts by the end of the month.
>>
>> At the same time, we are putting in place changes to our processes to
>> ensure that these problems do not cause us to be late with the
>> accounts next year or beyond.
>>
>> Thank you for your continued understanding with this and our apologies
>> once more for any concern caused.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Andrew Turvey
>> Chair, Wikimedia UK
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 10:19 PM, Andrew Turvey
>> <andrewrturvey@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> Dear All,
>>>
>>> Just to follow up from Mike's previous email. I spoke to our
>>> accountants, UHY Hacker Young, earlier today and they are working on
>>> our accounts at the moment. The client manager was out of the office
>>> today but he will give me a ring tomorrow with an ETA for the draft
>>> accounts.
>>>
>>> The proposal for strike off looks alarming, but Companies House has
>>> given us until 9th February before any further action is taken. Our
>>> accountants have assured us that they will be able to turn things
>>> around quickly enough to avoid this outcome.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, Companies House in England has an automatic policy of
>>> filing for winding up when the first set of accounts are late and they
>>> are not willing to suspend their proceedings until the accounts are
>>> filed.
>>>
>>> We can reassure you that there is no significant risk to donors' money
>>> from this procedure, given that our accounts are close to completion.
>>> However, we fully understand that this looks alarming and creates a
>>> bad impression. I apologise for any concern this has caused to any of
>>> our donors, members or supporters.
>>>
>>> I'll make sure I keep this list informed so you can monitor our
>>> progress with this matter.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Andrew Turvey
>>> Chair, Wikimedia UK
>>>
>>> On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 9:17 PM, Michael Peel <email@mikepeel.net> wrote:
>>>> I'll leave it to Tango and Andrew to provide the full story, but in a nutshell: due to the complexities of our accounts (and hence the time demands they place on our Treasurer), we're rather late in having the first set of them checked over by an accountant. They're currently with the accountants, though, and we'll be able to file them soon. Being listed as 'proposal to strike off' is an automatic thing as we haven't previously filed accounts, but there's a long time (6 months) before there's a risk of that actually happening, and this will definitely be sorted out in short order.
>>>>
>>>> This is essentially a symptom of us having too much to do and not enough time to do it, I'm afraid...
>>>>
>>>> Mike
>>>>
>>>> On 29 Nov 2010, at 21:04, geni wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I saw this post at the village pump suggesting wikimediauk's accounts
>>>>> are seriously late and this presents issues:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VP/M#Wiki_UK_Ltd_to_be_struck_off.3F
>>>>>
>>>>> The company in question is wikimedia UK (the Company No. 06741827 is
>>>>> consistent with that given in past emails)
>>>>>
>>>>> According to companies house the accounts were due 05/08/2010 and the
>>>>> company's status was listed as Active - Proposal to Strike off.
>>>>>
>>>>> Whats going on?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> geni
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Wikimedia UK mailing list
>>>>> wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
>>>>> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>>>>> WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Wikimedia UK mailing list
>>>> wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
>>>> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>>>> WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

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