On 14 March 2014 11:17, Katie Chan <katie.chan(a)wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
Hi all,
I can confirm that no Wikimedia UK equipment has gone missing. All of
Wikimedia UK's laptops and cameras are either currently with the office, or
...
Thanks for these clarifications against Leutha's question. In the past
I recall that a laptop was accidentally broken and I believe a
borrowed camera did go missing a couple of years ago, but I think this
was not an asset of the charity. It is nice to know officially that no
equipment has ever been stolen or is now missing and that no attendee
at a wikimeet or a charity supported event has ever reported their kit
or mobile phones going missing or stolen. With these facts it does
appear that Jimmy's correspondent was probably trolling for some
reason.
The office operates an internal record of the
chapter's volunteer equipment
both for tracking who has what and for how long, but also to enable us
produce appropriate reporting for the Board of Trustees and FDC.
I have no idea why long term loans should be in secret. If someone
wishes to borrow a camera or a laptop for a project that helps create
content for Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons, the charity should
encourage an *open and transparent* proposal and report on the project
as one funded/supported by the charity. This is a good thing and we
should celebrate it.
If it turns out that long term secret loans over the last couple of
years are mostly to employees (outside of their defined role) or the
friends and family of employees, it could damage the reputation of the
charity if questioned on how it manages its assets to ensure that
there are no inappropriate benefits, and how it maintains its
commitment for transparency. In comparison, when the WMF has provided
money and equipment to worthy projects that lacked funds (many laptops
have been given out over the years), as far as I am aware, this has
never been done in secret, even if the justification was that the
potential contributors were not rich enough to purchase their own kit.
Please openly report long term loans on the charity's wiki. For
example, I see no reason why my long term loan of a Macmini should not
be a matter of public record, and I am prepared to report on related
content creation - doing otherwise is likely to fall in conflict with
the proposed changes to the Terms of Use of Wikimedia Foundation
websites. It would be unwise and potentially misleading to give
volunteers or employees with long term free loans of equipment the
impression that they would not be obliged to declare that their
editing/contributions were directly supported and effectively
sponsored by the charity.
Fae