Dear all,
Please find copied below the minutes of the board meeting held on Tuesday. The minutes are
also available on the wiki at [1] and your comments, corrections or questions are welcome
in reply or on the wiki talk page.
[1]
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetings/2009-09-01
The main things to come out of the meeting were:
- The wording of the Charity Commission application [2] was approved and will be submitted
shortly.
- Two policies were also adopted - on conflicts of interest [3] and child protection [4] -
although amendments will be discussed at the next business meeting.
- We accepted three new members - taking us up to 32 which is an increase of nearly 20%
from the AGM.
- The Schools Project and Britain Loves Wikipedia have both prepared timelines and
budgets; the same for Workplace Learning Lunches will be done by 15th September.
- We are asking the Foundation if we can reallocate £500 from the funding for the schools
project to cover child protection checks.
[2]
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Charity_Commission_application
[3]
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_Interest_policy
[4]
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Child_Protection_Policy
Regards,
Andrew Turvey
Secretary
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.
Wikimedia UK Board meeting Tuesday 1st September 2009, 8:30pm BST at #wikimedia-uk-board
Present: Michael Peel (MP) (Chair); Andrew Turvey (AT) (minutes); Zeyi He (ZH); Joseph
Seddon (JS) (part); Paul Williams (PW); Tom Holden (TH)
Apologies: Steve Virgin (SV); JS for early departure
Contents
• 1 Minutes of previous meetings
• 1.1 Matters arising
• 2 Reports
• 2.1 Secretary's
• 2.2 Treasurer's
• 2.3 Chair's
• 2.4 Conferences
• 2.5 Corporate
• 2.6 Initiatives
• 2.7 Volunteers
• 3 Charity commission application
• 3.1 Conflict of interest policy
• 3.2 Vulnerable people section of the application
• 3.3 Child Protection Policy
• 3.4 Public benefit section of the application =
• 4 Any other business
• 5 Next meeting
Minutes of previous meetings
The minutes of the meeting dated 18 August was approved.
The following actions were carried forward:
1. AT will look into where we could produce branded merchandise.
2. MP to draft templates for the six press scenarios identified at Media relations#Media
response .
3. MP to work with SV to do mini press releases, no more than one per month, advertising
spikes in traffic per WP:POPULAR related to particular news events.
4. JS to get a copy of the WMF's press release contact list in the UK.
5. PW will develop a proposal for buying a computer for the Schools Project with,
potentially, peripherals such as a projector, screen, printer etc.
6. JS to draft an email for the Open Knowledge Foundation mailing list, to recruit new
members.
7. AT to arrange printing of the business cards
8. MP to investigate moving our wiki at
http://uk.wikimedia.org to
http://www.wikimedia.org.uk subject to technical feasibility re Single User Logins and
hosting, with
gb.wikimedia.org as a potential alternative. Bug Report . Once this has been
completed, MP to follow up with Wikimedia Ukraine regarding the "uk." website
conflict.
9. AT agreed to investigate getting paid legal advice on charitable status, using the
Foundation's offer to fund.
10. TH will inform member #29 of their acceptance and update the Register of Members
accordingly.
11. SV will chase Steve Bowbrick to get an update on how his meeting with some senior BBC
managers to discuss collaboration went.
12. JS agreed to follow up with his contacts at the BBC Digital Revolution and click and
get them in touch with the Workplace Learning Lunches.
13. JS to email round draft blog post on th 2010 Conference for approval.
[ edit ] Matters arising
AT will recirculate the email to the WMF formalising the agreement to use Wikimedia
Foundation trademarks in members-only merchandising and send after 24 hours.
ACTION: AT
It was agreed that the budget for each project from the funding received from the
Foundation should be reduced pro-rata to take account of the adverse exchange rate when we
received the money:
Project Expense Expected value (GBP) Value (USD) Actual value (GBP)
Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools Computer 1,000 1,630 953.16
Travel 1,000 1,630 953.16
Content access projects Travel, refreshments 1,000 1,630 953.16
Content generation projects Advertising 1,000 1,630 953.16
Attending the chapters conference Travel, accommodation 500 815 476.58
Attending free content conferences Travel 500 815 476.58
Total 5,000 8,150 4,765.80
We agreed to ask the Foundation to reallocate this funding as follows:
Under "Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools":
1. "Computer" change to "Computer and peripherals" and reduce by
£250 ($427.50)
2. "travel" change to "travel and shipping" and reduce by £250
($427.50)
3. New category "statutory checks" allocate £500 ($855)
Under Content generation projects
1. "Advertising" change to "Advertising and travel"
TH agreed to contact the Foundation to request the change.
ACTION: TH
JS left the meeting
It was agreed to pencil in the weekend 10-11 October for an in person board meeting.
Members would be expected to fund their own travel and accommodation as required. MP will
follow up by email.
ACTION: MP
It was agreed to transfer the press release on 5m commons files to the main wiki and
request drafting help from wikimediauk-l, commons-l, wmfcc-l and the Commons Village Pump.
AT and PW agreed to cover press queries whilst MP is away, redirecting the phone to AT and
giving PW's phone as an alternate.
ACTION: AT, PW
[ edit ] Reports
[ edit ] Secretary's
The Secretary's report was noted. AT agreed to email round a summary of the proposed
fundraiser agreement for discussion at the next business meeting.
ACTION: AT
AT agreed to draft a response to the supporter who wants to support us anonymously and
circulate to the board.
ACTION: AT
[ edit ] Treasurer's
Members 30, 31 and 32 were approved unanimously. TH will notify the new members and update
the Register accordingly.
ACTION: TH
[ edit ] Chair's
The Chair's Report was noted. It was agreed in principle that Britain Loves Wikipedia
could use part of the advertising budget to register a domain name such as
www.blw.org.uk.
MP agreed to investigate options and recommend a domain to register.
ACTION: MP
[ edit ] Conferences
The Conferences Report was noted.
[ edit ] Corporate
No report was available.
[ edit ] Initiatives
The Initiatives Report was noted. The Schools Project and Britain Loves Wikipedia are both
on track and AT will prepare a timeline and budget for the Workplace Learning Lunches by
15th September.
It was agreed that the board did not have to approve the budget or timeline but it could
be discussed if a member felt it should be. Otherwise, the initiatives would be left to
run themselves. Only the actual expenditure of funds requires board approval.
[ edit ] Volunteers
The Volunteers Report was noted. MP suggested members merchandising would be a good
membership draw and donors in the winter fundraiser should be able to join at the same
time. AT agreed to complete the business cards action in time for the PLASA conference.
[ edit ] Charity commission application
[ edit ] Conflict of interest policy
The Conflict of Interest policy was adopted with minor amendments. It was agreed the Board
would consider any amendments at its next business meeting.
AT agreed to contact each board member to complete the register of interests.
ACTION: AT
[ edit ] Vulnerable people section of the application
The wording of section D of the Charity commission application was approved with minor
changes.
[ edit ] Child Protection Policy
The Child Protection Policy was adopted with minor amendments. It was agreed the Board
would reconsider this policy in detail at its next business meeting.
MP agreed to arrange CRB checks for board members and Schools Porject volunteers once the
funding reallocation had been agreed with the Foundation.
ACTION: MP
[ edit ] Public benefit section of the application =
The revised wording of section C of the Charity commission application was approved with
minor changes.
Now that all section had been completed and all required policies adopted, the application
is now ready to send. AT agreed to submit it to the Charity Commission.
ACTION: AT
[ edit ] Any other business
It was agreed to look into moving our OTRS system to one hosted by ourselves to reduce the
risk that confidential emails are inappropriately viewed by non-WMUK people or emails are
sent in the name of the chapter without approval. MP agreed to investigate.
ACTION: MP
MP has contacted the foundation requesting detailed statistics on the proportion of UK
internet users who use Wikipedia. It was agreed he should continue to follow this up.
ACTION: MP
The September newsletter is due out on 13th September. AT agreed to draft a section on the
charity application; PW will contact others to get sections written as needed. MP will
distribute on wiki on 14th.
ACTION: AT, PW, MP
[ edit ] Next meeting
The next meeting was arranged for Tuesday 15th September 2009, 8:30 - 10:30 in
#wikimedia-uk-board.