http://www.sos.wa.gov/_assets/charities/QuickGuideHandbook.pdf
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
Hi,
I heard from someone at TA3M that they would like to have a report of our
December 15 event for inclusion in TA3M's records. I'm including Cascadia,
SURF, and the Wikimedia Foundation on the to and/or bcc lines of this email
as well.
* The signup spreadsheet had 30 unique registrations after removing one
person who backed out and two duplicate entries, and I counted about 30
people present at the event.
* Affiliations noted on the signup spreadsheet include TA3M Seattle,
Cascadia Wikimedians User Group, the University of Washington, Seattle
Privacy Coalition, and SURF Incubator.
* We had six speakers. The presentations were about the following subjects:
1. Overview of Surf Incubator
2. Firmware manifesto to OEMs
3. Privacy and Wikipedia Zero
4. Ricochet instant messaging software
5. Lightning photography with free software
6. Overview of the Seattle Privacy Coalition
* We had a roundtable discussion about editing Wikipedia through Tor and
open proxies.
* We had more pizza than we needed (:
* Anecdotal reports are that the venue was good, the food was good, the
presentations were good, and the networking was good.
* The suggestion has been made that we hold a similar event in December of
next year.
Cheers,
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
Thanks everyone, I very much appreciate your support.
It sounds like there will be more testing done mid-week followed by the
main surgery sometime next week or early January. If all of the vitamins
that he's been taking for years have been effective then I'm hopeful for a
good outcome.
When I'm not working this week or visiting with family, I hope to catch up
on Cascadia tasks. Also, I may join the Beowulf cluster tonight if I get a
good chunk of work finished by that time today.
Pine
Hi Cascadians,
Let's plan on having our first board meeting on or around the semi-regular
Seattle meetup day, which would be Tuesday, January 13.
I was planning to postpone most of my further work on Cascadia until
February, but I just learned today that there's a WMF funding deadline that
requires us to have our initial budget submitted by the end of January *or*
wait until May if we want WMF funding. I'd like to get us underway sooner
than May. I apologize for the rush. Today was the first that I heard of the
deadline.
Tentative agenda items:
* Bylaws (Peaceray and I have been drafting these; we'll send out a copy
soon for public review).
* Officer appointments by the Board.
* Website agreement with Top Level Design
* Program selection and funding for February through July (tentative)
* Startup budget for February through July (tentative). We can submit
supplemental requests in May or later. We can also submit requests to WMDC
for smaller items, and we can include a relatively large request for
reserve funds due to the funding blackout period.)
* Authorization for initial legal registrations, service purchases, and
other contracts.
* Additional agenda items forthcoming.
To accommodate board members who are away from Seattle on that date, Mako
has graciously agreed to provide us with access to the Internet via UW so
that we can video conference.
Let's plan on having a relatively long meeting (maybe 6 PM to 10 PM?)
although hopefully we'll move fast enough that we'll be done by 9 PM.
For non-board members: there won't be confidential business at this meeting
and you are welcome to attend. Although only Board votes will be counted,
your good-faith comments and questions are welcome.
If any board members cannot make that date and time, please let me know.
Also, if you plan to attend via phone or Google Hangout, please let me
know. Reminder: we will meet at *UW*, not at Cafe Allegro, exact location
to be determined; we will also have Google Hangout available so that people
can attend remotely.
Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you!
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
Hi Cascadians (especially Board members):
The only person who has commented on the initial draft budget request on
Meta is Bluerasberry. Based on his comments, I have made a few
modifications. If I hear no objections within the next several days, I'll
proceed with making a budget request to GAC.
Peaceray and I made progress today on bylaws. Hopefully we will have a
draft set of bylaws ready soon for public comment.
Thanks,
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
* Twas the night before Christmas on Wikimedia *
(Variation on "A Visit from St. Nicholas", written in the year 1823 by
Clement Clarke Moore)
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the wikis,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a bot;
The stockings were hung by the talk pages with care,
In hopes that Jimbo soon would be there;
The students were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of barnstars danc'd in their heads;
And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap —
When out at the village pump there arose such a clatter,
James Alexander sprang from bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the wiki I flew like a flash,
Opened a window, and logged in, in a dash.
What to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and bold,
I knew in a moment it must be Jimbo.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of barnstars — and Jimbo too:
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Jimbo came with a bound:
He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of barnstars was flung on his back,
And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack.
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."
Merry Christmas, Wikimedians. (:
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
Hi all,
I've put this on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Cascadia_Wikimedians#Drafting_programs…
I'm hoping that people will comment so that we can get a sense about the
priorities of our group. The Board can use the comments to finalize a
program plan and an associated budget. The budget will be developed to
support the program plan.
I'm still working in the background about the "infrastructure" budget for
issues like insurance, but even these will benefit greatly by being
informed by a program plan.
One important note is that the plan will likely be adjusted and adapted as
our capabilities and opportunities change. My thinking is that the Board
can do this via quarterly review meetings with community input.
Please share your comments!
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kirill Lokshin <kirill.lokshin(a)wikimediadc.org>
Date: Tue, Dec 23, 2014 at 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: [wikimedia-dc-board] nonprofit insurance...
To: Lane Rasberry <lane(a)bluerasberry.com>
Cc: Wikimedia DC Board Mailing List <wikimedia-dc-board(a)googlegroups.com>
Hi Lane,
Wikimedia DC does not currently carry an insurance policy.
That having been said, there are a couple of points that I would recommend
you consider in your case:
(1) The regulation you cite seems to be about general liability coverage
(which typically applies to things like personal injury, etc.). This is
normally not the same as either errors and omissions (E&O) coverage, which
in my experience is typically of interest only when the organization is
performing some sort of professional services (and could be sued for
performing those services improperly) or directors and officers (D&O)
coverage, which is what protects individual members of your board from
liability if you're sued for fiduciary misconduct, etc. I would suggest
clarifying with your local regulatory agency whether they are in fact only
talking about general liability coverage here; while I suppose it's
possible that some quirk of Washington law would allow that to be applied
to other scenarios, it does strike me as rather odd.
(2) Generally speaking -- and, again, without having looked into whether
some aspect of your local laws mandates certain actions on a statutory
basis -- the question of whether an incorporated nonprofit carries
insurance coverage is distinct from the question of whether that nonprofit
indemnifies volunteers against liability related to the performance of
their duties. It's possible, at least under DC law, to do either one
without the other; in other words, we could indemnify our volunteers
without carrying insurance coverage (in which case the organization would
be directly responsible for paying any damages) or we could carry coverage
exclusively for the organization's benefit, without necessarily
indemnifying individual volunteers. I would suggest checking what the
statutory provisions for this are in Washington, but, regardless, I expect
that you will want to have something more detailed and explicit about this
in either your bylaws or some additional policy. Note that you may not
necessarily want to offer a blanket indemnity to everyone who might claim
to be a volunteer, since you may have no knowledge of or control over what
they do in that capacity.
Cheers,
Kirill
--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary, Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org
On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 2:28 PM, Lane Rasberry <lane(a)bluerasberry.com>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Does Wikimedia DC purchase nonprofit insurance? If so, what kind and from
> whom?
>
> I am asking on behalf of Wikimedia Cascadia, which is looking at this law
> which seems to apply to nonprofit organizations in Washington state:
> <http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=4.24.670>
>
> It says
>
> "a volunteer of a nonprofit organization or governmental entity shall not
> be personally liable for harm caused by an act or omission of the volunteer
> on behalf of the organization or entity if...
>
> The nonprofit organization carries public liability insurance covering the
> organization's liability for harm caused to others for which it is directly
> or vicariously liable of not less than the following amounts:
>
> (i) For organizations with gross revenues of less than twenty-five
> thousand dollars, at least fifty thousand dollars due to the bodily injury
> or death of one person or at least one hundred thousand dollars due to the
> bodily injury or death of two or more persons;"
>
> There is talk in Cascadia of protecting volunteers by providing this
> insurance at a cost of perhaps $500 per year.
>
> yours,
>
> --
> Lane Rasberry
> user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
> 206.801.0814
> lane(a)bluerasberry.com
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Wikimedia DC Board" group.
> To post to this group, send email to wikimedia-dc-board(a)googlegroups.com.
>
--
Lane Rasberry
user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
206.801.0814
lane(a)bluerasberry.com
Hi Cascadians,
I learned this afternoon that my dad needs to have a heart procedure. It
sounds like the issue was caught in time and he will go in for sugery
sometime next week. There may be a delay in my work for Cascadia while this
gets sorted out. In the meantime, I would appreciate your thoughts and
prayers
Pine
Should we do a block appeal for User:Courtney at UW Libraries? Admin Barek
blocked her for her username, but the policy says <name> at <org> is
acceptable, since it doesn't imply a shared account, and even then they
should only be blocked for promotional editing. Fixing broken links to the
photo archive isn't disruptive or promotional.
I posted at Bareks talk page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Barek#User:Courtney_at_UW_Libraries>;
maybe he'll take care of it tomorrow. It seems like we have an interest in
encouraging librarians to contribute.
Dennis