Hi all,
Just to notify all that there will be a public meeting in the
#wikimedia-au IRC channel on the freenode network this coming Sunday 1
December at 4PM AEDST (1pm in WA, 3pm in QLD, 3:30pm in SA).
A reminder will be sent on the day. I'd welcome suggestions on when
the notices and reminders should be sent out / what works best for
people, seeing as there'll be at least 10 more of these during the
term :)
kindest regards
Andrew Owens
Secretary
Wikimedia Australia
Members,
I notice that a member has gone in and changed the rules to incorporate the rule changes that gained the support of the special general meeting in October.
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/w/index.php?title=Rules&diff=11027&oldid=10529
Was the result of the SGM communicated to Consumer Affairs Victoria within the 28-day period required by the law (a breach would attract a fine)?
Has the result been communicated at all to CAV? If so, has CAV approved it? Rule changes are not valid until the CAV approves them.
Tony
May I ask the chapter's management committee:
(1) When did the chapter last supply a written "activity and financial report" to the WMF, as I believe is required by its trademark contract with the Foundation?
(2) Is it the case that at least one must be supplied within four months after the end of the chapter year (what is the applicable date, in that case)?
(3) Which office bearer is responsible for doing this?
(4) Is a copy of the trademark agreement (probably called "Chapter agreement") linked from the chapter's site? When does it expire?
Tony
Congraulations from me as well. I'm confident that this group is the right
group to move the chapter forward, and I wish them the very best of luck
for the coming year.
Regards,
Craig Franklin
Andrew Owens said:
Dear members and community,
Firstly, thank you for the opportunity to serve again after a two-year
absence from the committee. I hope that I will be able to fulfil your
expectations :)
Congratulations to Steven Zhang, who has been elected president of
Wikimedia Australia for the 2013-14 term and to other members, all of
whom were returned unopposed, and listed below:
* Gideon Digby - Vice President
* Andrew Owens - Secretary
* Michael Billington - Ordinary Member
* Charles Gregory - Ordinary Member
* Pru Mitchell - Ordinary Member
* Robert Myers - Ordinary Member
The new committee will need to fill the role of Treasurer - no-one
stepped forward at the AGM, so a vacancy was declared.
Watch this space - we will be looking for ideas and opportunities to
move forward.
kindest regards
Andrew Owens
Secretary
Wikimedia Australia
Dear members and community,
Firstly, thank you for the opportunity to serve again after a two-year
absence from the committee. I hope that I will be able to fulfil your
expectations :)
Congratulations to Steven Zhang, who has been elected president of
Wikimedia Australia for the 2013-14 term and to other members, all of
whom were returned unopposed, and listed below:
* Gideon Digby - Vice President
* Andrew Owens - Secretary
* Michael Billington - Ordinary Member
* Charles Gregory - Ordinary Member
* Pru Mitchell - Ordinary Member
* Robert Myers - Ordinary Member
The new committee will need to fill the role of Treasurer - no-one
stepped forward at the AGM, so a vacancy was declared.
Watch this space - we will be looking for ideas and opportunities to
move forward.
kindest regards
Andrew Owens
Secretary
Wikimedia Australia
Dear members
I write with regret concerning the actions of Wikimedia Australia's management committee in March 2013, which have thrown the chapter into a cascade of legal illegitimacy that will continue ad infinitum unless addressed very soon. The outlines of this may be familiar to some members of the chapter, but to my surprise the issue has been pushed under the carpet. I have informed WMF Legal and Community Advocacy that there may be a problem that will impact on the the Foundation's trademark agreement with the chapter.
Legal background
The chapter is incorporated in the state of Victoria under the Associations Incorporation Act 2012, and the chapter's rules are approved and registered by Consumer Affairs Victoria—although by now everyone knows that CAV doesn't normally read the rules of associations they register, aside from a quick and sloppy flick through when the association is applying to change them. The secretary is the only officer invested with legal status in the Act.
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Ruleshttp://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubStatbook.nsf/f93…
Problematic timeline
In November 2012, chapter members directly elected four office-bearers – secretary, president, vice-president, and treasurer – and two ordinary members, all for a term of one year. The results were announced at the AGM on 25 November 2012.
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meeting:2012_AGM/Minutes#Election_of_offic…
On 17 March 2013, the committee decided to reshuffle these elected positions: the secretary would resign, the president and treasurer would swap positions, and the vice-president would become secretary (apparently the secretary's wish to resign sparked these changes en masse to the voters' decision). The committee's minutes record this as being done "all in one hit", despite advice on the mailing list that casual vacancies would need to be created first through a succession of resignations in writing.
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meeting:Committee_(2013-03-17)#Committee_r…
The chapter's rules provide that an office becomes vacant only under four conditions (resigns from the chapter, becomes insolvent, fails to attend three consecutive meetings, or "resigns from office by notice in writing given to the secretary"—Rule 24(c)). None of these conditions was satisfied, and the minutes simply announced the new offices as though it were like putting out the washing. I believe the secretary, Charles Gregory, did resign in writing, but critically this was two days later, on 19 March.
At the time of the meeting, then, no one had "resigned in writing given to the secretary"—not even the secretary himself. So there were no casual vacancies. The committee appears to have relied on Rule 21(4) to make the new appointments to casual vacancies that didn't exist. (As an aside, had the committee's appointment of the vice-president to the secretary's role been valid, leaving the vice-presidency vacant for more than 14 days was a breach of 21(4), as is the failure to replace Charles Gregory with a new secretary according to legal process: "In the event of a casual vacancy, as specified in rule 24, in any office referred to in sub-rule (1), the committee must within 14 days appoint an eligible member of the organisation to the vacant office ...".)
In the minutes, committee member Steven Zhang "agreed to write up a formal re-shuffle motion". It's not that doing so would have made it all legal, but yes, a formal motion would have been the proper procedure. There is no evidence of such a motion, and a CAV representative apparently told this committee member on the phone that as long as the chapter's rules are complied with, everything's fine. That is not an endorsement by CAV.
The AGM
Under rule 12, the secretary "must cause to be sent" a notice of all general meetings, like the annual general meeting. There is no secretary, so this rule was breached and the AGM is not valid.
Under rule 23(1)(b), nominations for election to the committee must be "delivered to the Secretary of the Association not less than 7 days before the date fixed for the holding of the annual general meeting". There is no secretary, so the election is not valid.
The situation now
*The whole musical chairs exercise in March was illegitimate, and subsequently informing CAV as required of the change in secretary was not based on a legal process within the chapter, and thus would not be recognised by the Melbourne Magistrate's Court or the Victorian Supreme Court.
*There has been no secretary since Charles Gregory resigned in writing on 19 March; the committee's attempt to replace him two days before, on 17 March, is not valid under the rules.
*The other changes in office bearers are not valid under the chapter's rules, since no vacancies were created under rule 24; the committee as voted in in November 2012 still holds office, minus the all-important secretary, a post that has been vacant since 19 March.
*The annual general meeting was not valid, given that there is no secretary.
*The election of committee members today, including office-bearers, was not valid, given that there is no secretary.
*It's my understanding that the tenure of the legally valid committee (that is, those voted in at the 2012 election, minus Charles Gregory) ends on 30 November, after which there will be no committee.
I suggest that the legal committee (Franklin, Raymond, Zhang, Vandenberg, and Pearce) seek legal advice as to whether anything can be salvaged. They still have a quorum of 4+.
Tony
Hi All,
Just a reminder that voting for the contested position of Wikimedia
Australia President closes tomorrow at 4pm Melbourne time. If you are a
financial member, I strongly urge you to cast a ballot at the following URL:
http://membership.wikimedia.org.au/election/
Proxy forms and IRC nicknames are also due by 4pm tomorrow (Melbourne
time). These should be sent to Graham Pearce (the Secretary) by this date.
Proxy forms or IRC nicks received after this time will NOT be accepted, so
please don't leave it until the last minute.
There was no nomination made for the position of Treasurer for the coming
year, so in accordance with the Rules of the Association (23(3), to be
specific) I will call for nominations at the AGM. If you are interested in
taking on this position (c'mon, it'll be fun!), but are unable to attend on
SIf there are two or more nominations we will vote by a "show of hands"
(the exact format of which will be determined in the unlikely event this
occurs).
Should nobody nominate for the position of Treasurer, or one of those
currently running for Ordinary member is elected to the position causing a
vacancy for ordinary member and there is no nomination for that subsequent
vacancy, I will declare the position to be vacant and leave it to the next
committee to sort out per Rule 21(4).
If you have any further questions about the election process, please feel
free to direct them either to myself or Adam Jenkins, the returning officer
(at returningofficer(a)wikimedia.org.au). If you have any other questions
about the meeting, please contact either myself or the Secretary (Graham
Pearce) and we'll be happy to help.
Regards,
Craig Franklin
President - Wikimedia Australia
This may be of interest to folks in and around Canberra.
Cheers,
Craig
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Tim Sherratt" <tim(a)discontents.com.au>
Date: 21/11/2013 10:23 AM
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Canberra event -- Ed Summers at NLA, 2 December
To: <CODE4LIB(a)listserv.nd.edu>
Cc:
Hi all,
If you're in the Canberra region come along and hear Ed Summers talk about
cultural heritage and the web as part of the National Library of
Australia's Innovative Ideas program. It's on 2 December, 12.30-1.30pm at
the NLA:
http://www.nla.gov.au/event/6135
All welcome!
And thanks to New Zealand's awesome National Digital Forum for bringing Ed
to our part of the world.
Cheers, Tim
----
Dr Tim Sherratt
Manager, Trove
National Library of Australia
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600
p: +61 (0)2 6262 1224
e: tsherrat(a)nla.gov.au
A bit more planning has been happening on the wiki.
Is there anyone else from Oz interested in helping run this?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "David Cuenca" <dacuetu(a)gmail.com>
Date: Nov 20, 2013 12:52 AM
Subject: Re: [Wikisource-l] Fwd: Wikisource 10th aniversary proposal :
Proofreading contest
To: "discussion list for Wikisource, the free library" <
wikisource-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: "James Hare" <james.hare(a)wikidc.org>, <richard.nevell(a)wikimedia.org.uk>,
"Craig Franklin" <craig.franklin(a)wikimedia.org.au>, "Matthew Roth" <
mroth(a)wikimedia.org>
I've been preparing a blog post about the anniversary and the contests, it
would be great if someone could take a look and possibly expand. If
possible it would be great to have an image of the Wikisource logo with a
"10" written on it. Any takers?
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Blog/Drafts/Wikisource_organizes_…
@James, Craig: Have WM-DC and WM-AU decided which kind of involvement do
they wish in the contest or if an independent event will be held? So far on
en-ws I have seen that only WM-UK is involved offering prizes:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Tenth_Anniversary_Contest
Cheers,
Micru
On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 8:55 AM, Andrea Zanni <zanni.andrea84(a)gmail.com>wrote:
> Hi Adam, could you please give us some details about
> Speciale:RecentChangesLinked?
> Could you make some examples for all?
>
> Aubrey
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Carles Paredes Lanau <
> carlesparedes(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Adam,
>>
>> Micru and me have decided that it's better hide works until 24th, because
>> now somebody can proofread pages offline and 24th upload it all pages. It
>> is not fair! I like your score table.
>>
>> In catalan wikisource, we have visible:
>>
>> https://ca.wikisource.org/wiki/Viquitexts:Viquirepte_10%C3%A8_aniversari
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Carles
>>
>>
>> 2013/11/18 Adam Morgan <wikisorcery(a)gmail.com>
>>
>>> OK, I've put together a rough page for the English Wikisource. It
>>> should all be ready to go on the 24th.
>>>
>>> http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Tenth_Anniversary_Contest
>>>
>>> I'm not sure how anyone else is doing this but we've selected ten texts
>>> and this is going to work a lot like our Proofread of the Month project. I
>>> will use Special:RecentChangesLinked to track edits on each of the ten.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts or criticism?
>>>
>>> - Adam
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wikisource-l mailing list
>>> Wikisource-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikisource-l mailing list
>> Wikisource-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikisource-l mailing list
> Wikisource-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l
>
>
--
Etiamsi omnes, ego non
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