Tom, the board has not 'allowed' anything to happen. As we made clear,
action was taken immediately the Wikimania overspend became known (when
the draft quarterly accounts became available, shortly before the
December board meeting). There was no overspend earlier in the year. The
decision to seek an interim CEO [1] was made in November and pre-dates
knowledge of the Wikimania figures. It's not legally possible to move
Wikimania 2014 expenditure into the 2015 accounts.
____________
Michael Maggs
Chair, Wikimedia UK
[1]
Thomas Morton
<mailto:morton.thomas@googlemail.com>
28 March 2015 21:20
Sorry; I have been away without internet so only just able to turn my
attention to this.
I am probably talking to the wind anyway as, sadly, our community
seems a little thin at the moment.. (as thin as our books ;)) but
nevertheless.
I can appreciate that the board is on difficult territory due to
confidentiality (sigh!) but I think this is a serious matter that
needs to be understood. Namely why the board allowed such an expensive
out-of-budget spend when finances were in flux (and now emerge to be
very problematic). It seems a little negligent to not find a way to
take this expenditure into the next financial year where it could be
budgeted.
As has emerged in the last few weeks D'arcy is clearly a
"transitional" CEO (aka downsizing, re-organisation, whatever it is PC
to call it :)) so it is clear the board understood the financial
situation going into this transition. Why was this not communicated
and discussed prior to the December board meeting? In fact, the
community seems to have been explicitly cut out of this process (e.g.
cancellation of the strategy day, which would have presented a
suitable opportunity to discuss these challenges).
I feel the board owes the community an explanation of the sequence of
events over the previous months. Particularly how we have gone from
the high of hosting Wikimania to the low that is March 2015.
Ultimately the board holds responsibility for these matters and so
surely its in their remit to communicate with the community.
Cheers,
Tom
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Michael Maggs <mailto:michaelmaggs@fastmail.com>
24 March 2015 17:56
Hi Peter
I don't think it's possible to provide a full breakdown, I'm afraid,
without breaching the standard obligations of confidentiality we have
concerning HR matters. However, I can say that ofthe £57k total,
around £3600 was for legal and professional services and £4900 was for
recruitment/interview.
Best regards
Michael
____________
Michael Maggs
Chair, Wikimedia UK
Peter Cohen <mailto:peterc@cix.compulink.co.uk>
24 March 2015 17:24
In-Reply-To:
<CAEgLstR6hEym_xvq6ugVynKacLpkELQgBUecD4=RrkJnkLau6Q(a)mail.gmail.c-
om>
What might be useful is an indication as to how the £57,000 breaks down.
In other words how much is down to recruitment costs (e.g. advertising)
how much is down to maybe an interim CE demanding more pay and how
much to
a period in which more than one person being paid a salary related to the
post (e.g. due to accumulated untaken annual leave amounting to several
months pay or an unworked notice period or paid sick leave entitlement,
you needn't specify which) or ex gratia payments being made to the
departing CE.
Also are there any plans being put into place to try to reduce the
potential for the next transition costing as much?
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