[Wikimediauk-l] Fwd: Wikimedia UK - help us build our future

From: "Andrew Turvey" <andrewrturvey(a)googlemail.com> To: "Wikimedia UK tellers" <tellers(a)wikimedia.org.uk> Sent: Wednesday, 24 March, 2010 00:32:38 GMT +00:00 GMT Britain, Ireland, Portugal Subject: Wikimedia UK - help us build our future Dear Member, Thank you for being a member of Wikimedia UK - the movement promoting and supporting Wikipedia, its sister projects and open content here in the UK. Wikimedia UK is now one year old. Our voice is starting to be heard - in discussions with museums and the government, engaging with the education sector and defending our communities in interviews with the news media. This year has seen significant growth in Wikimedia UK: we have raised over £50,000, doubled our membership and increased our activities. We represented the Wikimedia movement at over a dozen events and were quoted numerous times in the national media. Britain Loves Wikipedia expanded to 20 museums across Britain. We arranged content donations from organisations like the Mary Rose Trust and more are in the works. Understanding the many doors it will unlock, we submitted our charity application and instructed solicitors to help with this process. We hope to have a response in time for the AGM. Next year we hope to do much more, but to do that we need as many members involved as possible. Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 24th April at the University of London Students' Union. Please come along to hear what we have managed to achieve and help us plan our activities for the future. The address of the AGM is: University of London Students' Union Malet Street London, WC1E 7HY It's within walking distance of London Euston railway station and several tube lines. Directions: http://www.ulu.co.uk/content/index.php?page=13 So that we can plan for the right number of people, if you are attending, it would help us if you could add yourself to the list at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetings/2010_AGM/Attendees The AGM will run alongside the "Open Knowledge Conference" (OKCON), now in its fifth year. The programme will shortly be announced and in previous years has included presentations from MySociety, Open Street Map and OPSI, the government publishers. More information on OKCon: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ Events will start at 10am. The official AGM will run from 2pm to 4pm and cover the annual report, election of a new Board of Trustees and five official motions: 1. Creating a new class of membership for Member Organisations with two votes each 1a Amending the motion to grant only one vote each 2. Setting the fees for Member Organisations at £100 per year 3. Reducing the fees for Individual Members to £5 per year 4. Allowing the Board to waive membership fees in individual cases 5. Appointing the people elected under the Election Rules as directors More details of these motions is given below. If you would like to propose an amendment please get in touch by emailing secretary(a)wikimedia.org.uk to discuss. Please vote on these motions by forwarding this email to "tellers(a)wikimedia.org.uk" and putting "Yes" or "No" against each of the motions above. You may also vote in person at the AGM and you may change your vote at any time. Email votes must be received by 2pm on Friday 23rd April. By forwarding this email with your instructions to the tellers you are agreeing to appoint the tellers as your proxy and they will cast your vote on your behalf. The wording of the proxy declaration is as follows: "I, the above named member, of the above email address, being a member of Wikimedia UK, hereby appoint James Farrar and James Humphreys ("the Tellers") as my proxy to vote in my name on my behalf at the general meeting of the charity to be held on 24 April 2010 and at any adjournment thereof according to my instruction above. Unless otherwise instructed, the proxy may vote as they think fit where consistent with my instruction or abstain." Alternatively you have a right to appoint someone else as your proxy to attend the meeting and vote on your behalf. Please use the same wording as above and email it to tellers(a)wikimedia.org.uk. Hope to see you on 24th! Regards, Secretary, on behalf of the Board of Trustees 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. Details of Resolutions

When Wikimedia UK was originally established, we considered accepting organisations as members where, for instance, they share our values or want to partner with us in our activities. Several other chapters have similar arrangements. We wrote the facility in our articles, but decided to defer the details until a later date when the chapter is more established. We now think it would be advantageous to activate this clause. The proposal would give each Member Organisations two votes at the AGM to reflect their role as a group of people, although we would always expect there to be many more Individual Members than Member Organisations. All membership applications, as now, would be subject to the Board agreeing that it would be in the best interests of the chapter to accept the member. The text of the resolution is: WHEREAS Article 2 of our Articles of Association states that "Membership is open to other individuals or organisations who apply to the charity in the form required by the Directors and are approved by the Directors." WHEREAS we currently only have one class of members who are all individual members WHEREAS Article 3.1 allows the Board to establish classes of membership with different rights and obligations if a general meeting authorises this with a Special Resolution WHEREAS having organisations as members could significantly assist us further our goals. WHEREAS this meeting would like to recognise organisations as a separate class of member, and to, reflect their role as a group of people, give them two votes each This meeting RESOLVES by Special Resolution to authorise the creation of a new class of members called Member Organisations. The existing class of members will henceforth be called Individual Members. Any organisation may apply to become a Member Organisation and, if accepted by the board, such a member will have the same rights and obligations as an Individual Member except that each Member Organisation shall have two votes where each Individual Member has one. This resolution is a Special Resolution proposed under Article 3.1. It therefore requires support from 75% of the members voting to pass - see http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Article#Members. Please support this motion. 1a. Amending the motion to grant only one vote each Two members of the chapter would like to amend the resolution to give member organisations the same voting rights as individual members. The text of the amendment is: "WHEREAS this meeting feels that Member Organisations should not have greater influence in decisions than Individual Members, this meeting RESOLVES to amend the motion by deleting "except that each Member Organisation shall have two votes where each Individual Member has one." Proposed by Mike Peel, seconded by Steve Virgin 2. Setting the fees for Member Organisations at £100 This resolution will only be put if the first resolution passes. The fee level set is consistent with the fee set by other chapters. We think it is at a suitable level that will not deter organisations that want to partner with us or that share our objectives, but reflects the additional voting rights and different role within the chapter of member organisations. The text of the resolution is: WHEREAS: this meeting has created a new class of membership for Member Organisations. WHEREAS: Member Organisations usually have more funds available than Individual Members. This meeting RESOLVES by Ordinary Resolution to set the fee for all Member Organisations at £100 per year. 3. Reducing the fees for Individual Members to £5 per year At last year's AGM, it was decided to set the fees at £12 or £6 for concessions. The intention was to raise enough money in subscriptions to cover our administrative costs, so that donations woud all go to acheiving our objects. Since then our membership has more than doubled and we raised over £50,000 during the annual Wikimedia Fundraiser. We do not want anyone to be put off from joining the chapter due to the cost and we want to continue to build a mass membership organisation. Therefore we'd like to reduce the fee to £5 per year. In order to simplify the administration, we'd like to have a single fee rather than a separate one for concessions. We have found that many people add a donation to the membership fee, so do not expect this reduction to significantly reduce our overall income. The text of the resolution is: "WHEREAS, the Membership Rules require the membership fees to be reviewed by each AGM; WHEREAS, the chapter's successful fundraiser has significantly reduced the charity's reliance of membership fees to fund its operations. This meeting RESOLVES by Ordinary Resolution to set the fee for all Individual Members at £5 per year." 4. Allowing the Board to waive membership fees in individual cases There have been a number of cases where the Board has wanted to encourage individuals to join the chapter but they have been unable to due to the cost. They may be a long standing administrator on one of the projects or may have volunteered in some other way but, for whatever reason, not be able to pay the fee. We'd like the membership's support to allow the board to waive the fee in exceptional cases where it is in the interest of the chapter to accept a new member and the fee is a barrier to joining. The text of the resolution is: "WHEREAS, some people may be very active in helping the chapter but are unable to afford the membership fee. WHEREAS, having those people as members would greatly benefit the chapter. This meeting RESOLVES by Ordinary Resolution to amend the Membership Rules by appending the following clause: "#. The Board of Trustees may, at their discretion, waive the membership fee for Individual Members if they believe it is in the interests of the charity." 5. Appointing the people elected under the Election Rules as directors This is a formal requirement of the Companies Act for the meeting to appoint the people who have been elected as Directors. A separate ballot paper for the election will be issued to all members on around 6th April. The Text of the resolution is: "WHEREAS, the Board of Trustees have all resigned effective at the end of this meeting, as required by the Articles of Association. WHEREAS, the Election Rules require an election of board members at this meeting. This meeting RESOLVES by Ordinary Resolution to hold an election in accordance with the Election Rules and then appoint the elected candidates as directors and trustees for the forthcoming year."