Hi Fae,

Happy to clarify that that Alastair informed the Board of his new job on 28 August, not - as you have presented elsewhere as fact - after 11 September. There is of course no requirement that Trustees disclose to the Board any job opportunity they are pursuing.

You have brought up the subject of whether this is "employment connected to the movement" in terms of our Conflict of Interest Policy. The relevant part of the policy reads:

"Trustees should not seek or accept any post or form of remuneration from organisations funded by Wikimedia UK or Wikimedia movement organisations for a period of six months after they have been a member of the board, without the express permission of the board." As CIPR is not funded by Wikimedia UK or any other Wikimedia movement organisation this is not relevant. We took the right decision last year in saying trustees in effect have to choose between serving on the Board and working within the Wikimedia movement but this does not extend to work in other spheres.

I hope this clarifies matters.

Regards,

Chris

On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 3:44 PM, Fć <faewik@gmail.com> wrote:

On the WMUK water cooler I have asked:[1]
* "In terms of timing, Alastair, nor any other member of the board,
has yet confirmed in writing exactly when he first informed the board
about accepting the job." @26 September 2013
* "What was the date of the first email to the board from Alastair
bringing up the issue of his relationship with CIPR as a potential
conflict of loyalties?" @2 October 2013

I am increasingly concerned that no trustee is willing to openly share
a date of an email from Alastair with the members of the charity, or
instead explain that the board of trustees were made aware of
Alastair's conflict of loyalties only after CIPR made public
announcements, or after it was posted on Wikipediocracy and then
raised for their attention, possibly not by Alastair. It should not
take more than a week to answer this question, especially when so many
other prompt replies to selected parts of the discussion have been
made by the board.

Chris Keating as the Chairman of the charity stated that this
assertion is factually inaccurate: "Alastair failed to declare his
conflict of loyalties to either the board or the membership until
immediately after a public fuss about it was made on Wikipediocracy.
Alastair knew about this conflict of loyalties before running to be a
trustee at the AGM, he failed to discuss it with the board of trustees
then or declare it so that members voting had the full facts." but
despite being quick to reply on other issues, has yet to provide
demonstrable facts to show what parts of this assertion are
inaccurate.

In terms of an indisputable timeline:
* CIPR publicly became a working partner with WMUK during 2011/2012,
making a presentation at the 2012 AGM
* Alastair was running for the CIPR job before the AGM
* Alastair became a WMUK trustee on 8 June 2013 at the AGM
* CIPR made a public announcement of Alastair's becoming their CEO on
27 August 2013
* the thread on Wikipediocracy was started on 10 September 2013
* Alastair publicly declared his conflict of loyalties the day
afterwards, 11 September 2013
* no provision has been made for the conventional 6 month grace period
that should pass between being a trustee of WMUK and taking paid
employment with a partner of the charity as has been enforced for
other trustees in the past[2]

With relatively few active members of the charity it falls to the same
old hands to raise questions for the board about their serious
concerns, or to provide feedback and context. This would be a good
time to have other members contribute on the Water cooler with varying
viewpoints.

Links:
1. https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Water_cooler#Alastair_has_provided_a_full_statement
2. https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/COI#Employment_related_to_the_Charity

Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik@gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm

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