On Tue, 22 Jan 2019 at 15:26, Michael Maggs <michael@maggs.name> wrote:

The disclaimer has been carefully worded and is correct:  WMUK is legally independent from the Foundation. The two entities co-operate of course, and have contractual understandings, but they are nevertheless independent. Indeed, it is an essential requirement of our English and Scottish charitable status that we are and that we remain independent.

Michael

Thanks Michael, that is what a trustee would explain to the Charity
Commission, and it's how we pitched our world view when we applied for
charity status, many years ago. However we are discussing an email
footer, that the public and unpaid volunteers are supposed to make
plain English sense of, not a narrowly scoped legal position statement
for charity lawyers to scrutinize.

The murky realpolitik, is that the UK Chapter signed a Chapters
Agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation. It is legally binding, and a
firm requirement if the UK Chapter wishes to use any Wikimedia
branding in any of its publications, such as the Wikipedia logo. Among
other implications, the UK Chapter is not allowed to do any
fundraising using the Wikimedia websites. The past few years have
demonstrated very clearly that the WMF will never again allow any
Chapter to do any fundraising this way, regardless of how well they do
in any year, or ever improve in the future.[1]

WMF management can choose to remove WMUK's Chapter status, and
consequently deny any future central funding at any time for any
reason (regardless of existing FDC decisions), including the WMF
suddenly deciding it does not like the idea of having Affiliates any
more, or vaguely deciding that something about the UK Chapter does not
sufficiently align with the WMF's organizational goals.

In the mind of any casual reader of WMUK's email footer, the claim
that the UK Chapter is "independent", when the Foundation has full
control of these core aspects of the operation of the Chapter is not a
plain English use of the word "independent". Good UK Charity practice
is to use common sense plain English and avoid misleading its members
with legal jargon. As there is no actual real benefit to this email
footer, the Chapter can drop these without any risk to its operations.
Anyway, you are probably are all too keenly away that boilerplate
disclaimers in public emails from charities offer no protection in the
case of a legal action, so these extra sentences have no value apart
from a faux sense of comfort to the writer. Including them in every
email is irrelevant to addressing, say, the ECommerce Regulations,
which do not apply to these types of public discussion.[2]

Links
1. Probably because WMF senior management really like having full
control of the money in their own U.S. bank account. Despite the tax
and exchange costs of taking a UK donation, holding the cash in the
USA, then paying it back to an affiliate in the UK via an FDC funding
decision. The end to end avoidable costs and administrative burden of
doing fundraising this roundabout way have not been published by the
WMF in recent years, as they have avoided publishing almost any
appropriately detailed statements of expenses.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Commerce_Regulations_2002

Thanks,
Fae

On 22 Jan 2019, at 15:16, Lucy Crompton-Reid <lucy.crompton-reid@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

Hi Fae and all

Yes indeed, happy to publish the draft on meta.

I see what you mean about the disclaimer...pretty sure it's just what I inherited but will certainly review.

Thanks and best
Lucy

On Tue, 22 Jan 2019 at 13:32, Fæ <faewik@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Lucy,

For as long as the Chapter has created strategic plans, these have
been published and developed on-wiki, with all the normal benefits of
being open for consultation.

In the light of issues with the local chapter wiki, and the fact that
funding related reports are already published on the (WMF operated)
meta wiki, could the draft be published on meta this time? Doing this
will make it much easier for non-London and even non-UK resident
Wikimedians to provide early feedback. For example, all those active
volunteers that help other WMF Associations with reviewing strategies
and budgets.

P.S. Could you revisit the disclaimer on the UK Chapter email footer?
This states "The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia
Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). Wikimedia
UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over
Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents", which most readers
would presume means that WMUK is independent of the Wikimedia
Foundation, though the Chapters Agreement means that it legally, and
literally, is not.

Thanks,
Fae

On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 at 12:50, Lucy Crompton-Reid
<lucy.crompton-reid@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

Dear all

This is just a reminder about the meeting on Wednesday 30th January from 4pm - 7pm to discuss and develop Wikimedia UK's new strategic plan, for the period February 2019 - January 2022. This is a key opportunity for volunteers and other stakeholders to input into the development of the charity's future direction, and so we'd love to see as many of you there as possible. We can cover travel costs, subject to prior approval, as we don't want cost to be a barrier to anyone's attendance.

Please do email katie@wikimedia.org.uk if you are planning to attend next week, and let her know if you need Wikimedia UK to cover your travel costs. We need to know who's coming so that we can ensure we have a suitably sized space (and pizza), and also so that we can let attendees know of any changes to the schedule or venue. I will be sharing an agenda for the meeting and the draft strategic framework later in the week.

Thanks and best
Lucy

--
Lucy Crompton-Reid
Chief Executive
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 203 372 0762

Wikimedia UK is the national chapter for the global Wikimedia open knowledge movement, and a registered charity. We rely on donations from individuals to support our work to make knowledge open for all. Have you considered supporting Wikimedia? https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk

Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827
Registered Charity No.1144513
Registered Office Ground Floor, Europoint, 5 - 11 Lavington Street, London SE1 0NZ

The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.

--
faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk

--
Lucy Crompton-Reid
Chief Executive
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 203 372 0762

Wikimedia UK is the national chapter for the global Wikimedia open knowledge movement, and a registered charity. We rely on donations from individuals to support our work to make knowledge open for all. Have you considered supporting Wikimedia? https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk

Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827
Registered Charity No.1144513
Registered Office Ground Floor, Europoint, 5 - 11 Lavington Street, London SE1 0NZ

The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk