In terms of making sure the charity communicates with its membership outside of AGMs and related matters, since January we have been sending out monthly newsletters to our members: uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Membership/Newsletter/Archive

On Friday, 28 June 2013, Charles Matthews <charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com> wrote:
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> On 27 June 2013 22:07, Gordon Joly <gordon.joly@pobox.com> wrote:
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>> I would like to reply here. At an AGM, this email list is informed of the outcome of elections and motions, before the membership is informed.
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>> I believe the reason is that CiviCRM is not always available. Can I ask that members are informed first, and then an announcement is sent out to this list etc?
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>> In other words, membership should bring benefits not afforded to non-members. It is the lack of distinction that may put off potential members. And retain the current members....
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> This sort of courtesy is necessary, but not sufficient.
> "You just come to visit me 'round election time" is a Stevie Wonder lyric, but expresses the point that communication to the membership in the past has been seen as essential to having an AGM that is quorate, and otherwise a luxury for the Board, who are typically busy with other pet projects.
> Taking messages to this list to be a surrogate for communicating properly with members is an old and bad habit. It is not improved by trustees who either don't read this mail (which is indeed not just about the chapter), or who don't engage in serious discussion here, when some measure of accountability would be welcome.
> What I have told Kat is that I think matters will not improve much until there is an identifiable trustee who has the responsibility to advocate for the members' interests on the Board. This has singularly failed to happen in the past. The wiki pages dealing with membership matters were apparently everyone's responsibiliy, and so no one's in particular. The content was allowed to go stale: the promises made to members there were not kept, and trustees were lackadaisical about the whole business.
> I'm delighted that the matter of membership has climbed back on the agenda. It is an example (if one were needed) of why there should be trustees performing the non-executive function of saying "hoy!".
> Charles
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Richard Nevell
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0753

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. 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.