This morning I went into BBC Television Centre and did a remote radio interview for BBC Radio Wales 'Mousemat', which is to be run in this Sunday's programme - 5pm Sunday, repeated 6pm Wednesday. If you're not in Wales, you can pick it up on Sky TV channel 0117, or on the website for a week after broadcast:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/shows/mousemat.shtml
I covered how Wikipedia works, how we keep it from turning to rubbish, how good it is ("it's not perfect, and we're painfully aware of its problems, but it's *pretty good*"), the millionth article (how you can get so much good detail out of an unremarkable suburban railway station) and I did a *big* push for Welsh speakers to get in on the ground floor of cy.wikipedia - en. has 1,000,000 articles, but cy. has 4,000 and there's endless room to work on a really *good* Welsh encyclopedia. The Welsh language is undergoing bit of a revival - everyone there speaks English, but learn Welsh first, it's popular with its ethnicity, it's something people feel they *should* know if they're Welsh and of course kids learn it so their parents won't understand them, and the parents learn to keep up with them ;-)
They recorded about 15 minutes, of which they'll probably use 5 or 6.
And I'm apparently to receive a small payment for my trouble. :-O Just as well since I'm presently not on a contract. (Gi's a job!)
- d.
On 08/03/06, Alison Wheeler wikimedia@alisonwheeler.com wrote:
And I'm apparently to receive a small payment for my trouble. :-O Just as well since I'm presently not on a contract. (Gi's a job!)
Yay! first official income for wikimedia. uk!
Then I'll charge it to WMUK for my time and expense getting there ;-p
- d.
Just FYI, once WER becomes a charity, and you a trustee, you will be able to claim back from the charity your travel (and other expenses you incur) but will not be able to claim back your time or other salary costs, or receive payments from third parties for the work you do as a trustee, unless you have specific legal authority (in the governing documents, usually) to do so.
(So take the money and run, now?!? ;)
There are several documents available on the Charity Commission website, specifically:
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/supportingcharities/trustee1.asp
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/supportingcharities/efftrustintro.asp
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publications/cc11.asp (which also says "39. The law requires us to treat charities which have a power to pay their trustees in their original constitutions differently from charities without such a power, but where the trustees wish to be given a power. Our authority is not required where a reasonable power permitting a trustee benefit is included in a governing document when a charity is created. At any later stage, however, our authority to include such a power is needed.")
The Commission will probably send a cute and useful little booklet to you as trustees which is basically "I'm a trustee, now what?".
Scott
--- David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 08/03/06, Alison Wheeler wikimedia@alisonwheeler.com wrote:
And I'm apparently to receive a small payment for my trouble. :-O Just as well since I'm presently not on a contract. (Gi's a job!)
Yay! first official income for wikimedia. uk!
Then I'll charge it to WMUK for my time and expense getting there ;-p
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On 08/03/06, Scott Keir scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
Just FYI, once WER becomes a charity, and you a trustee, you will be able to claim back from the charity your travel (and other expenses you incur) but will not be able to claim back your time or other salary costs, or receive payments from third parties for the work you do as a trustee, unless you have specific legal authority (in the governing documents, usually) to do so. (So take the money and run, now?!? ;)
heh. FWIW, this did not come via WMUK - it came via the Foundation to me personally. I didn't expect reimbursement either and certainly didn't ask for it ...
If I get ones that do specifically come via WMUK when it's a charity, I appreciate everything will suddenly become a lot more complicated.
- d.
David Gerard wrote:
On 08/03/06, Scott Keir scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
Just FYI, once WER becomes a charity, and you a trustee, you will be able to claim back from the charity your travel (and other expenses you incur) but will not be able to claim back your time or other salary costs, or receive payments from third parties for the work you do as a trustee, unless you have specific legal authority (in the governing documents, usually) to do so. (So take the money and run, now?!? ;)
heh. FWIW, this did not come via WMUK - it came via the Foundation to me personally. I didn't expect reimbursement either and certainly didn't ask for it ...
If I get ones that do specifically come via WMUK when it's a charity, I appreciate everything will suddenly become a lot more complicated.
- d.
Hi
Just technically : Payments for presentations happen. For interviews, I am more surprised. But was it really a "payment" (a salary) or was it a reimbursement (to cover your travel costs for example) ? (This is just a disinterested note.)
Now, as a board member, I am more curious of the second part of your comment. If I understand you well, you mean that apparently, the BBC gave some money to the Foundation for the interview you gave them, and that the Foundation paid you ?
I suppose you can not be sure the BBC gave some money to the Foundation. But if it did so, might there not be an issue of WMF being used for money transfer from a commercial organisation in England to an individual in England ? If we get questions (from an auditor ?) to explain why you got paid by the WMF, how are we gonna justify this ?
Ant
On 11/03/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Just technically : Payments for presentations happen. For interviews, I am more surprised. But was it really a "payment" (a salary) or was it a reimbursement (to cover your travel costs for example) ? (This is just a disinterested note.)
I didn't submit an invoice ... they just said they'd pay me. I still have no idea how much.
Now, as a board member, I am more curious of the second part of your comment. If I understand you well, you mean that apparently, the BBC gave some money to the Foundation for the interview you gave them, and that the Foundation paid you ?
No, no. This will be coming directly from the BBC to me.
But if I start making money *because* I am a director of a charity, I don't know what happens next. I've been meaning to get a real accountant for a while ...
- d.
David Gerard wrote:
But if I start making money *because* I am a director of a charity, I don't know what happens next. I've been meaning to get a real accountant for a while ...
Although it is widely but falsely rumored that I'm fabulously wealthy, I have for the past couple of years survived in no small part due to speaking fees. There is nothing wrong with someone getting paid as a consultant or lecturer even when they are the director of a charity.
There could be conflict-of-interest issues *of course*. *As* a member of the board of the Wikimedia Foundation, I am extremely careful to make all decisions fully in accordance with my duties to the foundation. But when the BBC needed someone to come and advise them about communities, and felt that I had expertise, it was fine for me to use that expertise and contract with the BBC for it.
I am not an expert about UK charities law, of course, and would recommend that anyone there with any questions or doubts as to what duties one incurs by becoming a director to consult with an appropriate expert. :) My guess, though, is that the law there is quite as reasonable as the American one.
I am not an expert about UK charities law, of course, and would recommend that anyone there with any questions or doubts as to what duties one incurs by becoming a director to consult with an appropriate expert. :) My guess, though, is that the law there is quite as reasonable as the American one.
Dear Mr. Wales,
AFAIK, David Gerard is a Director of a company limited by guarantee (WER), and might be a Trustee of a Charity in the not too distant future.
And I am sure he will correct me if I am in error.
Gordon Joly, London, UK.
David Gerard wrote:
On 11/03/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Just technically : Payments for presentations happen. For interviews, I am more surprised. But was it really a "payment" (a salary) or was it a reimbursement (to cover your travel costs for example) ? (This is just a disinterested note.)
I didn't submit an invoice ... they just said they'd pay me. I still have no idea how much.
Now, as a board member, I am more curious of the second part of your comment. If I understand you well, you mean that apparently, the BBC gave some money to the Foundation for the interview you gave them, and that the Foundation paid you ?
No, no. This will be coming directly from the BBC to me.
? This is not what you wrote before. You probably slipped ?
You wrote "heh. FWIW, this did not come via WMUK - it came via the Foundation to me personally. I didn't expect reimbursement either and certainly didn't ask for it ..."
What did you mean then ?
But if I start making money *because* I am a director of a charity, I don't know what happens next. I've been meaning to get a real accountant for a while ...
Probably nothing I expect... You can not be paid by the UK association, but I see no reason why it would be illegal you receive money from other organisations.
What I do not really know is how one *declare* that money for income taxes. I suppose nothing would happen for small amounts. But once amounts are bigger, they should be declared. At least when the money is collected in your country or perhaps for me in Europe.
Dunno...
Ant
On 11/03/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
This is not what you wrote before. You probably slipped ? You wrote "heh. FWIW, this did not come via WMUK - it came via the Foundation to me personally. I didn't expect reimbursement either and certainly didn't ask for it ..." What did you mean then ?
I meant the interview request itself.
- d.
On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, David Gerard wrote:
On 11/03/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
This is not what you wrote before. You probably slipped ? You wrote "heh. FWIW, this did not come via WMUK - it came via the Foundation to me personally. I didn't expect reimbursement either and certainly didn't ask for it ..." What did you mean then ?
I meant the interview request itself.
To clarify David further, The interview request came to him personally from the Foundation, not via WMUK. The reimbursment offer (statement?) came from the BBC.
David's English teacher obviously did not successfully caution him against the possible ambiguity caused by run-on sentences :)
Chris
David's English teacher obviously did not successfully caution him against the possible ambiguity caused by run-on sentences :)
Hard to do that when you've had the blood sucked out of you by a vampiric pupil... ;-)
Rob Church
On 11/03/06, Chris McKenna cmckenna@sucs.org wrote:
On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, David Gerard wrote:
On 11/03/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
This is not what you wrote before. You probably slipped ? You wrote "heh. FWIW, this did not come via WMUK - it came via the Foundation to me personally. I didn't expect reimbursement either and certainly didn't ask for it ..." What did you mean then ?
I meant the interview request itself.
To clarify David further, The interview request came to him personally from the Foundation, not via WMUK. The reimbursment offer (statement?) came from the BBC.
David's English teacher obviously did not successfully caution him against the possible ambiguity caused by run-on sentences :)
Chris
-- Chris 'Awkward' McKenna
cmckenna@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna
The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart
Antoine de Saint Exupery
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
Chris McKenna wrote:
On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, David Gerard wrote:
On 11/03/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
This is not what you wrote before. You probably slipped ? You wrote "heh. FWIW, this did not come via WMUK - it came via the Foundation to me personally. I didn't expect reimbursement either and certainly didn't ask for it ..." What did you mean then ?
I meant the interview request itself.
To clarify David further, The interview request came to him personally from the Foundation, not via WMUK. The reimbursment offer (statement?) came from the BBC.
David's English teacher obviously did not successfully caution him against the possible ambiguity caused by run-on sentences :)
Chris
LOL
Okay, I understand. Good.
ant
The Commission will probably send a cute and useful little booklet to you as trustees which is basically "I'm a trustee, now what?".
Scott
Yes, indeed.
Let us see. My guess is that Charities Commission may question the objects of WEP, based on my recent experience in unrelated sphere.
Gordo
On 3/8/06, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
The Welsh language is undergoing bit of a revival - everyone there speaks English, but learn Welsh first, it's popular with its ethnicity, it's something people feel they *should* know if they're Welsh and of course kids learn it so their parents won't understand them, and the parents learn to keep up with them ;-)
Unless, of course, you go a VMPSIA, like some members of this list...
-- Sam
On Wed, 8 Mar 2006, Sam Korn wrote:
Unless, of course, you go a VMPSIA, like some members of this list...
What is VMPSIA? It gets no google hits and there's no WP article.
On 3/8/06, Chris McKenna cmckenna@sucs.org wrote:
On Wed, 8 Mar 2006, Sam Korn wrote:
Unless, of course, you go a VMPSIA, like some members of this list...
What is VMPSIA? It gets no google hits and there's no WP article.
Very Minor Public School I'm Afraid.
-- Sam
At 22:00 +0000 8/3/06, Sam Korn wrote:
On 3/8/06, Chris McKenna cmckenna@sucs.org wrote:
On Wed, 8 Mar 2006, Sam Korn wrote:
Unless, of course, you go a VMPSIA, like some members of this list...
What is VMPSIA? It gets no google hits and there's no WP article.
Very Minor Public School I'm Afraid.
I went to "John Lyon School, Harrow" from 1967 to 1974
Oxbridge candidate (failed) in 1975
Does that count?
Gordon Joly.
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