[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia CH staff changes in 2013

[Ilario Valdelli]

Personal answer...

You are giving examples and references not compatible with this case.

For instance you give a link of paragraph entitled "payment of a trustee",
but I have not received any payment and I am still a volunteer.

You refer to this specific case: "In the case of a trustee *also being
employed* in a separate post within the charity, or *a trustee being paid
for a service provided* to the charity, the conflict of interest may result
in a liability to repay salary or other related benefits", but *I am not
employed yet and I received no payments for my service.

*It has been unclear that Wikimedia CH will have the General Assembly the
27th April and in that date the board will change. I will start to work
from 1st May.

As per Swiss bylaws I have been a board member and I did it as volunteer.

I suppose that you have misunderstood

Please be careful of speaking about COI and please do it using the right
examples.

Regards


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:

> On 10 April 2013 08:10, Charles Andrès <charles.andres.wmch at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Hello Thomas,
> >
> > Thanks for asking!
> >
> > In fact, it was as easy as said :-)  Ilario has just never been involved
> in the recruitment process. In WMCH we believe that the conflict of
> interest is not solved with the resignation, but giving the whole process
> in the hands of a committee.
>
> Thank you for clarifying, but it really isn't that easy... Did you
> seek professional advice from either a charity lawyer or a charity
> governance expert?
>
> I don't know how these things work in Switzerland, but the relevant
> guidance from the UK Charity Commission can be found here:
>
>
> http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/Charity_governance/Good_governance/conflicts.aspx#8a
>
> "In the case of a trustee also being employed in a separate post
> within the charity, or a trustee being paid for a service provided to
> the charity, the conflict of interest may result in a liability to
> repay salary or other related benefits. It should not be assumed that
> such conflict can be overcome merely by the person concerned resigning
> as a trustee, either before or after taking up the post. The only
> instance where authority may not be needed is where, practically, the
> trustees can show that there is no conflict of interest. In our view,
> this is confined to the fairly narrow circumstance where the trustee
> concerned:
>
> * has had no significant involvement with the trustees’ decision to
> create or retain the post, or with any material aspect of the
> recruitment process
> * where that person resigns as a trustee in order to apply for the
> employed post in advance of a fair and open competition for it
>
> All other circumstances require an express authority. "
>
> "Authority" in this context means either an express authority in the
> governing documents of the charity, a court order or permission from
> the Charity Commission.
>
> Under UK guidance, the approach you took would not be at all acceptable.
>
> This is a very serious matter. A charity paying a trustee (other than
> to reimburse actual expenses incurred) is probably the biggest
> conflict of interest you can get. It needs to be handled extremely
> carefully.
>
> Can you elaborate on how the decision to create the post was carried
> out (presumably it was part of your annual planning process)? Was
> Ilario involved in that?
>
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-- 
Ilario Valdelli
Wikimedia CH
Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
Tel: +41764821371
http://www.wikimedia.ch