Minutes 2011-07-25
Minutes for Board meeting on 25 July 2011 between 7.30pm and 10.30pm, held by telephone.
Present:
- Roger Bamkin (RB)
- Chris Keating (CK)
- Ashley (Fæ)
- Mike Peel (MP)
- Martin Poulter (MLP)
- Andrew Turvey (AT)
The meeting started at 7.30pm.
A: Minutes and Reports
A1: RB - Apologies for absence
SV sends his apologies.
A2: MP - Approval of Minutes 11Jun11
ACTION: MP to add text of vision and mission to the minutes.
ACTION: MP to upload the in-camera minutes and circulate them to the board for approval.
The minutes were otherwise approved.
A3: RB - Review of executive meeting on 9 July 11, and approval of Minutes 9Jul11
The minutes were approved.
A4: MP - Review email decisions
- Decision to partner with ARKive and run the ARKive project; budget of £1k from the opportunity fund (6 June)
- Decision to appoint Stone King as our lawyers for the purpose of our charity application (25 June)
- Decision to sign an MoU with the National Maritime Museum on the creation of enhanced Warship Histories (5 July)
- Board decision that the job title of the 'chapter manager' should formally be called 'Chief Executive' - 4 support (MP, AT, RB, CK), 1 oppose (SV) (13 July).
- Decision to increase the GLAM budget to £40k to incorporate planned activities in Scotland (13 July)
- Decision to increase the charity application budget to £10k (21 July)
- Decision to sign the fundraising agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation for the 2011-12 online Wikimedia fundraiser (22 July)
The decisions were reviewed, and the chief exec decision was amended.
A5: MP - Review email resolutions
Not covered (there were none)
A6: Actions and reports
- All to log into OTRS and look at the WMUK queue.
Fæ and CK have worked through the backlog. Role will be passed onto an office manager in the future, and the temporary fundraiser support in advance of that.
- Executive to meet in person to resolve the issue of outstanding invoices and expense claims
This was done.
- Action on all to keep GG informed of activities, and involved in them from the start.
No longer applicable.
A62 Roger Bamkin (Chair)
Roger's report was noted.
GG has decided to resign from the post of Head of PR, but will be continuing to be involved on an ad-hoc basis.
A63 Mike Peel (Secretary)
MP's report was noted.
A631 Membership approvals
This was not discussed (will be done via email)
A64 Andrew Turvey (Treasurer)
Andrew's report was given orally.
Recruitment:
Email discussion about job ad title. Have had good feedback since it's gone live - particularly from WMF. Has gone out on Signpost, blog and email lists; a geonotice is being looked into. 101 people have requested the recruitment pack. Closing date is 1 August. They will do a longlisting process, which they will involve us in, followed by us interviewing a shortlist. Second stage of interview will coincide with the London wikimeet, to which they will be encouraged to attend. AT has put some words together to send out to applicants, which would be sent out in time for the first stage of interviews. Would be useful to have text describing our overall strategy for the next few years, in time for the second stage of interviews; probably not possible to put text together for this in time. Could use the strategy meeting summary.
ACTION: AT to take text from this document, polish it, and circulate it to the board prior to it being sent around.
AT has been talking with CK about hiring a temporary admin person.
Finance (bank account):
Backlog of expenses mostly cleared. Some claims outstanding where there are issues with the documents that have been received - to be followed up with the individuals concerned.
Wider bank issues are next: sorting out address, internet access, etc.
Budget:
MP made some changes to the budgets. Biggest amount of money we're due to spend is on staff; AT will review these budgets given our modified timeline for hiring staff.
A number of actions have been completed, but not marked as being completed yet.
The timeline for paying expenses was discussed - approach of 2 weeks expected to pay back claims, after 3 weeks can be brought to attention of the board; aim of paying them back within a month. AT planning on moving to going through expense claims every 2 weeks, rather than individually. Can also pay people in advance if need be.
A65 Chris Keating (Director)
CK's report was noted.
Direct debits: CK's aim is to set this up for this fundraiser. Concern from AT about how much work it is to accept direct debits; the question is how much of the work the suppliers can do, and how much was left for WMUK to do. It will depend on how much of the risk in terms of the process will end up on WMUK.
Blog content: should include interesting topics about what WMUK or the broader Wikimedia community is doing.
Not covered. All appears to be going well.
A66 Martin Poulter (Director)
MLP's report was noted.
Outreach Ambassadors:
Bristol, setting up Girl Geeks event, meeting people in the university (to increase likelihood of Campus Ambassador programme) and following up on local outreach using contact list provided by SV. Public stuff in the next few weeks; mostly setting up meetings and talking to people thus far.
ARKive: text from arkive is going into Wikipedia, other editors getting involved, right-sized chunk of material. Publicity being negotiated. Aim is to have a public event on Wikipedia and Wildlife, probably next month.
A67 Fæ (Director)
Fæ's report was noted.
SV joined at this point (after Fæ ran through his report).
The use of emails for discussions was discussed - particularly to avoid heated discussions, going off at tangents, and keeping the number of emails on the board mailing list to a reasonable level. Agreement to mark emails needing decisions, discussion or for info only (marked via "Info:" at the start of the subject), and to think about whether the email should be sent to everyone or to individuals.
A68 Steve Virgin (Director)
Steve's report was noted.
QRPedia was discussed, specifically where the data is located - answer is that the data is not stored, and that each request is self-contained in terms of information provided for that returned. Also questions about the future and sustainability of the system.
ACTION: RB to talk to Terence about how the ownership of QRPedia can be transferred to WMUK by the end of the year.
SV left the meeting at this point.
A7 Matters Arising
There were none.
B: Discussions and decisions needed
B1. Charity status (SV/Johnbod)
This was discussed in camera.
B2. Recruitment (AT)
This was covered above.
B3. Conflict of Interest policy (MP)
MP to work with Fæ will review the Conflict of Interest policy in comparison with the charity commission guidelines. Need to follow guidance, and also the articles.
B4. Wikimedia and Education (MLP)
Freshers Fairs - a budget has been put together, which will be sent around for an email decision. If spending money on freshers fairs, then need to have infrastructure and volunteers able to follow through. Would link into Campus Ambassadors.
ACTION: MLP to contact Vineesh to talk about the freshers fair at Imperial, to provide two-way input.
MLP's focus is on academics, while Fiona's focusing on undergrads/freshers fair.
Main focus is Wikipedia assignments, following the WMF's lead.
B5. Communication (RB) - GG resignation actions
Launch of fundraiser is the next big thing.
No longer have a 'head of PR' - now devolved amongst all board members, with support from other organisations - won't be on solid form with this until Oct/Nov. Main issue is going to be the press side.
B6. Budget - Actions to 2012 - Creating a plan (RB)
Next item for the face-to-face meeting. Need to come up with a plan for the fundraising agreement. So need to create a list of main ideas, and list of things not to repeat. AT will put together a straw man proposal. The difference between plan and budget was discussed.
There was a discussion about how much of the creation of the plan and the budget should be public vs. private.
A straw man budget/plan will be drafted on the board wiki to start with; it will be posted onto the public wiki for input and discussion (with CK soliciting input), and discussed at the next in-person board meeting.
Need to have a open discussion about openness at the in-person board meeting, as part of a discussion on values.
C: AOB
C1. Microgrants (MP)
General plan to move towards one board member approving, and volunteer(s) assisting with the process, and helping advertise it.
C2. Wikimedia Geocamp (MP)
Discussed informally (see below).
C3. Business cards (MLP)
Support for volunteers having access to these. General purpose business cards, with WMUK details. Reminder for everyone to send details to MLP for what will be on the cards. Likely to be printed using the University of Bristol printers.
Dates for future meetings: see Meetings
The next in-person meeting will be on 27-28 August in Derby
Meeting ended 22.37
Discussion afterwards with RB, MP, Fæ and MLP approved expense of £3k to run a 2-day GLAMcamp, potentially co-organised by the Open Street Map Foundation (to be approached). Discussion ended circa 11pm.