Please find copied below the minutes of the last board meeting that we had last Wednesday 5th August.
The main business was our continuing work on our charity commission application. The wording of our application has now been substantially finished. However, an investigation has revealed that the Schools Project will classify us as a "childrens charity" - a charity whose people work with children more than once a month. This will expand our child protection duties, including the requirement for written policies, complaints procedures and criminal checks on all trustees. We have decided to delay the application until these procedures are in place. Other items discussed included: - We have received the $8,150 grant from the Foundation to kick start our initiatives. - We're going to investigate moving the wiki from http://uk.wikimedia.org to http://www.wikimedia.org.uk , so as to avoid any conflict with Wikimedia Ukraine - the Ukrainian Wikipedia is at http://uk.wikipedia.org. - The August newsletter has been penciled in for Friday 14th. Any queries, comments or corrections are welcome either in reply to this message or on the talk page of the wiki. Regards, -- Andrew Turvey Secretary Wikimedia UK Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited. Wiki UK Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL, United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK Board meeting Wednesday 5th August 2009, 8:30pm BST at #wikimedia-uk-board Present: Michael Peel (MP) (Chair); Andrew Turvey (AT) (minutes); Zeyi He (ZH); Tom Holden (TH); Joseph Seddon (JS); Paul Williams (PW) (part) Apologies: PW for late arrival; Steve Virgin (SV) Minutes of previous meetings The minutes of the meetings dated 21 July and 28 July were approved. It was agreed that the action for TD to contact the gazette to solicit a pro-bono lawyer would be dropped given the discussion on engaging a paid lawyer. The following actions were carried forward: 1. PW agreed to draft an email to the WMF formalising the agreement to use Wikimedia Foundation trademarks in members-only merchandising and to look into where we could produce merchandise. 2. MP agreed to draft templates for the six press scenarios identified at Media relations#Media response . 3. AT to send out the details of the February 2009 Wikipedia Loves Art prizes. 4. MP agreed to install a wordpress blog at http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/blog . 5. MP agreed to work with SV to do mini press releases, no more than one per month, advertising spikes in traffic per WP:POPULAR related to particular news events. 6. JS agreed to get a copy of the WMF's press release contact list in the UK. 7. MP agreed to add the HMRC letter appendices as attachments to section C of the Charity Commission application 8. PW will research into the requirement for CRB checks for Schools Project volunteers and their transferability in liason with JS. 9. PW will develop a proposal for buying a computer for the Schools Project with, potentially, peripherals such as a projector, screen, printer etc. Matters arising JS will draft an email for the Open Knowledge Foundation mailing list, to recruit new members. ACTION: JS With regard to setting up wikipedia.x.uk as a portal along the lines of http://wikipedia.de , it was agreed that the risks were unquantified. Rather than looking into it at the moment, it was agreed we would revisit in January 2010. AT agreed to take on the business cards printing. ACTION: AT Reports Secretary The Secretary's Report was noted. AT will reply to the charity as proposed. ACTION: AT It was agreed that we would try to move our wiki at http://uk.wikimedia.org to http://www.wikimedia.org.uk subject to technical feasibility re Single User Logins and hosting, with gb.wikimedia.org as a potential alternative. MP will investigate. ACTION: MP Treasurer The Treasurer's Report was noted, which includes the receipt of the Foundation's grant. TH has created subaccounts in the accounting software which ensures that the funds, which are designated for particular purposes, are not used for other expenses. Balances for each initiative will be reported in future Treasurers' Reports. Chair The Chair's Report was noted. MP agreed to follow up with Wikimedia Ukraine regarding the "uk." website conflict. Initiatives PW joined the meeting The Initiatives Report was noted. ZH agreed to follow up with each initiative leader on progress with the timeline milestone of "Establish a plan for each initiative including timetable, aim and outline costing", which is due by 31 August. Corporate relations SV had spoken to AT before the meeting: SB has been in touch wanting to progress the BBC work, having received his token of thanks. For the next fortnight, SV has focus on his work where he is facing possible redundancy. After then, he will return and pick up his actions. If anything arises that needs an immediate response he will refer it to AT or MP. Conferences The Conferences Report was noted. Charity Commission application Section C (public benefit) It was agreed that the chapter would, in principle, consider supporting non-Wikimedia Foundation free content work as appropriate. With that agreed, the text of section C was agreed. Section D (vulnerable people) JS has investigated the situation with Criminal Record Bureau checks for board members and found that all board members will need to be checked if the Schools Project goes ahead, as this makes us a "children's charity". We will also be obliged to comply with other procedures such as child protection policies and complaints procedures. These obligations also mean that it is more likely that our Charity application will be refused. PW left the meeting It was agreed that we would not delay the Schools Project but would apply for charitable status and establish our procedures in parralel. JS agreed to look into CRB checks - who to approach for them and how much they will cost. ACTION: JS AT agreed to investigate NCVO and other charity support groups for guidance on setting up procedures. ACTION: AT AT agreed to investigate getting paid legal advice on charitable status, using the Foundation's offer to fund. ACTION: AT JS agreed to start drafting some child protection policies. ACTION: JS Section E (Conflicts of interest) AT has drafted a conflicts of interest policy based on various guidance. The Board discussed where a conflict of loyalty may arise that would prejudice a decision on a transaction with the Wikimedia Foundation. It was agreed that being an administrator on a Wikimedia Foundation project normally wouldn't present a conflict, but being a former appointee to a Wikimedia Foundation committee would. It was felt that MedCom and ArbCom would also present conflicts and this should be considered when the forthcoming Fundraising Agreement is discussed. MP agreed to clarify his status on the Communications Committee. ACTION: MP The section will be discussed again at the next regular meeting to give members time to read it thoroughly. Newsletter It was agreed we would aim for the 14th August as a date for the next newsletter. Each initiative leader will be asked to write a section, plus a section on charity status update (AT) and Wikipedia Loves Art prizes (AT). Next meeting The next meeting, to focus on initiatives with a brief discussion of the charity commission application, was agreed for Tuesday 18th August, 8:30 - 10:30pm. The meeting closed at 23:00
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