Minutes 2011-02-05

A: Minutes and Reports (10.00-12.30)

Apologies for absence

Steve Virgin sent his apologies. Gemma sent her apologies for running late. TD ran late.

Approval of Minutes 4Jan11

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved by AT, JS and MP subject to changes made during the meeting. permanent link

Matters arising

• SV and JS have now paid their membership fees.
• AT and MP will attend the chapters conference on behalf of the chapter.

Review email decisions

The following email decisions were ratified:

• Decision to switch to a monthly payroll system (9 Jan)
• Approval of Open Access/2011/January (submitted 5 Jan, no objections after 72 hours)
• Approval of Newsletter/2010Catchup (9 Jan)
• Approval of Abbreviated Accounts
• Approval of new members, as recorded in the in-camera minutes of the meeting

Actions and reports

AT - Chair (Andrew Turvey) (including Office Manager)

Andrew's Report was acknowledged, with thanks.

2009-2010 accounts: two differences between the abbreviated and full accounts:

• Treatment of paypal fees. Treated as an expense for restricted funds. Paypal fees need to go wholly against the unrestricted, and should be subtracted from the total amount raised in the fundraiser. The split of restricted vs. unrestricted is then based on the total minus the paypal fees.
• Full accounts include an accrual for £89 for attending a conference. Should be unrestricted not restricted.
• MP reminded the board that some subtractions will need to be made from the restricted funds - namely sponsorship of the Chapters Meeting in 2010 and socilitors fees. These come under the 2010-2011 accounts.
• AT pointed out that we should put in place risk assessment for the 2011 accounts.

AT, MP and JS approved the full accounts subject to those changes.

ACTION: AT and MP to formally sign the accounts.

TD arrived at this point.

2010-2011 accounts:

• Approval of auditing firm: query of whether we have asked any others for quotes. Felt to be good to stay with the same accountants. AT, JS, MP approved using UHJ as our auditors next year. (NB: discussed prior to TD's arrival)
• Approval to purchase accounting system. Between QuickBooks (cheaper; as used by the Foundation) and Sage (more expensive, but market leading and standard). Budget for up to £500 to purchase one of these two was approved; AT and TD to decide which accountant system is the best.

Accounting processes:

• Move to a fully online accounting system; invoices, expense claims on wiki, scanning receipts (but retaining physical copies; to be given to the accountant at a later time; if receipts weren't genuine then the expense claim would have to be reversed).
• Bank statements scanned on the office wiki.
• Batch postings for donations - don't need to include full details of these in the accounts so long as they are maintained elsewhere.
• Distributed bank account and full paypal access: already being set up, so AT and MP also have access to it. ACTION: TD to give MP, AT full access to the paypal account
• Changes approved; ACTION on TD and AT to implement them.

Charity application:

• Draft letter; have a number of changes that we want to make. Solicitors want a draft of a section regarding relationship with the Foundation. The board will work on this at a working meeting on Sunday 6 Feb. (NB: discussed prior to TD's arrival)
• Want to bill the capped amount in full up until the end of December. Have been given the bill already (~£800 + VAT + expenses). Will then bill us again for extra time and costs up to the end of this application. Need to know what the additional costs would be. If circa £300, then the board would be happy with this. ACTION: AT to talk to them again, and find out how much the extra costs would be.

Payroll:

• Haven't paid PAYE deductions from December, which were due on 22 Jan, as we have not yet got a PAYE account number. Not non-compliant; will be paid next time.

WMF relations:

• AT sent the Foundation a response to their email on the communication issues
• JS sent a request to the Foundation for general input from the Foundation about WMUK's development: Sue, Erik, Zack and Barry replied in a single email. JS to circulate this email to the WMUK board list for discussion.
• Also other communication regarding governance of the chapter, and communications.

Organisational development:

• WMF/Sebastian have a number of things that they can offer, which we can pick and choose from. In particular: team building (particularly useful after the next AGM, when the board will likely change substantially), and strategic development (talking about where the chapter will be in 5-10 years). Also a lot of other things that can be offered, including: assessment (360 degree survey of the organisation), short-term planning (budget setting etc.), hirings and staff development (particularly relevant at the current time). Team building: if outdoors, no. Indoors, maybe - but reluctance from current board members. Short session for new board members might work. MP suggests doing team building via strategic development / discussions of aims. Conclusion: want to see a proposal.
• Concerns over the time requirement of this process were discussed.
• Will become mostly effective when the next board comes into place, but will need to start hiring staff before then.
• Next 3 months: planning and implementing a hiring process, need to have Seb's input and advice on those aspects, also with the budget. When the next board comes into place, then we start the long-term strategy process, and bringing the board together as a team.
• Decision: yes, we will participate. Main contact will be AT.

SV arrived at this point.

Grant to the Foundation:

• Letter from lawyers was shown to the board. Foundation have requested a grant of 65,000 USD, ~£40k. Agreement to give them the full amount of the restricted funds for international activities from the 2009 fundraiser, after deduction of the lawyer's expenses and the previously-agreed sponsorship of the chapters meeting. (MP will upload a copy of the grant request here for the record).

Secretary (Mike Peel)

Mike's report was acknowledged, with thanks.

Microgrants:

• More information on the microgrant to print leaflets was given to the board.

Kick-start grant:

• Report was acknowledged, but not approved.
• Unused money needs to be returned, or unrestricted. ACTION: TD to contact the WMF to see what they want to do.

Britain Loves Wikipedia:

• Now have a list of winners. ACTION: MP to publicise this, and sort out distributing the prizes.

TD - Treasurer (Thomas Dalton)

Tom's report was acknowledged, with thanks.

Transferring money from Paypal to the bank account: waiting for them to process the direct debit form, which is due imminently.

SV - Steve

Steve's report was acknowledged, with thanks.

JS - Seddon

Seddon's report was acknowledged, with thanks.