Newsletter/November2008

Wikimedia UK Newsletter

Draft November 2008 Issue

Summary: This is the summary of the newsletter, which will cover everything below very briefly.

In this month's newsletter:

1. Creating a chapter
2. Results of elections
3. Status of Company Formation
4. Membership
5. Anything else

Creating a chapter

Wikimedians in the United Kingdom have been working since 2006 to create a chapter if the Wikimedia Foundation. A company - Wiki Educational Resources Ltd - was incorporated on 14 February 2006. However, this company had several problems with recognition from the Foundation and opening bank accounts which meant the decision was made in August 2008 to wind the company up. The process was started to create a new company, starting with the election of an initial Board.

Results of elections

The community of Wikimedians in the United Kingdom has come together to form a chapter of Wikimedia. From 20-27 September, the community elected an initial board of five members to incorporate the new organisation, set up a bank account, request charitable status and arrange the first Annual General Meeting. Nine people put their names forward to stand and eight were accepted as candidates - the ninth being rejected as they were under 18. These five candidates received the support of more than the required 50% of voters:

• Kwan Ting Chan (88.5%; Chair);
• Michael Conn (57.7%; Communication Officer) ;
• Tom Holden (92.3%; Treasurer);
• Michael Peel (53.2%; Membership Secretary);
• Andrew Turvey (73.1%; Secretary).

Of the the 37 people who registered in time to vote, 26 (70%) cast their ballots.

Status of Company Formation

The board has agreed a timeline of objectives. Good progress is being made. Following extensive discussions, a company named Wiki UK Ltd has been set up and was incorporated on 5 November. The company's Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association have been agreed, and these include the organisation's objectives:

The charity's Object is to aid and encourage people to collect, develop and effectively disseminate knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic content in the public domain or under a license that allows everyone to freely use, distribute and modify said content, by means including (but not limited to):

1. promoting freely accessible online information repositories whose content is freely and collaboratively editable;
2. acting as a voice and representative for the community of UK residents and citizens who use and edit such repositories;
3. preserving world heritage, and particularly that of the UK, through such repositories;
4. supporting the charitable work of the Wikimedia Foundation;
5. enabling, assisting, promoting and promulgating wider participation in the creation, dissemination and expansion of information and educational resources covering the world's knowledge and languages to all persons, everywhere;
6. furthering the development of electronic, printed, and other resources required to support such participation;
7. producing, publishing and developing, or cause to be produced, published and developed, information resources, whether in printed, electronic, or other forms;
8. making use of or encouraging the use of information resources for the advancement of education; and
9. encouraging the adoption of practices and policies to widen education, participation and dissemination of information worldwide;

    —Objectives of Wiki UK Ltd

A decision from the chapters committee on whether to propose that the Wikimedia Foundation accept the organisation as a chapter is expected on Friday [to update].

Once a decision is made, the board will begin accepting applications for membership (see below for details), and will also be setting up a bank account. [to update].

Membership

We have decided to have one membership level to start with, what was referred by WMUK1 as "Guarantor Members". Members will have the right to vote at AGMs, and would be liable for up to £1 of the company's debts (if any) in the case of the company winding up. The membership fee will be £12/year, reduced to £6/year for concessions. These fees may be revised, and additional levels of membership created, at the AGMs or by future Boards.

We look forward to accepting applications for membership of Wiki UK Limited, however there is a hurdle we need to go through first. As we will be charging a membership fee, we have to have a bank account open to process the fees before we can accept membership. Whilst we will be applying for a bank account imminently, the bank takes a certain amount of time to process the application. In the meantime we hope that we can invite membership applications in the near future, which will be processed as soon as we have a bank account.

More information on membership can be found at Wikimedia UK v2.0/Membership.

Anything else

Mention Wikimeets, recent news from UK-based Wikiprojects, etc. here? Anyone at want to write a report?