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. Elections
3. Status of Company Formation
4. Membership
5. Getting involved

Creating a chapter

Wikimedians in the United Kingdom have been working since 2006 to create a chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. A company—Wiki Educational Resources Ltd—was incorporated on 14 February 2006. 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 community decided to start the process to create a new company, firstly electing an initial Board.

Elections

From 20–27 September, the community voted for 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 (AGM). 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.

The board members took up the positions listed alongside their names. New board elections will be held at the first AGM.

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 in the next couple of days.

Membership

We have decided to have one membership level to start with. Members will have the right to submit motions and vote at AGMs, thereby playing a central role in determining the activities of the organisation. 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 an AGM or by future Boards.

We look forward to accepting applications for membership of Wiki UK Limited shortly. As we will be charging a membership fee, we have to open a bank account to process the fees before we can accept membership. We will be applying for a bank account imminently. We will 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.

Getting involved

In order to aid and encourage people to collect, develop and effectively disseminate knowledge, the chapter needs the support and involvement of people like you. Now is a great time to get involved. If you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to this newsletter. You may also like to subscribe to the WikimediaUK mailing list, where discussion on the chapter is taking place. You can additionally pose questions or make suggestions on Meta Wiki, where you can also respond to the items raised for consultation by the Board. Our Board Meetings held on irc are generally open to the public to listen and contribute and the agenda, reports, minutes and IRC log are posted on the wiki.