Minutes 2012-12-18

These minutes were noted at the Board meeting on 9 February 2013 .

These are the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Working Group, which was held on 18 December 2012 by telephone.

Present:

• Jon Davies [JD]
• Chris Keating [CK] (Chair)
• Mike Peel [MP] (Minutes)
• Saad Choudri [SC] (Part)

• Apologies fron John Byrne

The meeting started at 19:30.

Update on QRpedia progress

This discussion took place in-camera

Wikimedian in Residence agreements

A draft of the clauses was sent around, which many people have commented on. SC is currently figuring out how to modify the document to soften it in some areas, and be more specific where needed. He expects that the next draft will be available in the next 2–3 days, which we can use to finalise what we want when we approach partners. He noted that we will need to have a specific term sheet for each institution as there are specifics that can't be put into a general agreement, such as the funding levels expected from partners, project specifics expected and deliverables.

There is one issue about whether an MoU is best rather than an agreement - but SC believes that this is more semantics than an issue. He noted that we need to protect ourselves, while having flexibility going forward. He expects to be able to resolve this by having a conversation. Some previous agreements have been non-contractual, but here it's important to have a contract. MP thinks this is a good direction that we're going in. JD noted that there was interest from other chapters in what we come up with.

The revised version for comment will be circulated soon. The aim is for it to be finalised by the next Board meeting, for Board ratification at that meeting. JD was happy that this timeline will work well enough for the office - as there are Christmas holidays shortly, not much will happen with this before the 8th Jan Board meeting.

SC left the meeting at this point.

Wikimania update and potential legal structures

This discussion took place in-camera

Chair / Secretary / Treasurer role profiles

Background information: wmuk:Board/Role profiles

There hasn't been much discussion about these profiles so far. The Exec working group members should carry on working on these. The governance review will likely affect this document one way or the other. The aim is to finalise this for the Feb board meeting. CK will send a reminder around to the exec mailing list about this.

Agenda for next Board meeting

Various items were identified as needing to be added to the agendas for the January telephone board meeting and the February in-person meeting. These were added during the meeting and are recorded at [1] [2].

JD is hoping to reconcile quarterly reporting to the FDC, reporting to the board and financial reporting so that there is one set of reports that satisfies all of the needs.

JD pointed out that the risk assessment work carried out today highlighted the lack of a current 5-year strategy, which we need to return to.

CK will encourage board members to look through the proposed 2013 budget.

JD talked to Peter Williams today about the trustee vacancy. This will be discussed at the January Board meeting.

MP raised the issue of the EGM for changing the voting system for Board elections. CK pointed out that we might well find that the Governance Review proposes changes to areas which might need changes to the Articles, and hence need discussion at the EGM - so we shouldn’t call an EGM until then, although there is no harm in planning one. It was felt that this is something to discuss at the February Board meeting.

Next Exec meeting

The date of the next Exec working group meeting will be decided upon by a doodle poll to be set up by JD. The plan is to have a short meeting between the January and February Board meetings.

The meeting closed at 20:30.