Exec Minutes 2011-12-14

These minutes were approved at the Board meeting on 11 February 2012.

Minutes of the Executive Board meeting that took place online on 14 December 2011.

Present:

• Roger Bamkin (Chair)
• Mike Peel
• Jon Davies
• Richard (Minutes)
• Andrew Turvey

Meeting started at 19:35

Minutes were taken on etherpad.

Apologies & Board Agenda

Concerns were raised about there being too many meetings and the potential of 'burnout'. The weekly meetings are going to be turned into weekly reports to be circulated amongst appropriate parties. It was proposed that future exec meetings have a chief exec report (including finance) as a basis.

Chief Executive Report inc Fundraiser

JD reports that CK is happy with the fundraiser as a whole. There are issues with the development of the Direct Debit (DD) API, but the banners should be able to be turned off by New Year's Eve. JD reports that our DD direct mail replies are coming back very well. Very few complaints, very few "not known at this address". Donations have dropped to around 17k per day, but Plan B is now seen as 'very unlikely'.

There are currently 76 emails outstanding on OTRS. Need to engage more volunteers in responding to these, possibly from the OTRS workshop page. RS to investigate.

Management accounts; expenditure incl WMF

AT has been regularly emptying PayPal into the bank account. Need to be aware of the amount in the main bank account rather than in deposit accounts. AT has uploaded bank statements to the office wiki.

AT, JD, CK, Fae, Mike and SV have discussed paying the grant to the WMF - there were concerns as to whether this would be within our charitable objectives under UK law.

ACTION: JD to forward the original letter from Stone King to the WMF, and to confirm that we are paying the WMF a grant of £301,000 as previously agreed.

AT hopes to make the payment through Baydon Hill at some point in the future. Payment to be made in two tranches, as our limit is £200,000. AT noted that there is currently two weeks of expenses backlog.

Recruitment (office manager; comms; events; developer)

The office manager will start on 2 January. The blog post about this has been drafted. Conference call on Wednesday between AT, JD and RS to discuss handover of financial reports.

Events manager - we will be spending up to £600 per post advertising for these roles. Mike to come to London for interviews at some point in January. They should be in post by beginning of February. We will be advertising inside the community a lot more than previously.

Comms manager - Job description is being circulated to SV and the board for comments. Role will encompass press enquiries, talking to community, etc. Ideally to start 2nd week of February, at same time as Events manager.

Developer - needs more work on whether this will be a series of contractors or a single position. MP to discuss with JD about this, especially with regards QRPedia.

Staff workload and volunteer engagement

The exec noted its concerns that the Office Manager might be overworked; JD to ensure this is not the case.

Four volunteers visited the office this week. Rock Drum and HJ Mitchell are giving editing classes to other charities in the building. Screens and laptop cradles for visitors have been ordered.

There are three weekend volunteer meetings already planned at the office.

Policy development

Financial protocols: These have been on the wiki for consultation (see Finance Policy 2012). JD to work it into a policy. There was a discussion about the roles of trustees who are in charge of budgets and staff who are paying the expense. Jon to send around a summary of this by email, incorporate it into the policy and for it to be discussed at the board meeting on 3 Jan (20 minutes).

IT: IT policy (Open source policy) has been placed on the wiki, but has still to be commented on by the board. This is now very urgent. Board raised some concerns about the use of Google Apps over open source. JD to send an email about this around to the UK community.

Towards a 2012-13 budget

JD and AT will put together a budget in time for the January board meeting. RB will look at the timing of when things in the budget will take place.

Wikimania process (& bids)

It is important that we have a clear set of criteria that we are weighing bids against. RB has posted a set of criteria for the Wikimania bids (UK Wikimania bid criteria). RB to improve these to make it clear that they are graded rather than 'yes/no' criteria.

It will be up to the community to make the decision, with the board having a sort of veto power. Action: RB to talk to bidders and come up with a process, ideally by 2012. JD happy to be a neutral chair.

Readiness with other upcoming Events

Various meetups are happening: one to keep an eye on is the chapters meeting in April. We need to send two representatives (possibly two trustees plus the Chief Exec). Candidates to be discussed by email and decided on Feb 11/12.

AGM: potentially at the national Archives in May. Willing to pay a reasonable fee for the room - budget is under £5000.

It was decided to cancel the last Exec meeting of the year, and to have a full board meeting in Newport on the weekend 21-22 April.

Edu-Wiki: JD to check with MLP on how this is progressing and if any assistance is required.

Europeana Mass Upload project

We need to make sure that the money is being spent effectively, well governed and that we are being appropriately represented. We need more knowledge of finances etc. Fae will discuss this with WMNL and then Fae will bring it back to the board for a decision.

AOB

QRPedia

More work needs to be done on the legal transfer agreement; JD to talk to MLP about this. There was a discussion about who would be running QRpedia once we are hosting it. RB will approach Terence Eden about supporting QRpedia in future on contract.

Infrastructure for events at the office, inc. catering and nearby accommodation

Action: need a page to discuss accommodation, catering, wireless etc. JD to action. Possibly a subpage of Office.

Next Meeting

3 January, call, full board.

The meeting ended at 21.50.