Talk:Agenda 19Nov11

Pre Work

Mermbership retention

• Sue volunteered to talk about member retention which fitted in with our membership theme for this meeting. This is a big subject on en:wikipedia and will be a problem on other wikis. I'm told Norway lost a lot of editors. Victuallers 16:10, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

• • Is there confusion here between 'member' (of WMUK) and 'editor' (of the Wikimedia projects)? We aren't doing badly with retaining members once they've joined, and our number of members is growing at a stable rate - so I suspect that 'editor' is meant here. It would certainly be good to discuss ways to ramp up WMUK's activities to engage with more people, and draw them into becoming active editors. That's probably Wikimedia's biggest problem right now. Mike Peel 18:26, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Media

I also asked her to talk about working with media because

• Its what she used to be a journalist (Canadian Newspaper I was told)
• Its a skill that the board members need to improve?
• We are in the middle of media interest with the fundraiser and imminent charity approval?
• We are a big brand and silly and scandalous stories come our way (Andrew told me his babysitter was given a court summons last year) Victuallers 16:10, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

• • Sue's last job prior to joining the Foundation was 'director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's website and online news outlets', which is a distinct role from being a reporter, although she was trained and worked as a journalist. I'm sure that she can tell us a lot about working with the media, but that's not the most beneficial thing we can discuss. There's plenty of skill and knowledge on the board, and we can involve others as consultants to gain more understanding of this topic - the limiting factor here is person-time to implement things (we're very much focused on doing, rather than talking, right now).
  • Court summons are a completely separate issue, and are related to misunderstandings where people think that WMUK is responsible for Wikipedia's content (whereas it clearly isn't). Talking about the legal issues surrounding Wikimedia and UK law would be a more useful discussion topic, but still not the optimal one.
  • Please see Fæ's email for discussion topics that would be more useful. Thanks. Mike Peel 18:26, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Length of meeting

If we are gathering to talk in-person for a weekend, I would like to see us meeting for longer than 6.5 hours on the first day and 2.5 hours on the next day - or just 9 hours in total. That's less than the average working day for me, but is spread over 2 days. I know that informal discussion is invaluable, but at this point in time we need to spend more time talking as a group rather than talking in smaller groups. I would also note that the Board's discussion time is being reduced by having 50% of the attendees not being board members.

I don't want to seem like a slave-driver, but please could we start these meetings sooner and finish them later? I also really think that we need to make use of the Sunday afternoon if we're asking people to travel up to 200 miles to attend these meetings - if we're not going to do that, then it would be more time-efficient to have one long day rather than two separate short days. Mike Peel 18:33, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Please defer pushing this point for a bit longer... At Jon's instigation I am discussing a possible facilitated short workshop on governance/charity transition to fit into the weekend. This is at the concept stage (a bit early to clog everyone's email, particularly at such a busy time) until I have a more detailed call with a potential experienced facilitator on Tuesday (8/11). This would mean asking trustees to stay on for longer on Sunday but I cannot make a more detailed recommendation for the board until I have had my call. Obviously there is a significant benefit to be had if the outcome is that the board has a stronger common view on the changes and support we need to become a well governed charity. --Fæ 22:04, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

---Can I reinforce that - we need to get the governance sorted and be seen to be getting the governance sorted. An hour or so of your time when you are all together will give us a real boost and if you are happy can lead to the joint and several approach to training over the next year. Jon Davies