Board

The Board is responsible for the day to day running of the chapter and is elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting. Members of the Board act as Directors of the company and as trustees.

Current Members

The current members were elected at the 2009 AGM:

• Michael Peel - Chair
• Andrew Turvey - Secretary
• Tom Holden - Treasurer
• Zeyi He - Initiatives Director
• Joseph Seddon - Events Director
• Steve Virgin - Corporate Relations Director
• Paul Williams - Volunteers Director

Biographies

Michael Peel

Mike Peel

Michael Peel served as Membership Secretary from late 2008 to April 2009; he currently serves as Chair. A graduate and currently a doctorate student of the University of Manchester, Mike first edited the English Wikipedia in March 2005 and the Wikimedia Commons since July 2006. Like a lot of new editors, he started editing because he got irritated by a few grammar errors he saw. Since that time, Mike has made over 14,000 edits on the English Wikipedia, and uploaded over 350 photos onto the Wikimedia Commons. He has been an admin on the English Wikipedia since July 2007. Outside of Wikimedia, Mike is an astrophysicist with knowledge of programming, web design and photography.

Email: chairwikimedia.org.uk

Andrew Turvey

Andrew Turvey

Andrew Turvey has served as Secretary since the creation of Wikimedia UK in late 2008.

Email: secretarywikimedia.org.uk

Tom Holden

Tom Holden

Tom Holden has served as Treasurer since the creation of Wikimedia UK in late 2008.

Email: treasurerwikimedia.org.uk

Zeyi He

Zeyi He

Zeyi He has served as Initiatives Director since April 2009.

Email: initiativeswikimedia.org.uk

Joseph Seddon

Joseph Seddon

As Wikimedian, Joseph Seddon first joined wikipedia in 2006. Joseph Seddon has served as Events & Conferences Director since April 2009.

Email: conferenceswikimedia.org.uk

Steve Virgin

Steve Virgin

Steve Virgin has served as Corporate Relations Director since April 2009.

Email: corporatewikimedia.org.uk

Steve is currently working (on behalf of the Board) on a series of iniatives designed to build up contact networks with the educational, business and governmental communities. He is seeking to line up contacts and opportunities for Wikimedia UK and its membership, that can help lay the foundation for exciting projects for 2010 AND beyond. The hard work put in between now and the next Board election next spring will provide a springboard of opportunity for the national chapter and then, next year's board can have actions and plans already in place when it takes office - that can quickly build membership,unearth even more committed volunteers, increase national prestige, recognition and pride in what we do outside of our own circles - and excite and enthuse all involved.

Paul Williams

Paul Williams

Paul Williams has served as Volunteers Director since April 2009. A student with the Open University, studying primarily Physics and Chemistry towards a BSc (Hons) (Open), and IT Professional, working at a large high school in Essex, Paul has a combined total of over 3,600 edits across various Wikimedia projects, dating back as far as 2005. Paul's home project is the English Wikinews, where he is an administrator, bureaucrat, checkuser, and accredited reporter. Paul has a variety of interests outside of Wikimedia, from singing in a large choral society, to learning to fly, and learning to play the Piano.

Email: volunteerswikimedia.org.uk

Duties

Board members have certain legal duties and responsibilities, which include:

1. To act only within the powers given to them by the Articles of Association
2. To act in good faith and with integrity to promote the success of the chapter in achieving its purposes, with regard, where necessary to long term effects and the interests of employees, the community, the environment, relations with suppliers and customers, standards of business conduct and fair acting between members of the chapter
3. To use the chapter's resources reasonably and only for the promotion of its purposes
4. To exercise independent judgement and reasonable care, skill and diligence and consider getting external professional advice on all matters where there may be material risk to the chapter, or where the board members may be in breach of their duties
5. To avoid conflicts of interest, declare them where necessary in accordance with applicable law and not to accept benefits from third parties where these may give rise to a conflict of interest
6. To avoid undertaking activities that might place the chapter's assets or reputation at undue risk, ensure that the chapter remains solvent.

In addition, the chapter's Board members are personally required to ensure that the chapter complies with its other legal duties such as those arising from being an employer and its reporting obligations to Companies House and the tax authorities.

To be eligible to act as a Board member, a person must be:

1. A member of the chapter, or nominated by a member
2. 16 years old or over
3. prepared to publicly disclose their real name, date of birth, residential address and the names of any other companies they are the director of
4. not an undischarged bankrupt, a person whose estate has been "sequestrated", who has made an undischarged arrangement with creditors or has granted a trust deed in favour of their creditors
5. not disqualified from acting as a company director or removed as a charity trustee by the Charity Commission, the High Court or the Court of Session (Scotland)
6. not convicted of any offense involving deception or dishonesty which is not a "spent" conviction - even if it was not in the UK