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Wikimedia UK v1.0 is being dissolved due to difficulties in getting it all set up, so it's time to start work on a new Wikimedia chapter for the UK. In order to avoid some of the problems that plagued our last incarnation we are committing now to being open, transparent and democratic from the get go.

Objectives

Feel free to edit below in the usual wiki fashion!

• to act as a voice and representative for the UK Wikimedian community;
• to promote Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation projects;
• to enable, assist, promote and promulgate wider participation in the creation, dissemination and expansion of information and educational resources covering the world's knowledge and languages to all persons, everywhere;
• to further the development of electronic, printed, and other resources required to support such participation;
• to produce, publish and develop, or cause to be produced, published and developed, information resources, whether in printed, electronic, or other forms;
• to make use of or encourage the use of information resources for the advancement of education;
• to encourage the adoption of practices and policies to widen education, participation and dissemination of information worldwide; and
• to undertake and carry on any other business which may seem to the Company capable of being conveniently carried on in connection with any of the above specified objects, or calculated directly or indirectly to enhance the value of or render profitable any of the Company's property or rights.

Potential future activities

Very very preliminary ideas, please add yours too!

• Public relations.
• Supporting Wikipedia v1.0.
• Running campaigns in universities and schools encouraging students and academics to edit.
• Installing new tool servers in Kennisnet that we would have (some) control over (probably no legal issues with this).
• Giving sessions at teacher training "top-up" days on the responsible use of Wikipedia (et al.) in the classroom.
• Working with the community to increase coverage of e.g. historical sites.
• Discuss Wikimania 2010 and the merits of various bids including the Oxford bid.
• Employing developers.
• Host annual UK Wiki-conference, combined with AGM. Details.
• Sourcing and digitising public domain works located in the UK (e.g. documents, books, pictures, ...)
• Encouraging the release of new and currently copyrighted works under free licenses
• Stimulate research into the use of wikipedia as an educational and communication tool. Seek academic partners to further this aim and bid for research funds.

The following would also be nice, but might be legally problematic:

• Donating back to WMF (subject to issues around donating to foreign charities without sufficient control).
• Hosting/funding a UK squid server (a local mirror of the Wikimedia websites; heavily subject to finding a way round the UK's libel law).
• Supporting the German Chapter owned, Amsterdam located toolserver (subject to issues around donating to foreign charities).

Mailing list / discussions

To discuss the details of this further it might be a good idea to join the Wikimedia UK mailing list or at least view the updated archives. Additionally, you may wish to join the two IRC channels in which real time discussions are being held, here and here.

Next steps

See also: Wikimedia UK v2.0/Candidate FAQs#What are the election rules?

The first task is to select a group of 3-5 people to be the first board of directors and handle all the paperwork of getting the company started (we'll be a ""). The first step in doing that is to get a list of people interested. Please add yourself to the appropriate lists below (if you're in one list, you will want to be in the all the ones below it as well, most likely).

Once we have a list of potential board candidates we will ask all those who have signed up as potential guarantor or supporting members to vote for our first board. This election will be held using the approval voting system, with the top 5 candidates being elected[, providing they each get above 50% approval amongst those who vote. If fewer than 3 candidates obtain the required approval level we will restart the process, looking for new candidates and rerunning the election.]

After 3-5 candidates have been elected they will then begin our first priority of setting up the company then becoming a charity. If after 6 months from the end of elections we are still not a company, elections will be re-held (and so on). If after 6 months of being a company we have still not held an AGM at which all of the board stood down, or if we have not processed more than 95% of the membership applications received more than one month before the AGM, by the time it happens, then we will ask the WMF to withdraw any trademark license and official UK chapter status they have given us. We hope to arrange for WMF to commit to doing this.

Voting

Voting has now started at Wikimedia UK v2.0/Vote

A list of FAQs relevant to the election is here.

Guarantor members

If you are interested in being a guarantor member (a legal member of the company), add your name below. This will give you a vote at AGMs. It can have some legal repercussions, so again, should not be entered into lightly (as I understand it, you'll only be liable for a token amount [probably £1] of the company's debts in the event it gets wound up, but nevertheless, I have to warn you!).

Initial Board voters

The following editors expressed an interest before 23:59 (UTC) on 19 September, and hence are entitled to vote for the initial Board:

1. Tango
2. Cfp
3. Skenmy
4. Majorly
5. Kaihsu
6. Dev920
7. Ryan Postlethwaite
8. KTC
9. Kate
10. Theresa knott
11. Mike Peel
12. Cormaggio
13. the wub
14. Thryduulf (en,commons)
15. Warofdreams
16. OwenBlacker
17. User:Privatemusings
18. Algebraist
19. AndrewRT
20. Colds7ream
21. Rwendland
22. RexxS
23. Rebroad
24. Owain
25. Gazimoff (en)
26. Guy Cosnahan (Cosnahang)
27. Fr33kman
28. Ross Gardler
29. Hughcharlesparker
30. Andrew Cates
31. filceolaire
32. Sam Korn
33. Poeloq
34. MrWeeble
35. Andrew Gray
36. Gordo
37. LondonStatto
38. Peter cohen
39. Scarian

Subsequent members

The following people expressed an interest after the deadline for the initial Board election, and will be invited to join the chapter after the Board is elected:

1. Throwawayhack

Supporting members

If you are interested in supporting the chapter, add your name below. This has no legal standing and just shows you support our goals. There will, most likely, be an annual membership fee (concessions available) — the other two lists don't require paying anything. You can be a guarantor member without being a supporting member, but if you can afford the fee, we could use the money!

Initial Board voters

The following editors expressed an interest before 23:59 (UTC) on 19 September, and hence are entitled to vote for the initial Board:

1. Tango
2. Cfp
3. Skenmy
4. Majorly
5. Geni
6. Kaihsu (maybe)
7. Dev920
8. Rodhullandemu
9. KTC
10. Theresa knott
11. Mike Peel
12. the wub
13. Thryduulf (en,commons) (maybe, depending on whether I can afford the fee when I know what it is)
14. Warofdreams
15. Microchip08 en:User:Microchip08 · m · simple:User:Microchip08
16. User:Privatemusings
17. OwenBlacker — obviously depends on the fee ;o)
18. Rwendland
19. Mstislavl
20. 82.4.172.153
21. RexxS
22. Rebroad
23. PamD
24. Hughcharlesparker
25. Sam Korn
26. Poeloq
27. MrWeeble
28. LondonStatto (subject to fee level being determined, natch ;) )
29. Peter cohen (with the same proviso as others above)
30. Scarian

Subsequent supporters

The following editors have signed up since the deadline for the initial Board voting expired:

Interested in being kept informed

If you do not wish to be a member at this time but wish to be kept informed or can help in other ways please add your name below.

1. Following proceedings with interest. Adambro 06:53, 29 August 2008 (UTC)
2. Particularly interested in being involved if the new entity is Not-For Profit Open Research 08:45, 29 August 2008 (UTC).

   It will most certainly be non-profit, we will eventually be registering for charitable status (there are hoops to jump through first). — Tango 18:17, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

3. I'd like to know what's going on. Axl 07:31, 31 August 2008 (UTC)
4. Please keep me informed...Zir 00:16, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
5. Hiding 11:20, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
6. Please keep me informed.82.29.255.162 08:45, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
7. I need to know what the fees are before I commit, but I'm interested in seeing whats happening. Anonymous101 10:39, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
8. Interested. Please don't call it a "chapter" though. Unless it's actually a section of a book. Or possibly Hell's Angels. Does it come with a leather jacket? --Dweller 11:30, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

   "Chapter" is the correct term for something like this. Even if we didn't like it, we have little say in the matter since that's what the WMF calls organisations like ours. --Tango 17:39, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

   Although we don't have to call it that ourselves if we dont want to! AndrewRT 21:56, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

   It's not a name, it's a description. I don't think there is a better way of describing ourselves. --Tango 22:14, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

   To my delicate ears, it's a horrible Americanism. I'm sure there are UK organisations with "chapters" (Google is your friend), but it makes me shudder. --Dweller 14:16, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

   And to mine, good sir. --Celestianpower (wp, wikt, books) 21:59, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

9. Martinp23 17:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
10. Celestianpower (wp, wikt, books) 21:59, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
11. I'm interested, but been very busy. Looks like I missed the vote and all of the discussions :-( -- Harry Wood

Timetable

Main Page/Timeline