Engine room

Welcome to the engine roomThis is a place to ask about and discuss the inner workings of the charity. To discuss our external projects and activities, see how you can get involved or suggest ideas that could help our charitable mission, head over to the water cooler.

2013 2014 2015

Q3 report card

A summary of how Wikimedia UK is doing against its KPIs is now available. If you want more detail, there's a link at the top of the page to the charity's report to the FDC. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 10:51, 18 November 2014 (GMT)

Posting of 2014 AGM minutes

Have the minutes for the 2014 Annual General Meeting been posted? The meeting was a long time ago now so they probably should have been. I can't presently locate them. Also, the 2013 AGM Minutes are still categorised as awaiting approval, though as far as I'm aware they were approved at the 2014 AGM. CT Cooper · talk 23:08, 18 November 2014 (GMT)

My apologies not they have not yet been posted, though they should have been. We have had some problems getting minutes out in a timely way in recent months and I hope to be able to get AGM minutes out fairly shortly. This is not the usual timeframe and I know it's not good enough. The delay in getting minutes out has been reflected in the reduced transparency score the Board recorded in its recent self-assessment. Mccapra (talk) 13:59, 20 November 2014 (GMT)

Thank you for your quick response. I don't need them urgently, I was just curious as to where they were. I look forward to seeing the minutes posted soon though. CT Cooper · talk 16:19, 20 November 2014 (GMT)

Sorry once again for the delay. The minutes are now up. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 12:14, 8 March 2015 (GMT)

Thank you. Better late than never as they say. CT Cooper · talk 18:06, 8 March 2015 (GMT)

Chief Executive search

I've just posted a page with the draft job description and person specification for our next Chief Executive. A working group from the Board has drafted this but we are keen to get views from the community prior to finalising the job description in two weeks' time! Please have a look and let us know what you think. The Land (talk) 12:37, 11 January 2015 (GMT)

Applications for the permanent CEO role are now being accepted via the agency. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 16:32, 6 February 2015 (GMT)

The deadline for applications is 23rd February. Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 17:34, 12 February 2015 (GMT)

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Things are moving along with the Chief Executive recruitment process - Just a reminder: The deadline for applications is February 23rd.

We are continuing to discuss the format of the selection process, one element of which will be a short (likely ~10 minute) presentation.

** I’d like to invite suggestions for presentation-prompts here **

We have some ideas of course, but I think people had conversations very relevant to this at the volunteer strategy day in Birmingham. I can build off some of the thoughts there for ideas, but others may be feeling more creative, or have better memories(!). Thoughts welcome here or via email Sjgknight (talk) 10:42, 20 February 2015 (GMT)

Update: initial interviews for the CEO post took place last Friday, 20th March. In the event, we did not feel that any of the candidates we interviewed were an ideal fit for the charity's needs. We are reviewing the job description and the advert to see if they can be improved for the next round, and will re-advertise more widely. We feel it much more important to get the right person, even at the cost of some delay, than to appoint quickly. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 09:23, 22 March 2015 (GMT)

2015 AGM

The 2015 AGM will be held on Saturday 25th July. To conserve funds it is expected to be held in London in a donated venue, most probably on the same day as the re-scheduled second volunteer gathering. More details to follow once known. The board will recommend making a few changes to the articles to improve its ability to make best use of external expertise on board committees, and generally to improve operational efficiency. The draft resolutions can be seen here. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 12:29, 8 March 2015 (GMT)

Can I suggest considering a venue outside of London? We've had a tradition of alternating between holding the AGM in London and outside of London, which was started to reduce the geographical constraints of attending an AGM (at least one AGM every two years would be closer to any given attendee than the other one). Since last year's was in London it would make sense to have this year's outside of London. Manchester and Birmingham would be good candidate cities, as they're centrally located and have good transport links, and if there's a clear set of requirements for the venue then local volunteers (including myself in Manchester) could see whether there are any suitable venues that would be willing to donate their space for the day. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 15:25, 8 March 2015 (GMT)

That was the original intention, and is something we would like to continue to do in the future. For the moment, though, we need to reduce expenditure very significantly, and we cannot this time justify in terms of increased charitable impact the additional board and staff travel/hotel costs arising from an out-of-London venue. Maybe next year. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 16:29, 8 March 2015 (GMT)

Review of Wikimedia UK structure

Statement by D'Arcy Myers, interim chief executive:

As a part of my work as the interim chief executive of Wikimedia UK the board asked me to undertake a review of our structure and organisation. This task has been ongoing for some time and concluded with the board meeting held this past weekend.

With the board, I have concluded that some changes to the composition and structure of the staff team will position the charity to deliver best impact against our charitable objectives.

These changes may result in some redundancies, and the staff affected are being informed. This has been a challenging time and I thank the staff team for their professionalism throughout this period of review.

I look forward to continuing to lead the charity through the ongoing transition until a permanent chief executive is in post and ready to take over.

Posted on behalf of D'Arcy Myers --MichaelMaggs (talk) 16:49, 9 March 2015 (GMT)

Wikimedia UK update, 24 March 2015

Draft annual accounts for the 2014-15 financial year

Today we are releasing our draft annual accounts for the 2014-15 financial year, ending 31st January 2015. The contents of these accounts have been a matter of significant concern for the Board, and we are making this statement to provide some context and to set out the steps we have taken.

In December 2013 the board approved a budget for 2014-15 based on expected income of £623,000. Net income over the period was in line with expectations but expenditure on Wikimania and other projects was not well controlled during the latter part of last year, and we are facing a projected deficit of £192,000 as against our original budgeted deficit of £32,000.

While Wikimania 2014 was an international success, for which volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK can all take some credit, the experience was challenging for us as the local chapter. Although we were not running the conference, we were providing significant staff and logistical support, and we did so too enthusiastically given that not all of our expenses were recoverable. Overall, and after allowing for a one-off Foundation grant of £65,000 to cover our international support, we overspent by around £45,000.

Our Wikimedians in Residence programme gained real traction over the year with demand significantly outstripping available funds, resulting in an overspend of £49,000. Much of this arose from agreements made with several high-profile organisations late last year which could not have been deferred without significant reputational damage to the charity. The board had hoped that these costs could have been delayed until February, when they would have fallen into the 2015-16 financial year, but have been advised that that is not possible.

There were smaller overspends on a variety of other project areas as well.

Finally, we had an off-budget net expense of £57,000 during the year, representing the Chief Executive transition.

These disappointing overspends in 2014-15 have left us with reserves of only £165,000, which is below the £200,000 level that the board considers to be the acceptable minimum for a charity of our size.

Action to restore stability

Immediately that the charity's overspends became clear, shortly before the December 2014 board meeting, the interim CEO, supported by the board, introduced a moratorium on further non-essential expenditure until a 2015-16 budget could be prepared. In order to allow time for the interim CEO to review activity the second volunteer strategy day as well as a number of other projected programme activities were postponed.

Draft budget and plans for 2015-16

We are also today releasing our draft budget for 2015-16. This is subject to amendment, particularly on staff costs.

The funds we have available to spend on charitable programmes will be significantly lower than in 2014-15. There are three main factors:

• To ensure charity stability it is crucial that we increase our reserves to the minimum level of around £200,000. The board has set a core budget for this year which is break-even or better.

• Our grant from the Wikimedia Foundation has been reduced from £353,000 to £314,000.

• For the moment at least the board does not consider it prudent to set a budget that assumes in advance that the charity will be able to obtain significant project-based or corporate funding, nor that direct debit income can be rapidly increased.

The combined effect of these factors is that the board has to take decisive and fairly radical action to ensure that we can work effectively within our smaller core budget of £570,000 (a full £242,000 below the amount indicated as WMUK's projected budget in the FDC bid of October 2014).

To ensure greater clarity and transparency for the future, as well as better alignment with our strategic goals, our 2015-16 budget will be split into a variety of categories, of which the first three ('contracted', 'necessary' and 'should') cover limited core activities that can be supported within the resources (funds, staff, volunteers etc) we are almost certain to have available. The remaining two categories ('like to' and 'icing') cover activities that we can support only to the extent we can expand our resource base, either by specific project-based or general fundraising, or by building active volunteer engagement.

Our aim with this project-based approach is to encourage community involvement with decisions on what we should do and not do, based on an assessment of which potential projects are best aligned with our strategic goals. A large part of the assessment must be to decide which projects are capable of generating sufficient active volunteer support (and fundability if funds are needed), and then selecting based on those giving the greatest charitable impact for the resources required.

We will need some new community mechanisms to embed volunteer inputs into all of this, and we will be discussing widely, including further discussions at the rescheduled second volunteer strategy day on Saturday 25th July.

WMUK organisational structure

In their comments of November last year the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) said:

“While the FDC understands that reducing Wikimedia UK’s funding might be a strain on the organization, the FDC hopes it will lead to a productive re-evaluation of priorities and direction. The ED transition should be seen as an opportunity to rethink and restructure. The governance reshuffle and adaptation has been managed well, recommendations brought about by the governance review have been implemented, and board diversity has been achieved, which will provide a strong foundation for the coming transition. At the same time, the FDC notes that it seems difficult to identify a sustainable and clear staff structure beneath the executive level.”

It is clear to the board that many of the assumptions and plans on which the current organisational structure was originally built are no longer fit for purpose. As previously announced, we are already engaged in a review of our staff structure. This is currently in a period of consultation with the staff concerned and it would be inappropriate to discuss in detail. However, the Board’s intention is to have a more streamlined organisation, better focused on our strategic goals, better able to engage with and involve volunteers of all kinds, and more appropriate to the level of resource we have.

The committee further noted:

“The FDC urges Wikimedia UK to carefully consider its plans to hire additional fundraising staff, and to articulate a clear strategy for how that position will benefit the organization and the movement. The FDC acknowledges that there may be many untapped resources in Wikimedia UK’s context, but resources will need to be clearly identified in order to be targeted effectively.”

The board believes that the charity's existing capacity and model for fundraising is not adequate, and we cannot at present recommend a core budget that assumes significant project-based or general contributions from trusts, foundations and corporates. The board is seeking a permanent Chief Executive with significant expertise in this area, and who is capable of taking a stronger personal lead within a restructured staff team.

--MichaelMaggs (talk) 13:06, 24 March 2015 (GMT), Chair, on behalf of the board

Follow up note: On the advice of our accountant I have struck the paragraph relating to Wikimedians in Residence as it probably gives a misleading impression. In fact, direct cost spend on this programme was almost exactly as expected, and the £49,000 figure is an accounting artefact resulting from the treatment of a gift in kind plus salary costs. Our accountant advises that the two major items which contributed to the overrun of the deficit were (1) Wikimania and (2) the CEO transition expenses. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 17:13, 24 March 2015 (GMT)

Changes to timings of membership approvals

Hi all,

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on 7th March a decision was made in lieu of a permanent Chief Executive appointment that the full board of trustees would return to considering and approving applications for memberships i.e. these will not be done under the scheme of delegation by a staff member until a permanent appointment is made and following induction.

In practical terms this means new members (whether a former lapsed member applying or a brand new member) will apply for membership as before, but it will not be approved and therefore active until the date of the next meeting of the board of Trustees.

The language on our sign up page now reads:

New member: Your application to become a member of Wikimedia U.K. is now pending approval. If you are applying following a previous membership expiring then you will need to be re-approved. Following a decision made by Trustees on 7th March 2015 memberships will be approved by the full board of Trustees pending the recruitment of a permanent Chief Executive. The dates of board meetings for the year are 20th June, 25th July (AGM), 12th September, 12th December. New memberships, including those of former members who have lapsed and are re-applying will not be approved until these dates. If you wish you application to be approved today, for example, in order to apply for a micro-grant, please contact membership@wikimedia.org.uk with your request and reasons.

I will share this on the mailing list and ask it be shared in the next 'Friends of Wikimedia' newsletter and in an email to all our trainers and leading volunteers.

Please do continue to encourage supporters and event attendees to consider applying for membership, only make them aware that there will be a wait for approval unless there is an urgent need to consider sooner based on project support (Grant application/Equipment loan)

If you have questions or concerns you can ping here, email membership@wikimedia.org.uk, reply to the mailing list email. Katherine Bavage (WMUK) (talk) 12:03, 30 March 2015 (BST)