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

Welcoming Lucy Crompton-Reid as CEO

From our chair, Michael Maggs:

I am very pleased to be able to announce today that we have been fortunate enough to secure as our new CEO Lucy Crompton-Reid, currently Director of the national live literature charity Apples and Snakes. Lucy brings extensive experience in volunteer engagement, organisational development, working with strategic partners, media, education, and securing external fundraising from trusts and foundations.

Over the course of her career Lucy has worked in both the charitable and public sectors, including most recently Head of Outreach at the House of Lords where she was strategic and operational lead for education and outreach activities. Before that, she worked at Arts Council England, initially developing strategic partnerships before setting up a new area office with local government and schools partnerships. As Refugee Week National Co-ordinator for the British Refugee Council, Lucy chaired the UK steering group of NGOs and charities, led on media activities, and facilitated hundreds of volunteer cultural events each year. Lucy is passionate about education and learning and is deeply committed to ensuring open access to knowledge and information.

Lucy will be joining us in early October. In the meantime, our interim CEO, D'Arcy Myers, will remain in post and will be working with Lucy to ensure a smooth handover. Please join me in offering Lucy a very warm welcome.

Michael Maggs

From our CEO-elect, Lucy Crompton-Reid:

I’m delighted to be joining Wikimedia UK this October as the charity’s new Chief Executive, and look forward to working with the staff team, board and volunteer community – as well as national and international partners – to develop the work of the organisation. This is a significant time for Wikimedia and for the open knowledge sector more broadly, with the potential to create unparalleled access to educational content, coupled with threats to limit public access to information and knowledge. With nearly 18 years' experience in the arts, charitable and public sectors, I'm passionate about participation, and excited about the opportunity to facilitate greater public engagement with online content and information through Wikipedia and its sister projects, and other Wikimedia UK initiatives.

Lucy Crompton-Reid

--MichaelMaggs (talk) 18:30, 13 July 2015 (BST)

May I give my congratulations to Lucy and I wish her well in her new role. CT Cooper · talk 21:40, 16 July 2015 (BST)

Membership management improvements

I just thought it might be useful to have a bit of a discussion before the AGM about what people think might be a better way to manage membership. What I would like is access to a secure page where I can review my membership and update my personal details, see a record of my volunteering, check when my next membership renewal is due etc. Something which could be considered is a printable volunteering record, perhaps in summary form, which could help people when applying for jobs, or proving volunteering activity if unemployed. I am sure this can be done in a way which means that once set up it would not require much staff time to keep running effectively. Leutha (talk) 08:46, 14 July 2015 (BST)

Volunteer strategy gathering registration

The registration asks you whether you would like to become a member of WMUK for £5. The only options for the answer to this are "yes" and "no" - there is no provision for "I am already a member". I answered "no" as I don't need to renew my membership at the moment, but it does meant that the metrics you get from the answers to this question are going to be unreliable. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 17:49, 14 July 2015 (BST)

Reminder of deadline for proxy votes at the AGM: This Wednesday at 3pm

We hope to welcome as many as possible at Saturday's AGM, where members will be able to vote in person. Members who are not able to attend can lodge proxy votes, both for the resolutions and for the candidates who are standing for the board. Voting papers and proxy forms were sent out by post last Wednesday, 15 July, and all members should have received them by now. This is just to remind anyone who intends to vote by proxy that as stated on the form the deadline for receipt of proxy votes (which can be by email to tellerswikimedia.org.uk) is 3pm this Thursday, 23rd July - 48 hours before the start of the meeting. Instructions for voting by email can be found on the proxy form itself. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 20:11, 20 July 2015 (BST)

The draft minutes of the 2015 AGM are now available for review. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 13:54, 18 September 2015 (BST)

QRpedia

I left a message at the water cooler but it doesnt appear to have been seen. Could someone look? 176.227.129.236 15:10, 20 August 2015 (BST)

Q2 report card

Our report card for Q2 of the 2015–16 financial year can be found here: Strategy monitoring plan/Outcomes/Q2. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 16:42, 24 August 2015 (BST)

There is a problem with this website's security certificate

If try to view this wiki with IE, I get the message "There is a problem with this website's security certificate." With Firefox I get a similar message, but I can add an exception, which allows me to view it.

I don't really know why this is happening. Does anyone know what might be causing it?

Yaris678 (talk) 12:55, 3 September 2015 (BST)

I am experiencing the same problem with Chrome.Leutha (talk) 12:22, 4 September 2015 (BST)

Hello Yaris and Leutha. We're working on the problem, you can see updates here: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org.uk/show_bug.cgi?id=392 Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 13:10, 4 September 2015 (BST)

It's rather depressing to see this was identified as an upcoming issue nearly a month ago, and then became a live issue 4 days ago, and it still isn't fixed. Given the way modern browsers work, any casual visitor is going to be sacred off coming here - possibly for good - as the big "this website might be fake or trying to steal your credit card data" warning that, for example, Chrome throws, is scary. Not good. QuiteUnusual (talk) 12:20, 7 September 2015 (BST)

Could someone from the team please provide an update here? Many thanks. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 14:47, 18 September 2015 (BST)

This was all fixed a few days ago. Part of the problem was in switching the security certificate from our old staff member's details to my own. This has to be done by faxing or posting a copy of my passport to Europe, along with a copy of our registration certificate, and then waiting for the company concerned to confirm everything, which took a few weeks. We started the renewal process in mid-August, but with the user switching problems and a delay at their end, it took about a week longer than expected. Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 15:03, 21 September 2015 (BST)

Renewing membership online - my experience

I've just renewed my membership online and I thought I'd give a quick rundown of the experience.

• I was prompted to renew by an email reminder saying my membership would expire "this month". Much better than previously where you had to remember to look at the bottom of a newsletter, but an exact date would have been preferable - 9/10.
• The form wasn't immediately clear it was to be used for both renewals and new memberships, but it wasn't bad - 7/10.
• Filling in my email address populated the rest of the form - now I'm not sure whether this was the form doing it or Chrome doing it (I normally use firefox). If the former, then excellent for WMUK but it was an old address that I know I've changed with WMUK (as I got my AGM stuff to the correct address). If this was Chrome then WMUK doesn't have anything to worry about.
• The "small print" about becoming a member would be better placed (or at least linked to) above the submit button.
• The question about how I found out about becoming a member wasn't really relevant to my renewing membership but it was I think mandatory still (I just put "this is a renewal" as I can't remember the answer).
• The link to paying by paypal went well and that worked as soon as I remembered my password (unless WMUK is offering brain upgrades I don't think you can improve here).
• Everything seems to have gone through smoothly and I got a "Thank you for joining!" page which is mostly about new members with a little thankyou at the bottom of the page for those renewing, almost as an afterthought.
• I'm still not clear on the exact date of my membership - I know I paid £5.00 today but it's not clear whether I paid for a year from today or a year from when last year's membership expired (sometime in the middle of the month I think).

Overall, much better than previous years but not perfect yet. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 20:48, 4 October 2015 (BST)

I was also really pleased to get a membership renewal email! (I think the form-filling is Chrome, I can't see CiviCRM being clever enough to populate forms for us... ) The Land (talk) 13:03, 6 October 2015 (BST)

Hi both, it's always good to hear when things work and your feedback will be helpful in thinking about how to improve them further :-) I've looked into it, and while our database has a field which tells you the date on which your membership enters grace, it doesn't tell you which date it fully expires. I've come up with a workaround which tells when your membership entered grace and that it expires six months after that. It appears in a slightly smaller font for a reason I cannot fathom. On double checking the settings for 'how did you find out about becoming a member' I've found that it's set to optional. As we currently use the same page for people who are renewing or joining for the first time, I can't switch it off for one but not the other. It might be useful if the question was was drop down menu, including a choice along the lines of 'membership reminder'. With your final point, I think you should have got an email receipt. Assuming it's possible, would that be a good point at which to include the new date of when your membership runs until? Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 15:26, 7 October 2015 (BST)

I did get an email receipt (although it arrived after I posted my comment above) and that would indeed be a good place to include the new end date of membership. Including it on the success page as well would be even better, but it sounds like this isn't as simple as it sounds. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 19:59, 7 October 2015 (BST)

FDC proposal

Wikimedia UK has applied to the Funds Dissemination Committee for next year's funding. The proposal can be found on meta-wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2015-2016_round1/Wikimedia_UK/Proposal_form

It is open for comment until 30 October. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 10:39, 15 October 2015 (BST)

Policy reviews

At its next meeting on 16 November the charity's Governance Committee (Govcom) is intending to discuss some potential governance policy changes. They are particularly intended to make formal provision for non-trustee voting members to sit on the Governance and on the Audit and Risk Committees, as recommended by charitable best practice and as now permitted under the changes to our articles that were agreed at the 2015 AGM. Following community feedback and discussion, Govcom is intending to make a recommendation to the board at its 12 December meeting. Feedback is welcome: please comment on the relevant talk pages. Many thanks.

Review of board committee charters

Recommend modifications for approval at the 12 December board meeting.

• Governance Committee Charter/Proposed revision (Diff: [1])
• Audit and Risk Committee charter/Proposed revision (Diff: [2])

Changes are needed to:

• provide for non-trustee voting members, as approved at the 2015 AGM
• clarify delegated powers
• ensure clear voting procedures, to include non-trustee members
• tidy, and align the wording of the two charters

Review of trustee code of conduct and conflict of interest policy

Recommend modifications for approval at the 12 December board meeting.

• Trustee Code of Conduct/Proposed revision (Diff: [3])
• Trustee Conflict of Interest Policy/Proposed revision (Diff: [4])

Changes are needed to:

• bring the policies into line with more recent Charity Commission recommendations
• ensure compliance with the articles, including changes made at the 2015 AGM
• clarify actions in the event of breach
• improve logical structure and remove duplication

Review of proposed committee member code of conduct and conflict of interest policy

Recommend new policies for approval at the 12 December board meeting.

• Committee Member Code of Conduct/Proposed
• Committee Member Conflict of Interest Policy/Proposed

These new policies are needed to cover non-trustee members who sit on board committees. They are based on the corresponding policies that apply to trustees, and will need careful consideration. Are the requirements too onerous for volunteers who don't have the legal obligations or powers of trustees, and whose contribution to the work of the charity will normally consist of preparing for and attending one committee meeting per quarter?

--MichaelMaggs (talk) 17:58, 7 November 2015 (GMT)

Date of 2016 AGM

Those who follow such things might like to note that the next AGM is expected to be be held on 9 July 2016, in London. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 13:36, 17 November 2015 (GMT)

Black Cultural Archives

I am discussing a possible editathon with Black Cultural Archives in the new year. Edward Hands has promised to train and I have recruited some other Wikipedians to attend. It would be good to have the support of WMUK in the venture. Once I have agreed the date with them, is there anything I need to do to make it an "official" WMUK event? Philafrenzy (talk) 11:24, 30 November 2015 (GMT)

Yes, I would be happy to be a trainer for such an event, presumably at their HQ in Brixton, London. Edwardx (talk) 11:39, 30 November 2015 (GMT)

@Philafrenzy: Once a date has been settled, it can be added to the events page. If you can estimate how many attendees there will be, we can send booklets to help people learn editing skills and merchandise. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 13:20, 4 December 2015 (GMT)

Thanks, I will know more in the next couple of weeks. It will probably be in Feb. Philafrenzy (talk) 20:34, 4 December 2015 (GMT)

Count me in too! Leutha (talk) 09:32, 9 December 2015 (GMT)

Sure! Philafrenzy (talk) 15:23, 9 December 2015 (GMT)

Error trying to update address

I'm trying to update the address on my membership record by following the link in the most recent saved email I have (from when my membership was due for renewal in October). I am treated only to the generic make a donation page with the error "You do not have permission to edit this contact record. Contact the site administrator if you need assistance." Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 16:11, 4 December 2015 (GMT)

Hi Thryduulf, I have replied by email. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 16:38, 4 December 2015 (GMT)

Thank function

Why doesn't the "thank" function work on this Wiki. We are thanking each other like maniacs on Wikipedia. Or is it just me? I have a captcha on my contributions here, perhaps that interferes. Also, the red notification seems to be permanently on despite having clicked on the linked edit at the top. Philafrenzy (talk) 15:23, 9 December 2015 (GMT)