User:Mike Peel/Living Paths/12Nov13 Report

Present:

• Robin Owain
• Terry Jackson
• Mike Peel

Elfed sent his apologies.

Robin and Terry gave an overview of the status of the project. The project is more or less going to plan (to be more precise, it is going according to the revised plan). Q1 deliverables were sent in today. Some funds have now been received from Geovation (circa £10k), and there is around £7.5k to come. Geovation and WMUK money is being spent as the seed money to pay invoices, then the receipts are sent to the Welsh government for reimbursement (this then enables the next round of spending, as the welsh government money is only provided after the fact). Overall the project is around 6 weeks behind, which is primarily due to delays with WMUK hiring the post. As a result, cashflow will be in the red near the end of the project, and the project will need a loan of circa £6k about 3 months before the end of the year-long project. There is a question of whether this could be resolved using a bank loan or an advance from WMUK. In my opinion, it would be better if it is a WMUK advance, as a bank loan would cost a few hundred pounds extra (plus more bureaucracy). The Welsh government is willing to be flexible with timing of the end of the project in this case.

Recommendation 1: WMUK should plan to provide this advance, if it is ultimately needed, to enable the completion of the project.

Robin and Terry then gave an overview of how the financial procedures are working. The process starts with Robin, who finds out the costs, and obtains 3 quotes for anything over £500. These are sent off to the treasurer if they are classified as petty cash; if they are not petty cash then the treasurer also authorises it. The relevant budget line is indicated to Terry, who then records the transaction in the cash flow; it is also recorded in the ledger by the book keeper. A purchase order then goes out to supplier. When the work is done, Robin records it and notes that the invoice needs paying; the ledger is then updated and the invoice is paid. An overview with finances is given to Jon Davies (JD) monthly. The money from the Welsh government is from the European Union via the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO); as such, the financial policies in use here are based on the WEFO requirements.

Robin's reporting to JD consists of talking over the phone for about an hour, either every month or every few weeks as necessary. Robin is reporting everything, including financial aspects of the project. Richard Symonds (RS) doesn’t have access to the project's bookkeeping; I’ve recommended him as a point of contact if any financial problems arise.

The training aspect of the project is going well. Training sessions focus on articles on listed buildings etc., and after the session it is up to them about how they go on to use that knowledge, for example when it comes to writing about articles directly related to their interests. They are working with, for example, a non-profit related to Welsh quarries, and Welsh colleges (which led on to a discussion about how they can teach wikiskills, leading to a 'snowball effect'). I mentioned the global education project in connection with this, and described some of the good and bad experiences from the US and India. There are also some links being developed with Swansea university, among other organisations. The focus is on English Wikipedia articles about villages/settlements/communities - there are lots of these that still need to be created, which are all notable, and this is an important part of supporting local communities. The aim is to have neutral articles, and the work is not related to tourism - the project is a 'Community project', not a 'digital tourism project' (NB: this isn't exact terminology here).

Robin had a question about reusing Wikipedia content. I pointed to the BBC Nature Arctic Fox article as an example of the best way to do this. ‘best example’ way to do this (see the Wikipedia transclusion some way down the page).

First claim was up to the end of October. Welsh government deliverables - Initial study + first quarter deliverables. 1+2 done, 3 in Q2 (due to funding needs), 4 done. Q1, around 24 videos done, . Document tracking this is being maintained by wici cymru. Q2 deliverables will be done by the end of the year (due to the 4 week delay). Also GeoVation deliverables, recorded in a separate document.

Copyright of images - pointed to open government license.

Suggested that they sent deliverables tracking document, and budgeting, to Richard S. for info.

Charity status: everything has been sent in, waiting to hear back. Employees: Welsh Contractor, working on also employing a coordinator. Part time, 2.5 days a week, in deliverables (0.5FTE, £8.3k). Recommended that they talk to Jon about them being recruited through WMUK.

Affcom - forwarded to Robin and Terry to read through and respond.

Wici Cymru is meeting 1st wednesday of each month. Attend one in about 3 months? Next steering meeting in early January? Robin will send dates of when Wici Cymru’s meeting; steering group meeting before the wici cymru meeting?

Overall, seems to be going well, and according to plan.