2012 Annual Report/Draft

CE 200 words for Annual Report.

This has been an amazing 12 months for Wikimedia UK and I am so pleased to have played a small part in it. To become your Chief Executive was quite an experience in itself. Although I had been editing pages in a modest way I really didn't have a sense of how much went on behind the pages but after five interviews , including a sort of 'X factor' visit to the London Wikimeet, all had become clear. So we now have a UK base with staff, coffee and most crucially space for visitors and volunteers. Our building is accessible 24/7 and we have already held several great volunteer events. We have a core staff of four (insert names and photos) Each of us are there to help the community and deliver our very ambitious programme of events and activities. I hope all of us will be familiar faces soon and that we can take some of the administrative burden off the shoulders of the volunteers who have done such an amazing job. This annual report looks back at the achievements of the past twelve months but also forward to what we hope to achieve. Much credit must be given to the trustees and volunteers who made so much happen so fast! 2012 will be a year for Volunteers, trustees and staff together. I can't wait to write next year's report.

Ting Chan Dear WMUK board,

last September you invited me to visit your board meeting in Derby. It was very insightful for me to see on which topics you are working on, how you are working on them, and the interactions inside of your board and between your board and your visitors. Both I and the WMF are very grateful for your invitation, your hospitality and your openness.

We talked about a lot of important issues there. Some of them, like the charity status, you have already achieved inside of the last year. Other topics, like the planning and development of the chapter, is on a good way and progressing. I am especially happy to see that you have succussfully got your first employee, which is changing the chapter into a more professionally organized company. Unforgotten is for me the session where you plan for the futures, the potentials, all the things you can do, the voluntiers you can organize. For me it is one of the most impressive session I ever attended on a chapter's board meeting, which I attended in the past. Because it reminds me again why we have chapters, why chapters are important for the WMF: they organize voluntiers, provide helps, gather ideas and do really cool things. And one of the most cool things I ever saw is the QR codes in the meeting venue, the Dirby Museum. It is innovative, it is useful and helpful, and it is a really magnificant thing.

For me chapters are brethrens and sisters. And the UK chapter is one of the most promising shooting stars of the last year. Disputes among brethrens and sisters can be the most painful disputes. We had a lot to dispute in the last year, and we will continue these disputes in this year, and maybe also in the coming years. But nevertheless we are brethrens and sisters, we share the same vision, in our deepest belief, we also share the same goal. And this is why we need to keep talking with each other, in good faith to each other's motivation, and try hard to understand each other's view point.

I want once again congratulate you for your achievements, and thank you for the wonderful things you did in the past year, and looking forward to see what you will do in the coming years.

With love and honest respect Ting Chen