AGM Minutes 2020

These minutes are in draft. They have not yet been formally approved, and they may not accurately reflect the discussions and decisions from the meeting.

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Wikimedia UK, held on 18th July 2020 at Wikimedia UK office, Europoint, 5-11 Lavington Street, London. Members viewed the proceedings online.

Welcome, and introduction to the AGM (Chair)

A welcome to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was given by Nick Poole along with an overview of the proceedings.

All voting had to take place by proxy voting prior to the day of the AGM, as online voting was disallowed as per our articles of association. We reached quoracy with the proxy votes.

Approval of 2019 AGM minutes

All members present had access to the copies of the 2020 AGM minutes online, as notified by email.

The minutes for the 2019 AGM were agreed as an accurate record of happenings by the members present.

Board report (Chair)

NP gave thanks to Josie Fraser for her role as Chair, and the great steps she took strategically. He thanked Kate West and Jordan Landes, stating that it had been a real pleasure to work with both of them and they made excellent contributions to the board. We continue to benefit from a fantastic board as a whole. We have very much sought to continue the priorities that JF laid down; excellent governance, good administration of the charity’s affairs, supporting Chief Executive, Lucy Crompton-Reid, and the staff team. We’re addressing four extremely important strategies; diversity, misinformation, continuing to seek change in policy and practice, and increasing our global visibility and capacity. The last aim is really important in how we continue to support the volunteer community, and we saw some great results from the volunteer community survey. It was wonderful to see more Train the Trainers work this year. Another highlight was how WMUK is addressing the gender gap, shown by our YouTube video. One of the things NP would like to champion is WMUK’s international role, as he feels it’s important to strengthen our position as the UK chapter during the big changes going on in the global movement.

Finance report (Treasurer)

Marnie Woodward gave the Treasurer’s report. We’ve had positive results for our last financial year, and our income was a bit higher than in previous years at the year end. Thanks to the Wikimedia Foundation for their grant and to all of our supporters. MW also highlighted the importance of gifts in kind, which are a really good indicator of the spread of our work. We were able to post a very small surplus of £10k.

We’re all aware of the importance of reserves of a buffer, and we’re very fortunate to be within our buffer of reserves for 2020. Our office closed and all staff worked from home during the outbreak of COVID-19, but we had no need to use the government scheme for compensation. We’re using technology to keep our programmes running across the UK. The trustees approved a budget and considered all possible scenarios for the outcome of the pandemic.

Activity report (Chief Executive)

LCR expressed how proud and privileged she feels to be part of such a talented staff team, and gave thanks to our trustees, volunteers, partners and supporters. She said that it’s hard to talk about our programmes in any comprehensive way in a short amount of time, but could give a few highlights of our work.

Knowledge equity: minority languages are something we’re associated with across the movement, particularly for the Celtic Knot conference, which focused on very small languages. Last year we held it in Cornwall. We’ve used technology driven solutions for languages but people are really essential, and it’s the overlap of the two that makes it work. The Dumfries Stone Carving project is an excellent example.

Digital literacy is our second programme strand, we had a huge increase in students taking part in our courses. The survey results have shown a huge improvement in digital literacy skills among participating students. The places we have Wikimedians in Residence have a huge impact, we launched Coventry University residency last year, and Ewan McAndrew’s residency continues to have a big impact in several strategic aims. Jason Evans, the National Wikimedian for Wales has also had a huge impact on education projects.

The other programme strand that’s key is changing policy and practice. It’s institutional, sectoral, and governmental. In our sectoral policy work, one of the things we’re able to see clearly is the reaction at events, and the networking that comes from them. Public policy has been quite relevant in the last year, with some of it related to COVID-19 and others just rethinking.

Volunteers contributed an estimated 24,225 hours to Wikimedia UK’s programmes. There were 1,007 newly registered editors. 1.2 billion views of Wikipedia articles featuring content released with support from Wikimedia UK.

LCR gave a WMUK staff update. Richard Nevell returned from his year long sabbatical, Karla Marte went on maternity leave, John Lubbock left, with Katie Crampton stepping into the role of Communications and Governance Assistance with plans to hire a strategic head of Comms and Development. We’ll also be hiring a second position in this team, to bolster our fundraising.

LCR thanked the staff team for the way they adapted to the new way of working, meaning loads of great stuff is still happening. While some events have been cancelled or postponed, we’ve been able to reimagine the way we work.

The movement as a whole has been massively influential in information on the pandemic, it’s been more critical than ever to ensure info has been accurate, up to date, and well resourced.

LCR wanted to acknowledge everyone’s contribution to the projects over the last year, whether you’re a supporter, member, volunteer, resident or trustee it’s been very much appreciated.

There were no questions from members on the reports.

Announcement of results of resolutions and Board election (Teller)

The teller announced the results of the elections and resolutions.

As there were as many candidates for board positions as there were places, members were asked to support or oppose candidates rather than our usual single non-transferable vote system that is used for a competitive election. All three candidates were voted in, with two existing trustees standing for reelection; Nick Poole and Doug Taylor, and one new trustee elected; Kelly Foster.

All resolutions were passed, including the two special resolutions proposed by the board.

Close of formal business

NP thanks WMUK for an excellent AGM, and all the members and other stakeholders for attending.

The meeting was declared closed.