Wikimedia UK v1.0
A local Wikimedia chapter is proposed to cover Wikimedians living in the UK. Comment on the draft Memorandum of Association or draft Articles of Association. Or contribute ideas to its possible projects.
Aims
- To support the growth and development of multi-lingual, free-content information and learning projects
- To encourage and support the use of Wikipedia in education, both in schools and higher education
- To promote literacy through projects that contribute to Wikipedia, both locally and a global level
Board of directors
At the meeting in London on 15 January 2006, the first Directors were elected. This Board will seek to get Wikimedia UK set up as a registered charity and admit more members before holding the first Annual General Meeting. At the first Annual General Meeting all directors by law must stand down (though they may stand for re-election if they wish). If you wish to be involved in helping us get registered charity status, please let us know - there's plenty to be done and you don't need to be a director or member to help!
- Chair - Alison Wheeler
- Treasurer - Jon Garrett
- Membership Officer - Andrew Walker
- Press Officer - David Gerard
- Director without portfolio1 - James Forrester
- Company Secretary2 - Gordon Joly
Notes:
1This means James gets lumbered with everything that doesn't fall within the remit of the other five roles:)
2Although the law does not require the Company Secretary to be a Director, the intention is that Gordon will be a full member of the Board of Directors.
Points to consider
- What effect would UK charity law have on this? See also Gift Aid
- How should this fit in with a European Wikimedia chapter if such a thing comes into existence?
- What are the Possible projects of Wikimedia UK? Some ideas would be:
- Forming and sustaining local history projects – writing books etc.
- Working with schools and other educational institutions – creative and academic writing, researching, media/computer literacy ...
- Promoting multilingualism – possibly school children translating articles into native (or parent) languages and/or working on these with other children in other countries.
- Creating photographic archives to complement local history projects
- Geneology (family history) projects
Charitable aims and fundraising
We need to consider what the point of it would be. Would it be fundraising? If so - would it be fundraising for local activity or for the foundation? Education is one of the "heads of charity" but things such as providing social events for British contributors wouldn't be. To fundraise we'd need to be a registered charity which has paperwork overheads and would need to have proper legal structures. We'd need to have accounts and have them approved by an independent examiner (we are unlikely to meet the threshold to require a full audit).
Basically - we would be running a not-for-profit business. Trustees would be liable for the appropriate spending of charitable funds. However this isn't as scary as it sounds.
The benefits are that we could do work in the UK that the foundation couldn't. We could bid for funds for UK specific projects such as work with schools. However projects need managing :(. I really don't see us to be at the level of employing staff at the moment but small projects could be managed by the trustees or a sub-committee.
If this is where we want to go then we'd need a charity to do it. We don't need to worry that we are not developed enough immediately - everyone starts off small. However we'd need to get agreement on what the overall aims would be.
Roadmap
A roadmap is used to begin envisaging the primary goals we need to fulfil to become a charity. This will hopefully inform us of short-term goals needed done. This roadmap is in very rough form, it is in no way official.
- Investigate certain issues of charity law:
- the criteria needed to be fulfilled to become a charity
- whether we are responsible for content
- relationship to the non-UK foundation
- Establish the fundamentals of the organisation:
- the functions and their legal viability
- the Chapter's geographical coverage (likely dictated by law)
- whether the Chapter legally represents the Foundation
- Seek board approval for by-laws
- Arrange a contract with the Foundation for trademark use
- Registration
Miscellany
Name
Legally we don't want to be called Wikimedia UK, but will use this as our operating name. We therefore need a legal name - see /Company name for background and suggestions.
Domains
- wikipedia.co.uk - owned by Bomis, redirect to the English Wikipedia
- wikipedia.org.uk - owned by Chris Brooking, redirect to the English Wikipedia
- wikimedia.co.uk - owned by James F., currently (a somewhat basic) Wikipedia portal
- wikimedia.org.uk - owned by James F., currently (a somewhat basic) Wikipedia portal
Mailing list
People interested in helping to create a local chapter
- Angela
- Constafrequent
- Imran
- sannse
- James F.
- nsh
- Nicholas Shanks
- Charles Matthews
- Kwekubo
- David Gerard
- cfp
- VampWillow
- Scott Keir
- Oldak Quill
- Stewart Adcock
- Paul Y
- LoopZilla
- Dan100
- Theo Clarke
- Dazzles
- Francstwothousand
- The wub
- MrWeeble
- ClareWhite
- Cormaggio
- Matthew Platts
- Craigy144
- Ce garcon
- Secretlondon
- Rich Farmbrough
- notafish - Delphine. of course :-)
- Thryduulf
- Andreww
- Buffyg
- y_control
- Sam Korn
- jguk
- ALoan
- The Land
- Nile_hef
- Harry Wood
- Shimgray
- Arwel Parry
- JFW
- Greg Robson
- en:User:Steve block
- Justin Cormack
- User:Mistress Selina Kyle(en:User:Mistress Selina Kyle) - I will do whatever I can however I don't know what this would be at the moment.. (I came up with the idea of a registered charity myself (here) and was pointed over here ;)
- Marcika
- FrancisTyers
- frelke
- Chris Q
- Emoscopes
- Talrias
Meetings
Next meeting
Next meeting: James's house!
These are proposed dates for a face to face meeting; however, it is unclear if this is necessary.
- 4th February 2006
- 5th February 2006