Meeting: Committee (2012-01-15)

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The Chair declared the meeting closed at 17:32 hours.
The Chair declared the meeting closed at 17:32 hours.


[[Category:Meetings]]
[[Category:2012 committee meetings]]
[[Category:2011–2012 Committee]]
[[Category:2011–2012 Committee]]
[[Category:2012]]

Revision as of 05:58, 3 December 2017

Meeting:Committee (2012-01-15)/Minutes

Start15:00 hours (AEDST) [Log: 15:02] on #wmau-comm (irc//freenode.net/wmau-comm)


Attendance

  • Attendance: John (Chair), Anne (Minutes), Charles, Graig, Graham, Laura (15:50).
  • Apologies: Nil
  • Absences: Nil

John declared the meeting open and in doing so linked to the committee meeting Agenda

Extending Thanks

Graham Pearce, committee member, for taking on the role of overseeing and updating the website.

Steve Zhang, member, for taking on the coordinating role for Victorian Meetups 2012.

Minutes

Motion: I move that the Minutes of December 18 Committee Meeting be accepted.

[Meeting:Committee (2011-12-18]

  • Moved: John,
  • Seconded: Graham,
  • Support: Anne, Craig, Charles

Carried without dissent [Log: 15:05]

Special Committee Meeting 2011-12-29 held over for acceptance at the February Committee Meeting.

Reports

RCCamp, Canberra, - update

The total budget allocation of $10,000 had not been fully earmarked and although group bookings had resulted in complicated budgeted allocations, it was considered that more attendance scholarships could be sought due to approximately $2,000 remaining in the budget.

It was decided to make one last call for sponsorships with a final date by which applications must be submitted. As any new submissions involving flights would be exponentially more expensive, it was decided to take only bus and car applications. There was also an expectation that some of the Sydney community may drive to Canberra on the weekend for the RCCamp. The committee noted the attendance of a Western Australian, which was considered important for the distribution of funds by State and Territory.

Finance Conference, Paris, 15-19 February 2012

John linked to the Finance meeting details on Meta.

[Finance meeting 2012]

The meeting discussed the need to attend the Finance Conference to be held in Paris in February 2012 and that Jimmy Wales and Sue Gardner will also be attending.

In lieu of Craig being unable to attend this year, the discussion before the meeting centred on the benefit of sending Laura to the conference; organising her airline ticket by advance payment; and any post conference networking Laura might be able to include in the Paris trip such as visiting the Wikimedia France headquarters. Craig thought it important to send someone if the majority of other Chapters are represented at the conference and therefore will need to brief Laura on WMAU's agreed position on matters arising at the conference.

Other options were canvassed and although there appeared to be a number of worthwhile choices for potential candidates from the wider community it was unanimous that Laura would be the best candidate.

At this point in the meeting Laura joined the IRC channel. [Log: 15:50]

Laura advised that WM-FR seems willing to offer a tour of their offices, and further that some of the international women have been discussing the possibility of a Meetup.

Craig is to organise the booking and payment of the ticket in advance and John advised that a motion needs to be in line with the requirement of the [Meeting:Committee 2011-12-18 Finance Report], i.e. that "This [WMAU credit card] will be used solely for payments of goods and services approved in advance by resolution of the committee." Charles added that the interpretation of the resolution is such that anything that is approved for payment can be done so without the added need to include in the motion the actual method chosen by the Treasurer to effect payment in line with the motion. John further advised that the precedent should establish that the exact good and/or service be specified in the motion.

Motion: I move that Wikimedia Australia fund Laura Hale to attend the Finance meeting on behalf of Wikimedia Australia at Paris in February. The flights may be purchased in advance by the Treasurer.

  • Moved: John
  • Seconded: Craig
  • Support: Graham, Anne, Charles
  • Abstain: Laura

Carried without dissent: [Log: 16:04]


AdaCamp, Melbourne, 14 January 2012

A very successful unconference with some forty-five participants. Participants were enthusiastic in their support of the Ada Initiative conducting two Ada camps per year. The first camp is to be held in the USA and the second for the year is to be held to be held in New Zealand. The single day unconference format managed seven sessions covering interesting and informative topics such as technology and conferencing, and the all female participants declared it a very different experience compared to the mixed group sessions they usually attend. Participants were unanimous in their satisfaction of the new style of unconferencing which they believed opened up discussions and allowed the focus to be specifically on issues of concern to women. The proceedings will be published on the Geek Feminist site. Wikimedia Australia were proud to sponsor the AdaCamp; and the sponsors were specifically mentioned and thanked by the conference organisers on the day.

[adacamp-melbourne-recap]

Two members from WMAU attended on the day and met up with a large contingent of Melbournians in attendance and engaged in successful networking.

John noted that we would be receiving a report on the Ada conference from WMAU attendees.

WMAU had organised a handout, titled "Wikimedia Australia loves AdaCamp Melbourne", which highlighted among other things, our website; membership fees; our Strategic Plan, and Statement of Purpose. It also advertised the 11th Anniversary Celebrations for Wikipedia Day and the Melbourne Meetup on the Sunday following the AdaCamp, and that all were welcome to come along.

At this juncture the Chair noted the meeting was half way through the two hour time line for the meeting and the discussion then turned to 'banners' and promotional materials.

Events - Banners and Promotional Materials

The meeting discussed the need for accruing physical banners and promotional materials for Events such as Meetups, RCCamps and training sessions; to be located in different States and Territories. Enquiries will be made about costs and types of banners available on the market; Craig recommended the vertical pull-up banners; and Craig and Laura provided links to banners used in previous years.

[Banner]

[Banner]

An inventory of event equipment will be kept to track materials including where they will be housed when not in use.


Membership Report

The membership report is not much changed since the December report. Currently membership is at fifty; four reminders to pay fees were sent out and one membership has been paid.

There were three non-member accounts approved in the last month.

Financial Report

Craig advised that the new Xero online accounting software is now up and running and that successful testing has been conducted using the 'invoicing' feature. WMAU transactions are currently being loaded onto the system.

The quarterly Business Activity Statement (BAS) is due on 15 February, can be done online, and this will be done in conjunction with Brian who can submit it in his name should this be necessary if the change over details are not through by the due date. This quarterly statement will be done on the Xero software as there is an inbuilt report which makes it a great deal easier than the manual process.

The next step is to choose an Auditor and names of potential Auditors and their costs for auditing the financial statements etc. are currently in hand.


Public Officer Report

John sought an update on the various Fundraising requirements for each State in terms of due dates and information needing to be submitted, sighting the email subject "Public Officer - Police checks, Annual Return for Fundraisder to CAV, and Annual Statement to CAV". He noted that the Queensland annual return for charity or sanction is due at the end of January.

Anne responded to questions in terms of Consumer Affairs Victoria's requirements that police checks, the annual return for fundraiser and the annual statement are due on 31st January. The required police check forms have been completed by Graham and Anne, and we are awaiting completed forms from Charles and Laura. To the question about whether John and Craig have to submit new police checks, we received advice from CAV that they do not have to re-submit a form as this has been previously done by them.

The 'annual return by fundraiser' is to be accompanied by the audited financial statements. CAV have been contacted about our current situation regarding an Auditor and advised that for the purposes of registration unaudited accounts are acceptable, however, we are to follow up with audited accounts when they are available.

As the 'annual statement' is overdue and CAV usually require the application of an extension of time to be submitted it is considered in our interest to comply with their requirements. The cost is $24.40.

Motion: I move that the public officer request an Extension to submit our audited Annual Statement, which has been delayed due to a change of auditor.

  • Moved: John,
  • Seconded: Graham,
  • Support: Anne, Craig, Laura, Charles

Carried without dissent [Log: 16:56]


Incoming Correspondence Report

The committee linked to the Incoming Mail and John canvassed for questions and as there were none both the December and January incoming correspondence were accepted.

Proposals

WMAU email addresses

A request has been received for a WMAU email address by a workshop facilitator to present a professional contact point when undertaking projects.

Motion: Any financial member may request a wikimedia.org.au e-mail address comprised of their first and last name if they are publicly identified and are actively involved in Wikimedia Australia activities.

  • Moved: John
  • Seconded: Graham
  • Support: Laura, Anne, Charles, Craig

Carried without dissent [Log17:13]

General Discussion

Employment of 'Communications Coordinator'

Craig addressed the item affirming his position that the Chapter should be moving forward to professionalism. John added that we should hand the position description to a recruitment agency with minor changes to the WM-UK document that we will use.

Craig outlined his preferred path as follows:

1) Secure the services of an HR consultant or expert in this field to establish our policies and procedures and make sure all the necessary paperwork for hiring is completed;

2) As indicated by John, hand the position description to a recruitment agency; and

3) We examine hiring a General Manager with the authority to hire future staff to relieve us of that task.

John added that the process must be run on objective selection lines to allay any fears of conflict of interest or subjective appointments. And further sought advice regarding a permanent vs. fixed short-term contract of six months duration. Craig replied that ideally we should have people on permanent or at least long-term temporary positions, but that is not presently within our reach. Clarification was sought on which policies (payroll processing, payroll tax, remuneration, etc.) we needed in place for a short-term contract and advised that the discussion be continued on the mailing list and raised at the next public meeting.

Melbourne Meetup held on 15 January, 2012

Wikimedia Australia member Steve Zhang has taken on the lead role of coordinating the Melbourne's Meetups. The first meeting was held today, the 11th Anniversary of Wikipedia, and a good turn up of twelve community celebrated the occasion. Several attendees wanted to know how they could participate in Wikimedia projects. Attendees included 'part-time editors', long time editors, and a skilled photographer.

Meeting closed

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 17:32 hours.

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