Meeting: Committee (2012-06-17)


The meeting commenced at 15:10 hours (AEST) [Log 15:10 hours] on #wmau-comm (irc//freenode.net/wmau-comm). The meeting linked to the Agenda.

==Attendance==
*Attendance: John (Chair), Anne (Minutes), Charles, and Graham
*Apologies: Laura and Craig

==Minutes==
The Chair advised the meeting that he had made some changes to the May Minutes and gave the Committee time to review them. The Committee approved of the changes.

John apologised to the meeting for not finding time in his busy schedule to review the April Minutes and sought further leave to review them. The Committee supported John's request.   

Motion: That the Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 20 May be accepted.

*Moved: John
*Seconded: Graham
*Support: Charles, Anne
Carried without dissent [Log: 15:24]

==Reports==
===Membership Report===

Anne reported that as of today the membership stands at sixty financial members.  The committee was informed that the records indicate that twenty-one members have renewed their membership so far.  Renewal fees are now due on or before 30 June 2012.  John lamented that it appears as though the organisation will receive less than 30 membership renewals by 1 July 2012 and asked what could be done to improve this.  Members who have not renewed by 30 June will be followed up.

Anne sought discussion by the committee on two recent applications for membership where the details are identical except for the first name and requesting that the committee nominate on the acceptance or otherwise of the two applications into membership; and that emails were sent, on two separate occasions, seeking clarification of the details in the applications. John asked if we had received a response, adding that in lieu of no replies being received Committee cannot approve the applications.

The Committee discussed the remote likelihood of fees being paid by an applicant who does not reply to communications from WMAU in that it was perceived that if there is no response the applicant is unlikely to complete the joining process. Charles requested that another email be sent to the applicants before the final decision to not accept the applications. John indicated that it is up to the Secretary to ensure applications are valid and that he considered two very similar applications to be two invalid applications as we cannot determine which details are correct.

The Chair confirmed the accepted process that when three days have elapsed after the receipt of an application for membership and no discussion has taken place on the committee page regarding the application, then the applicant is deemed to be accepted into membership. John referred the Committee to the resolution on this policy, as follows:

http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Resolution:Processing_membership_applications
 
Anne sought leave to review the resolution as it had recently been made available in May and also that it be discussed further. The Chair advised the meeting that the resolution had been incorrectly named.

{{action}} Follow up on membership renewals not received post 30 June 2012.

{{action}} Anne to send another email to the applicants who submitted near identical applications.

{{action}} Anne to review the resolution regarding processing membership applications.

===Public Officer Report===
Anne reported that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been advised of the update to details of the Public Officer, Anne Frazer, and advised that the contact person for all taxation matters has been updated as the Treasurer, Craig Franklin. ATO advised that the effective date for this change is 27 November 2011.

Anne is to contact the Auditor to ascertain when the audited statements will be ready for submission to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) and the other State instrumentalities, and if we are not in receipt of the audited financial statements will need to contact CAV and the other States and advise them accordingly.

The Chair thanked Anne for the report and accepted it into the Minutes.

===Incoming Correspondence Report===
The Chair advised there was no correspondence to {{nospam|contact}}.  The Chair inquired regarding any other correspondence to report, and as there was none.

===Finance Report===
Anne sought the Committee's discussion on the tabling at committee meetings of monthly reports on income and expenditure, and the Chair advised the meeting that he preferred that Craig be present at such a discussion to ensure the Committee were not needlessly adding to the workload of the treasurer; and adding that the Xero accounting software used by Wikimedia Australia may provide monthly reports and that he would prefer the committee was given calendar month reports if monthly reporting was to be introduced to the committee agenda.

Charles indicated that he could not access Xero on a recent attempt. John advised that it was his impression that the Committee have read-only access to Xero.

{{action}} Item deferred to next meeting.

{{action}} Investigate Xero access problem.

===Wikimedia Chapters Association (WCA)===
Discussion ensued as to whom should represent WMAU at the WCA to be held during the Wikimania conference.

Motion: That Charles Gregory is appointed as the Wikimedia Chapters Association representative for Wikimedia Australia.

*Moved: John
*Seconded: Anne
*Support: Graham
*Abstain: Charles
Carried without dissent [Log: 15:46]

The Chair congratulated Charles on his appointment and Charles thanked the meeting for their support.

At this juncture in the meeting the Chair was asked to deal with the Agenda item 'Melbourne Meetups' and discussion took place.

===Melbourne Meetups===
Anne advised that at the May [[w:Wikipedia:Meetup/Melbourne 21|Melbourne Meetup]], Brian advised on the ambit costs of Computerbank venue hire and hire of the training room as outlined in recent emails to committee and asked that the committee discuss the proposed hiring costs so we can confirm with Brian who is on the Computerbank committee and who awaits a reply from Committee. The Chair proposed the item be discussed under 'Proposals' and that a report be noted.

John indicated that $40 per meeting was too high and that other venue options should be canvassed such as the State Library of Victoria's free computer rooms, and other community locations which are community hubs that provide free wifi such as the North Melbourne library; and if none are available with the required facilities then to decide on Computerbank. Anne advised the proposed hiring fees advised by Brian range from $20 to $40, with the hire of the training room at $40 for each occasion it is used, and that these figures be relayed to the Committee for discussion.

John indicated support for $20 per month which is in line with the actual costs of the facility, for Melbourne to cover the Melbourne group up until the end of 2012 as the meetups were progressing on a regular basis therefore a special provision to support the chosen venue is acceptable; and suggested the training work may need more consideration and that WMAU were willing to improve it in lieu of paying to hire the room, concluding that if this was the case then $40 is an excellent rate for the Computerbank venue, reinforcing that only if other options have been considered. John sought the committee's opinion and Charles thought $20 per month was reasonable because if there were similar size meetups in other cities then $40 per month per city could become expensive.

John canvassed the possibility of further discussion on a resolution which gives each town a small budget and autonomy to spend it, which was part of the 'Wiki User Groups' (WUGs) proposal.

==WMAU Program Activity==
===State Library of Queensland workshops===
John reported that he and Siska Doviana (Chair of Wikimedia Indonesia) travelled to the northern Queensland towns of [[w:Hughenden|Hughenden]] and [[w:Charters Towers|Charters Towers]] with State Library of Queensland's Michelle Swales and Anne Scheu in early June as part of Wikimedia Australia's partnership with the State Library of Queensland to provide Wikimedia training to regional Queensland.  The training sessions were well received and a great success, with blog posts by one of the participants and the State Library of Queensland.

http://charterstowers.e-village.com.au/2012/06/07/a-day-spent-exploring-wikipedia-content-creation-at-the-charters-towers-excelsior-library/

http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2012/06/20/getting-queensland-content-out-there/
 

The gallery for Charters Towers Wikipedia Trainees contains two images, and can be viewed at:
[[commons:File:Charters_Towers_Wikipedia_Trainees_01.jpg]] and [[commons:File:Charters_Towers_Wikipedia_Trainees_02.jpg]].

The gallery for Hughenden Wikimedia Trainees contains two images and can be viewed at:
[[commons:File:Hughenden_Wikimedia_Trainees_01.jpg]] and [[commons:File:Hughenden_Wikimedia_Trainees_02.jpg]].


The output of the workshops can be seen at [[w:WP:GLAM/SLQ/5 June 2012]] (Hughenden) and [[w:WP:GLAM/SLQ/6 June 2012]] (Charters Towers).


Craig Franklin and [[w:user:Kerry Raymond|Kerry Raymond]] conducted a workshop at [[w:Esk, Queensland|Esk]].  The output of the session can be seen at [[w:WP:GLAM/SLQ/16 June 2012]].

==Payments==

$200 reimbursement to Peter Jeremy for a USB hard disk, and including freight from Sydney to Melbourne, for the establishment of a research database of English Wikipedia in Australia for research purposes by all Australian academics.

Moved: That up to $200 reimbursement to Peter Jeremy is approved for purchase of a USB hard disk and freight of the USB hard disk from Sydney to Melbourne for the establishment of a research database of English Wikipedia in Australia.

*Moved: John
*Seconded: Graham
*Support: Charles, Anne
Carried without dissent [Log: 16:06]

==General Discussion==
The Chair read the following items into the Minutes as accepted and spoke of the action required by committee to review each item.

===Vice President's leave of absence===
Vice President Laura Hale advised the members that she is taking a temporary leave of absence from WMAU committee for tertiary study purposes and that she proposes resuming her position on the committee when she has completed her present interim study obligations regarding her doctoral thesis.

Discussion covered the following areas of consideration and posed the question should WMAU accommodate committee members who are undertaking tertiary studies: that WMAU committee fully support committee members in their tertiary studies and thereby aim to help and support the committee member in their role on committee during study leave of absence applied for and agreed to; that aspects of leave should be defined, for instance the duration of absence of study leave in terms of monthly or quarterly timeframes and with a view to reviewing extensions of time that are requested.

John advised the meeting that we faced a similar situation back in January when he was facing work pressure. The discussion indicated interest in addressing requests for leave of absence and the impact of such policy on the Rules of Association that would require changing; Charles spoke about developing a general leave of absence policy.

{{action}} Committee to discuss and review.

The committee thanks Laura for her efforts to date, and the committee agreed to consider Laura's apology for her temporary absence at committee meetings, until further notice, in order to avoid her position becoming vacant due to Rule 24 (d), which was added to the [[Rules]] by the members at the [[Meeting:2011 SGM/Rule amendments#clarify casual vacancy|2011 SGM]].

===Register of members===
Clause 5 (3), Register of members, states that a member may make a copy of entries in the register. Anne has begun discussion on the comm wiki on this matter, on 31 May 2012, in light of a recent communication by a member regarding access.

{{action}} Committee to discuss and review.

==='Grants' terminology change===
The committee agreed to review the terminology used by WMAU regarding funding as 'grants'.  This was prompted by an accountant indicating to the Wikimedia Australia committee that the word 'grant' could present taxation issues in Australia for recipients.  The Wikimedia Federation is also steering away from the term 'grant', albeit for different reasons, as described in recent communication to {{nospam|wikimedia-l|wikimedia.org}} on 30 May regarding the Participation Grants Committee's recent change of name to Participation Support Program Committee.

{{action}} Committee to discuss and review.

==Meeting closed at 16:23 hours [Log: 16:23]==

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