Meeting:Committee (2013-04-06)

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The April 2013 committee meeting of Wikimedia Australia, Inc. was held face-to-face on Saturday 6 April 2013 in Sydney and opened at 11:19 am on that date.

Attendance

  • Attendance: Craig, John, Steve, Kerry, Graham
  • Apologies: Charles
  • Absences: Ross

The two observers were invited, but Charles declined and Ross did not respond.

Thanks

  • Steve for arranging the meeting room
  • John and Kerry for their work at the education symposium
  • Kerry thanks Frances for the logistical organisation of the symposium

Minutes for March committee meeting

Resolution
That the minutes of the March committee meeting are accepted
Moved
John
Seconded
Steve

Carried without dissent

Membership report

There were no membership renewals in March, but three applications from February were accepted; two of them have paid. One new account was created in March. Angela, one of the account creators, indicated in an email that there were many spam requests.

There was discussion about the need for a value proposition for membership. It was noted by Craig that there were tax implications to making the primary purpose of the organisation providing benefits to members.

On spam, John noted that spammmy account requests are generally not visible to the committee because they don't verify their email address. Captchas were discussed but it was concluded we would follow the Wikimedia Foundation's lead.

Correspondence report

There was nothing of significance to report. John said he would forward all the recent contact@wikimedia.org.au emails to Graham, as the contact alias has only changed to him a couple of days ago.

The email addresses for the new positions have been updated.

Treasurer's report

At the previous face-to-face meeting, it was agreed to allow Kerry and Charles to have access to the Bendigo Bank accounts.

There was discussion about the use of credit cards, and it was concluded that Craig should keep the credit card even though he is no longer the treasurer. It was noted that he is authorised to use it on Wikimedia Australia's behalf if necessary.

Resolution
That the signatories be changed to Craig, Graham, John and Kerry
Moved
Craig
Seconded
John

Carried without dissent

The paperwork has been filled out for the Australian Tax Office.

Resolution
That the tax signatories are changed to John and Craig
Moved
Craig
Seconded
John

Carried without dissent

Reshuffle

Graham has sent a form and Craig's letter to CAV about the reshuffle and has not yet received a response.

Action

Graham to notify the committee once a response is received.

Actions from last meeting

  • Steve asked if we should have two versions of the conflict of interest policy: one for the committee and another one for everyone else. It was concluded that the one for the committee is a higher priority.
  • Kerry has not chased up the public liability insurance. Steve noted that he has two application forms for public liability insurance. It would cost about $1200, but that was thought to be too expensive.
  • Steve to clean up Melbourne meetup page: done
  • Graham sending CAV letter: done
  • Craig notifying everyone about committee change: done
Action

John to arrange payment to Computerbank

  • The new contract proposal needs to be discussed. It was noted that it needs to be clarified what exactly it entails.

There was discussion about the desirability of publicly recording the best rooms for face-to-face meetings in each capital city.

Money

It was noted that we had $86,000 in the bank. The main commitment is the possible Australian Research Council grant. Steve said he'd drafted a travel policy.

We had between $2,500 and $3,000 for the Wikipedia Education Program travel expenses, not counting the committee. For the committee meeting, travel costs were about $3,200. We will receive $1,500 from the Australian Tax Office. John is to chase up claims from Perth Langcamp attendees, totalling about $4,000.

There was discussion about making it impossible to claim expenses more than two months after an event, or after the end of the financial year, whichever is greater.

World War I Wikimedian in Residence

The State Library of Queensland will sign a memorandum of understanding. There was discussion about what we should do if we get no grant money from the Wikimedia Foundation, and it was concluded that the program would be scaled back. If we cut back, we would prefer long-term partners (e.g. the State Library of Queensland) and use a minimum of $20,000.

It was noted that we need to make it clear how significant World War I is in Australia in our application for funds for this program to the Grant Advisory Committee , because people from other countries may not be aware about the importance of the war for Australians.

Wikipedia Education Program Symposium

Action

Kerry to thank Frances

Action

John to process reimbursements

There were 46 registrations, and three additional people turned up. John says there were about 35 people there for most of the day. The main outcome of the symposium were the number of people who "came out" as doing assignments based on Wikipedia. Another outcome: an attendee wanted to be an ambassador, but John believed she didn't have enough edits.

Action

John to write a campus ambassador plan

There was discussion about doing more similar events, the next in Brisbane and a possible symposium in Perth.

Action

for Kerry Raymond to talk to Kerry Kilner in Brisbane

Training

We have all the training programs locked in, except Beaudesert; there is not a second person for the Gold Coast.

Action

Craig to start with Kerry and Gold Coast people about training session

Wagga Wagga is fully booked, with Robert Myers (who is local) and Peterdownunder (from Ballarat). In Broken Hill we have Gillian and Richard. John expressed concern that the library has only involved staff, not volunteers. Concerns have also been expressed about use of the demonstration method rather than actual edits. $2,000 has been allocated for New South Wales training.

Freopedia launch

There was discussion about the possibility of holding the Freopedia opening day later in the year, so the committee could have a face-to-face meeting in Perth to coincide with it. Concerns were expressed about the quality of the Freopedia articles, because it was thought that there was an agreement with the Foundation that QR codes should only be added to pages classed as good articles (or at an equivalent standard).

Action

Craig will email Gnangarra expressing these concerns.

Wikipedia database dumps and research

Craig met with Kevin of CRC Services. Kerry was not at this meeting, but she noted that she has a conflict of interest (as she works with CRC, but didn't do so when the proposal was first floated. Craig showed them a sample of the database dumps; Gavin said it would be right up their alley and the CRC could make a co-contribution.

Action

John to send an email to Kerry about expressions of interest relating to the data.

  • Adjourn for lunch at 1:50 pm
  • The Committee meeting resumed at 3:00 pm

19th-century births, deaths and marriages register

Kerry noted that she has applied to obtain the rights to the Queensland 19th-century births, deaths and marriages register and was wondering what should be done with it if she got it. Suggestions included putting the data in Wikisource and hosting it on Wikimedia Australia's servers. It was also noted that a press release would need to be written about the acquisition. Another suggestion was made that a list of free content datasets should be built.

Wikimania scholarships

It was agreed that the Wikimania scholarship program not be run this year due to the difficulty of doing it in the current timeframe and Wikimedia Australia's financial state. It was suggested that we ask next year's Wikimania team to fund a certain number of applications from Australia, and that we select a scholarship panel for the next Wikimania that is divorced from the committee.

Travel policy

There was discussion about the scope of the proposal, and it was clarified that it involves all events endorsed by Wikimedia Australia. It was decided that Wikimedia Australia should allow for 75% of the Australian Tax Office per diem rates in line with the Wikimedia Foundation's travel policy.

Meeting Closed at 3:57 pm.

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