Meeting:2011 AGM/Minutes
< Meeting:2011 AGMThe fourth Annual General Meeting (2011–2012) of Wikimedia Australia, Inc. was held on Sunday 9 October 2011.
The meeting started at 4:00 PM AEDST.
The President John Vandenberg chaired the meeting.
Attendance
- Centres (Teleconferenced)
-
- Melbourne
- Lyle Allan
- Anne Frazer
- Brian Salter-Duke (Bduke)
- Steven Zhang (Steven_Zhang)
- Bathurst
- Nathan Carter (cartmanau)
- John Vandenberg (jayvdb; Chair)
- Matthew
- Robert Myers
- Brisbane
- Kerry Raymond
- Lloyd Nguyen
- Adelaide
- Adam Jenkins
- Individual teleconferenced members
- Craig Franklin (Lankiveil; Brisbane)
- Charles Gregory (ChuqTas; Tasmania)
- IRC members
- Angela Beesley (Central Coast, New South Wales)
- Laura Hale (LauraHale; Canberra)
- Robert Myers ([irc nickname redacted]; Bathurst)
- Andrew Owens (Orderinchaos; Perth)
- Alex Sims (Alex_Sims; South Australia)
- Proxies
- Peter Jeremy
- Tony Souter
- Members in attendance
- 18
- IRC observers
- Gnangarra
- Invalid proxies
-
- These proxies were submitted less than 24 hours before the meeting.
- Scott Bibby - delegated to John
- Mark Hurd - explicit instructions to the Chair - User:Markhurd/2011 AGM Proxy
- Ross Mallett - delegated to John
- Nigel Mitchell - delegated to Adam
- Pru Mitchell - delegated to Adam
- Apologies
- Peter Jeremy
- Graham Pearce
Confirmation of minutes
- (attached)
- (attached)
- Resolution
- That the minutes of the 2010 AGM and 2011 SGM be confirmed.
- Moved
- Steven Zhang
- Seconded
- Craig Franklin
Carried without dissent
Committee Reports
Treasurer's report
- (attached)
- Resolution
- That the Treasurer's report be accepted.
- Moved
- Matthew
- Seconded
- Kerry
Carried without dissent
Secretary's report
- (attached)
- Discussion
- Andrew Owens queried the membership number of 47, as he remembered a higher number of 67 being mentioned. He asked whether the membership records had been independently audited. John Vandenberg replied that the number 47 is correct, and it has been verified by Craig Franklin, Anne Frazer and himself. John indicated that the membership at the highest point, as of end of financial year, was around 55. Andrew was concerned that it has only been verified by serving committee members. Craig informed the members that only serving committee members have access to the membership list in accordance with WMAU's privacy policy.
- Resolution
- That the Secretary's report be accepted.
- Moved
- Brian Salter-Duke
- Seconded
- Robert Myers
Carried without dissent
President's report
- (attached)
- Discussion
- Steven Zhang objected to the reports brevity. Brian Salter-Duke and Laura Hale also indicated that they would prefer a longer report.
- Resolution
- That the President's report be accepted.
- Moved
- Craig Franklin
- Seconded
- Steven Zhang
carried without dissent
Election of committee members
Office Bearers
- John Vandenberg has been reappointed president unopposed.
- Laura Hale has been appointed vice president unopposed.
- Anne Frazer has been reappointed secretary unopposed.
- Craig Franklin has been reappointed treasurer unopposed.
Ordinary Members
Election officer Brian Salter-Duke reported that during the testing he found that the 'memberdb' software algorithm is not STV. As a result he manually calculated the result for the ordinary member election. The memberdb software and his manual STV calculation had the same outcome. Brian recommended that 'memberdb' should not be used in future elections, and that a more comprehensive report about this election needs to be written to ensure that the 2012 AGM election is better implemented.
Brian then announced that the two ordinary members elected were Charles Gregory and Graham Pearce.
Acceptance of Wikimedia Australia Strategic Plan
- Resolution
- That the Wikimedia Australia Strategic Plan is accepted.
- Moved
- John Vandenberg
- Seconded
- Robert Myers
Carried without dissent.
Rule amendments
The rule amendments relate to clause 9(5) Annual General Meetings, and clause 10(9) Special General Meetings. Clauses 9(5) and 10(9) both state "...may, unless a Special Resolution has been proposed, be held by teleconferencing between several centres. Each centre must have a Returning Officer, appointed by the Secretary, to report attendance and numbers voting on each resolution."
conferencing with special resolutions at general meetings
This amendment is to remove the need for a special resolution when a different kind of conferencing, other than that currently stated in clauses 9(5) and 10(9), is used at general meetings, and should therefore be read in conjunction with the hereto second amendment to clauses 9(5) and 10(9) which changes the current method of conferencing by broadening the methods of conferencing that can be used.
Wikimedia Australia's general meetings have been conducted by the use of both teleconferencing and IRC.
- Proposed change to clauses 9(5) and 10(9)
- Remove ", unless a Special Resolution has been proposed,".
- Moved
- John Vandenberg
- Seconded
- Steven Zhang
Carried without dissent.
conferencing methods at general meetings
The general meetings of Wikimedia Australia have been conducted using IRC; whereas the Rules specifically state the use of teleconferencing. There is ongoing discussion about whether IRC is desirable, nonetheless it is beneficial to the smooth running of general meetings if the Rules accommodate other forms of conferencing and therefore a more generic wording is proposed.
- Proposed change to clauses 9(5) and 10(9)
- Change "teleconferencing" to "voice and text conferencing".
- Discussion
- Kerry Raymond suggested "voice and text conferencing". John Vandenberg noted that this was in line with the proxy vote from Peter Jeremy. Matthew preferred Kerry Raymonds's wording.
- Proposed change to clauses 9(5) and 10(9)
- Change "teleconferencing" to "conferencing via electronic means".
- Moved
- Matthew
- Seconded
- Nathan Carter
Carried without dissent.
Proposals
2012 Languages conference
This item was hotly debated, with several members unhappy with parts or all of the proposal. The concerns included unrestricted funds being given to another organisation (i.e. Wikimedia Indonesia) to event plan and manage the conference, Wikimedia Australia paying the high cost of bringing international attendees to the conference, insufficient detail in the proposal especially regarding the impact in Australia, and running a separate conference instead of participating in an existing conference.
The treasurer requested that should the proposal be approved by the membership, the expenditure would be made only after a vote by the sitting committee, who can ensure that the scope and budget have been sufficiently refined before the project is funded. This condition was accepted.
During the discussion, Laura Hale clearly indicated she was not convinced of the merits of the proposal. The discussion went longer than intended, and several members left the meeting due to other commitments, including Laura. When the proposal was put to a vote, Andrew Owens asked that Laura be registered as an Oppose. The Chair accepted this request, and put the resolution to a vote:
- Resolution
- That the proposal is accepted by the members, and it is dependent on all three partners signing the agreement and no payments will be made until the Wikimedia Australia committee is satisfied with the way in which it will be spent.
During the tally it was noted that at least one of the proxies was submitted within 24 hours of the meeting, making them invalid per the rules. The proxy from Mark Hurd (an explicit support) was therefore eliminated, and the Oppose from Laura was included, resulting in the Chair announcing a tally of 9-7-2. This tally failed to include the abstain in the proxy from Peter Jeremy.
As the submission time of three proxies was not available at the AGM, the number of proxy votes could not be established. The chair deferred the result until the submission date of the proxies could be verified. The following proxies were later declared invalid:
- Scott Bibby :- proxy to John Vandenberg: Support
- Nigel Mitchell :- proxy to Adam Jenkins: Oppose
- Pru Mitchell :- proxy to Adam Jenkins: Oppose
The final vote and tally was as follows:
- Moved
- John Vandenberg
- Seconded
- Anne Frazer
- Support
- John Vandenberg (Chair)
- Nathan Carter
- Matthew (Mattinbgn)
- Robert Myers
- Tony Souter (proxy vote)
- Lyle Allan
- Anne Frazer
- Brian Salter-Duke
- Oppose
- Laura Hale
- Adam Jenkins
- Lloyd Nguyen
- Kerry Raymond
- Alex Sims
- Abstain
- Peter Jeremy (proxy vote)
- Sam Wilson
- Steven Zhang
8-5-3
Motion carried.
End of meeting
The chair declared the meeting closed at 6:11 PM AEDST.