Meeting:Committee (2010-07-03)

Start: 1700 Australian EST, 3 July, 2010, #wmau-comm.

Agenda

Attendance, absence, apologies, previous minutes

Attendance: Steve (chair), Sarah (minutes), Liam, Brian, Andrew.

Apologies: none

Absence: none

Previous minutes

  • Motion: That the minutes of the meeting 26 May, 2010 are accepted.
  • Moved: Andrew
  • Seconded: Brian
  • Carried without dissent.

Reports

Secretary

Sarah provided the committee with a secretary report. There have been no further grant applications received, though several people have written with questions and indicated they were thinking about applying for a grant. Incoming emails have increased significantly during the last month with an excessive volume of emails from one person about Wikipedia content. There has also been several membership inquiries received by email since the membership database has been down. Sarah also reported increasing concern about the membership database being down.

Treasurer

Brian noted that Steve had sent him the books but they had not arrived prior to the meeting, so Brian was unable to give a full treasurer's report. However, he noted there was a bank balance of $10,386.85.

Motions

Motion: Reimbursement of conference call costs

Steve submitted his account for the conference call costs incurred when the committee called an emergency conference call following Brianna's resignation.

  • Motion: That Steve Peters is reimbursed the sum of $199.98 for costs incurred in the emergency conference call meeting following Brianna's resignation.
  • Moved: Liam
  • Seconded: Brian
  • Carried without Dissent.

Motion: Payment of merchandise account - stickers

On 26 May, 2010, Sarah and Steve were appointed to a merchandise sub-committee in order to obtain quotes and order promotional items for this year's membership packs. Bumper stickers using the chapter's logo have been purchased and order for promotional pens is being negotiated.

  • Motion: That the account for payment of $396.00 being for 360 bumper stickers purchased from Active Print be paid. (Invoice is in my possession and will be forwarded to Brian).
  • Moved: Brian
  • Seconded: Liam
  • Carried without dissent.

Motion: Distribution of monies received

As noted in the 26 May 2010 minutes, the chapter received a donation of $300 from Mosman Council following Liam's presentation. Liam abstained from discussions and the remainder of the committee has been discussing for several months how to process these funds. Sarah feels the money was specifically received as a donation to the chapter and thus should be kept by the chapter. Other committee members felt it was reasonable to pass some of the funds on to Liam as the presenter.

  • Motion: That the committee authorises the payment of $150.00 from the monies, received from Mosman Council as a part of Liam's engagement on behalf of Wikimedia Australia, to provide services as a presenter to Mosman Council on Thursday 18th March, 2010.
  • Moved: Steve
  • Seconded: Andrew
  • Opposed: Sarah
  • Abstained: Liam
  • Carried with dissent.

Wikimedia Foundation chapter appointed board seats

The committee has been involved with discussion with other chapters regarding the Wikimedia Foundation's chapter-appointed board seats. As noted in the 26 May 2010 minutes, the committee nominated Michael Snow, the then-chair of the WMF board of trustees, for a chapter-appointed seat on the board. The committee discussed issues related to minuting any further the exact voting preferences submitted in the discussions because of issues of confidentiality of the chapters' internal discussion and appointment process, which takes place on the private chapter's wiki and mailing list. Liam and Sarah felt that it was important to maintain the confidentiality while Brian felt it should be open and transparent. The following motion was raised but failed to carry.

  • Motion: The committee has actively participated in the the Chapters' WMF board seat discussion and nomination process and has voted in that process.
  • Moved: Liam
  • Seconded: Andrew
  • Abstained: Steve
  • Opposed: Sarah, Brian
  • Motion failed to carry

Motion: John Harrison's Small Grant

The committee received a small grant application from John Harrison. The committee voted on this application during the week via the committee's internal wiki and that vote was ratified during the meeting.

  • Motion: The committee approves John Harrison's application for a $100 small grant to assist with purchasing two books, “The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia” and “The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia”, which will be used to support Wikimedia work by assisting with identifying photographs uploaded to Commons and improving Wikipedia's article coverage of Australian species.
  • Moved: Sarah
  • Seconded: Andrew
  • Carried without dissent

The committee also approved the payment of the funds ($100) to John Harrison.

  • Motion: The committee approves payment of $100 to John Harrison, being payment of the small grant approved on 27 June, 2010.
  • Moved: Sarah
  • Seconded: Brian
  • Carried without dissent.

Proposed changes to the Association Rules

The committee has been discussing proposing some rules changes to the members at the next meeting of members. The committee will propose members support the following change to the rules.

Motion: Nominating for more than one seat

  • Motion: The committee proposes the Association's Rules are changed as follows:
  1. Replace 23 (2) by: A candidate may nominate for one only of the offices and/or as an ordinary member of the committee, but may only be elected to one position.
  2. Add at the end of 23(6): save that the ballot will be conducted in the order of offices as specified in 21(1) followed by the ordinary members of the committee, with any successful candidate for an office withdrawing, if nominated, from the ballot for ordinary membership of the committee.
  • Moved: Brian
  • Seconded: Sarah
  • Carried without dissent.

Motion: Corporate affiliates

The committee also proposes the rules be changed to allow corporate affiliates who would be entitled to attend AGMs but would have no vote.

  • Motion: The committee proposes the Association's Rules are changed as follows:

The proposal is: Add a new clause 4(13): Corporations and other bodies may become affiliates of the association by resolution of the management committee. Affiliates will pay such fees as determined by the management committee. Affiliates may send representatives as observers to General Meetings but they can not vote.

  • Moved: Brian
  • Seconded: Steve
  • Carried without dissent

Motion: Appointment of John Vandenberg as Systems Administrator

The committee has been discussing the ongoing technical issues and it has been decided to appoint another Systems Administrator. Sarah was appointed by the committee to contact John Vandenberg who has agreed to become a Systems Administrator effective immediately.

  • Motion: The committee appoints John Vandenberg as a volunteer systems administrator.
  • Moved: Sarah
  • Seconded: Steve
  • Carried without dissent.

Date of the 2010 Annual General Meeting

The committee has set the date of this year's Annual General Meeting as Sunday September 19 2010. The specific time and further details will be forthcoming.

Meeting closed 19:02.

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