Wikimedia UK v1.0: Difference between revisions

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#[[en:User:Steve block]]
#[[en:User:Steve block]]
#[[en:User:Justinc|Justin Cormack]]
#[[en:User:Justinc|Justin Cormack]]
#[[User:Mistress Selina Kyle]]([[en:User:Mistress Selina Kyle]]) - I will do whatever I can however I don't know what this would be at the moment.. (I came up with the idea of a registered charity myself ([[en:User_talk:Jimbo Wales|here]]) and was pointed over here ;)


==Meetings==
==Meetings==

Revision as of 22:17, 19 December 2005

Wikimedia UK v2.0
Legal
Constitution
Wikimedia and UK charity law
Organisation
Business Plan
Timeline
Board meetings
Membership
Newsletter
Mailing list
Facebook group
Wikimedia UK v1.0
MoA - AoA - Gift aid
People - Possible projects
Membership of Wikimedia UK
Future UK meetups
Website

A local Wikimedia chapter is proposed to cover Wikimedians living in the UK. Comment on the draft Memorandum of Association or draft Articles of Association. Or contribute ideas to its possible projects.


Aims

  • To support the growth and development of multi-lingual, free-content information and learning projects
  • To encourage and support the use of Wikipedia in education, both in schools and higher education
  • To promote literacy through projects that contribute to Wikipedia, both locally and a global level

Board of trustees

Six posts which should, in principle, be Trustees registered with the Charities Commission.

Executive

  • Chairman/President:
  • Treasurer:
  • Secretary:

Others

  • Press officer:
  • Membership secretary:
  • Events officer:

Points to consider

  • What effect would UK charity law have on this?
  • How should this fit in with a European Wikimedia chapter if such a thing comes into existence?
  • What are the Possible projects of Wikimedia UK? Some ideas would be:
    • Forming and sustaining local history projects – writing books etc.
    • Working with schools and other educational institutions – creative and academic writing, researching, media/computer literacy ...
    • Promoting multilingualism – possibly school children translating articles into native (or parent) languages and/or working on these with other children in other countries.
    • Creating photographic archives to complement local history projects
    • Geneology (family history) projects

Charitable aims and fundraising

We need to consider what the point of it would be. Would it be fundraising? If so - would it be fundraising for local activity or for the foundation? Education is one of the "heads of charity" but things such as providing social events for British contributors wouldn't be. To fundraise we'd need to be a registered charity which has paperwork overheads and would need to have proper legal structures. We'd need to have accounts and have them approved by an independent examiner (we are unlikely to meet the threshold to require a full audit).

Basically - we would be running a not-for-profit business. Trustees would be liable for the appropriate spending of charitable funds. However this isn't as scary as it sounds.

The benefits are that we could do work in the UK that the foundation couldn't. We could bid for funds for UK specific projects such as work with schools. However projects need managing :(. I really don't see us to be at the level of employing staff at the moment but small projects could be managed by the trustees or a sub-committee.

If this is where we want to go then we'd need a charity to do it. We don't need to worry that we are not developed enough immediately - everyone starts off small. However we'd need to get agreement on what the overall aims would be.

Roadmap

A roadmap is used to begin envisaging the primary goals we need to fulfil to become a charity. This will hopefully inform us of short-term goals needed done. This roadmap is in very rough form, it is in no way official.

  1. Investigate certain issues of charity law:
    • the criteria needed to be fulfilled to become a charity
    • whether we are responsible for content
    • relationship to the non-UK foundation
  2. Establish the fundamentals of the organisation:
    • the functions and their legal viability
    • the Chapter's geographical coverage (likely dictated by law)
    • whether the Chapter legally represents the Foundation
  3. Seek board approval for by-laws
  4. Arrange a contract with the Foundation for trademark use
  5. Registration

Miscellany

Name

Legally we don't want to be called Wikimedia UK, but will use this as our operating name. We therefore need a legal name - see /Company name for background and suggestions.

Domains

  • wikipedia.co.uk - owned by Bomis, redirect to the English Wikipedia
  • wikipedia.org.uk - owned by Chris Brooking, redirect to the English Wikipedia
  • wikimedia.co.uk - owned by James F., currently (a somewhat basic) Wikipedia portal
  • wikimedia.org.uk - owned by James F., currently (a somewhat basic) Wikipedia portal

Mailing list

People interested in helping to create a local chapter

  1. Angela
  2. Constafrequent
  3. Imran
  4. sannse
  5. James F.
  6. nsh
  7. Nicholas Shanks
  8. Charles Matthews
  9. Kwekubo
  10. David Gerard
  11. cfp
  12. VampWillow
  13. Scott Keir
  14. Oldak Quill
  15. Stewart Adcock
  16. Paul Y
  17. LoopZilla
  18. Dan100
  19. Theo Clarke
  20. Dazzles
  21. Francstwothousand
  22. The wub
  23. MrWeeble
  24. ClareWhite
  25. Cormaggio
  26. Matthew Platts
  27. Craigy144
  28. Ce garcon
  29. Secretlondon
  30. Rich Farmbrough
  31. notafish - Delphine. of course :-)
  32. Thryduulf
  33. Andreww
  34. Buffyg
  35. y_control
  36. Sam Korn
  37. jguk
  38. ALoan
  39. The Land
  40. Nile_hef
  41. Harry Wood
  42. Shimgray
  43. Arwel Parry
  44. JFW
  45. Greg Robson
  46. en:User:Steve block
  47. Justin Cormack
  48. User:Mistress Selina Kyle(en:User:Mistress Selina Kyle) - I will do whatever I can however I don't know what this would be at the moment.. (I came up with the idea of a registered charity myself (here) and was pointed over here ;)

Meetings

Next meeting

  • TBA

Past meetings