Wikimedia Australia/Meeting 2/Summary

The second meeting discussion the formation of Wikimedia Australia was held on IRC on April 24, 2006 at 8PM AEST.

Please be aware that this document is rough and could probably do with a clean up - Nathan Carter (Talk) 12:01, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It was agreed that an organisation group be founded. The purpose of the group is to draft founding documents and investigate possible organisational structures (incorporated association or company)
It was suggested that the organisation group try to get things done within a month or so
It was agreed that membership of the organisation group should be voluntary and open. All work done by the group should be placed on meta where it can be edited, reviewed and commented upon by other interested parties
The organisation group should look at possible scenarios during it's analysis (e.g. if WMA decided to see merchandise, etc) when making it's recommendations.
At the meeting Bronwyn, Angela and Nathan indicated interest in joining the organisation group and that Stephen may also be interested (even though he was not present).
It was suggested that the group take a look at the constitutions and bylaws of other Wikimedia chapters.

In the short term it was suggested that we get our constitution written and establish physical presence.
We discussed the goals of the organisation and questioned what kind of open content do we specifically want to promote.
The idea of focusing on australian encyclopedic content and content which can be used by schools was popular among those present.
Also popular was promotion of Wikipedia to the educational community and perhaps even repackaging Wikimedia content into forms which can be checked for accuracy and prevent vandalism.
It was also said that promotion of the Wikimedia projects should be a goal of WMA.

The possible structure of WMA was briefly discussed. Possible options include becomming a non-profit company and an incorporated association. The idea of starting as an incorporated association and changing to a company as the organisation grows seemed to gain a good amount of support.
Some participants expressed concern about the legality of and problems with holding online annual general meetings. Such meetings are legal for associations in NSW if specified by the organisation's rules, other states may be different. Concerns were also raised about verifying member's identities.
Support for a physical office is limited at present, however concerns were raised about how press interviews would be conducted without an office.
It was noted that the organisation will need to have a public officer living in the state we incorporate under if we choose to be an association. This person is responsible for lodging documents with government departments and should also be on the committee.

Educational issues were listed in the agenda to be discussed but has been postponed until the next meeting.
It was agreed that WMA does not require it's own wiki at present and that we should continue using meta.
It is anticipated that WMA will hold social events ranging from local meetups and wikiparties to wikimania (or an imitation!) in the future
The next meeting will be held in 5-6 weeks time (late May). Details are to be hashed out on meta or the mailing list.