Wikimedia Chapters Association/Meetings/2012-51

Purpose

Get an update on the registration process. Find a way to proceed with the SG search.

Schedule

Date/Time

Wednesday, December 19th, 8:00 PM UTC

Agenda

Current state of bylaws and incorporation
SG recruitment and role of election committee

Dial-in

see Wikimedia Chapters Association/Meetings/Talkyoo

Whiteboard

http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/WCA

Attendees
On the telecon WMxx Signature	On Etherpad WMxx Signature

Minutes

Agenda: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Meetings/2012-51

Current state of bylaws and incorporation

SG recruitment and role of election committee

On the call

Markus
Laurentius
Manuel
Itzik
Richard
Ziko

Current state of bylaws and incorporation

No one from Switzerland is here to report (later, there was input from Charles)

Markus: charity status is very important for Chapters to send money to the WCA

Markus: is in touch with Garfield and others from FDC to find out about the conditions of eligibility for round 2 funding for the WCA

Ziko: does it still make sense to have a secretariat? Or will a director be sufficient?

Markus: what is the benefit of not having a secretariat?

Ziko: there are a lot of provisions about the secretary and secretariat. But according to the Swiss law we can have simply a director or other employee.

Laurentius: we are talking about the balance of the organs of the WCA and the position of staff in relation to the board

Ziko: removing the section about secretariat from the bylaws, we have more freedom about the conditions of employing staff. It would make things simplier.

Markus: what is the impact of not having a secretariat on the current search for a SG

Ziko: it makes things easier. No impact on the timeline

Action: Charles will provide us with a revised version of the bylaws by Friday

SG recruitment and role of election committee

Input from Fae:

The recruitment of the SG continues in parallel with the legal establishment of the WCA in Geneva.
The SG job specification is considered reviewed (it has been unchanged and available for months), and Stefan will use this as the basis to agree an advert with the Election Committee which he will draft this weekend. A WCA general contact email for the advert will need to be made available.
The SG advert will be circulated within the Wikimedia community as a first stage to attract feedback and initial applications. The advert may be improved based on early feedback and then circulated through wider channels, should we not have a surfeit of candidates by then.
The process and stages of the recruitment process will be agreed with the Election Committee (as empowered by WCA resolution #1)

Itzik: Need to start within the community. But we need to publish the position in wider channels in any case. Also, we need more people on the election committee

Markus: who in this call is willing to join?

Markus
Ziko
Laurentius
(Fae, plus I suggest we consider Stefan as an advisor)

Proceeding as proposed by Fae is agreed with modification from Itzik

Council and Board

Markus: anything else we need to discuss?

Ziko: what to do about the council and the board. We should have a board of a few elected person (in the Council or not).

Markus: a board is a good idea, but discussing about it should not slow down the WCA setup process for now

??? board is a good idea, but which decision needs to be made by a board or the chapters?

Ziko: decision making now takes too long

Manuel: but the issues adressed will not change with having a board. We need to separate two issues we have been discussing here: 1) Swiss law requires having a board 2) the problem of decision making within WCA.

Laurentius: the idea is not new in the call. The issue with having a board in Switzerland is solved by naming the council to board.

Itzik: How complicated will it be to change the bylaws later

Manuel: leave it as is concerning having a board.

Ziko: the process now simply doesn't work

Manuel: Then we can change the process but stick to the incorporation process as discussed council = board. Adress the issue at hand - decision making - maybe having a smaller quorum?

Markus: Simple decisions can be done by standing orders or the SG. The board can always revise and has a veto.

Ziko: We can do a lot in the standing orders, indeed. Who can hire someone? Who can speak in the name of the WCA?

Markus: in Germany it is the board the hires the SG and the SG that hires all other staff

Laurentius: decisions can be made by an executive committee (it seems to be common in Switzerland)

Ziko: Swiss law says if bylaw doesn't say anything about decisions, an absolute majority is needed. We should reconsider the section in the bylaw about the quorum. Are there any restrictions on that by swiss law?

Markus: we can ask charles to clarify

Ziko: founding meeting and annual meeting must be in real life in swiss law. Also ask Charles to clarify

Markus: likes the idea of executive committee in the future, as we already have that institution

Ziko: Agree. Situation with Chair and Dep. - two people are not enough or appropriate for that kind of work.

Laurentius, Markus: it seems that incorporation is not dependent on a real life meeting

Ziko: we need a postal address

Markus: we need a domainname.

Manuel: wikimedia.ch can help with hosting infrastructure. We could register a domain now and transfer it at no costs. Ma nuel can do it.

Agreement on the domain name was achieved.

Action: Manuel register the domains

Laurentius: for the main domain, also register .net and .com

Manuel: for now, WMCH is most likely to cover the costs

Ziko: It would be helpful if we have an executive committee before Milano. Also, not only council members can be part.

Markus: Members of the executive committee should be voted in.

Fae: I suggest we consider proposing how the Exec Committee gets elected on the discussion page of the bylaws - it might be possible to bundle that process into the resolution

Wikimedia (Chapters) Association

Opening the Association.

Ziko: we should treat thematic organisations like chapters. That should be discussed later but I am interested in your opinions.

Markus: first feeling is positive

Ziko: the question is also about user groups.

Laurentius: they are not on the same level

Manuel: it's a bit early to discuss it.

Ziko: Maybe all user groups could together vote one council member. But we can discuss it elsewhere later.

Ziko: People from countries without chapter could become an individual member of a thematic organization. So they can be a part of the movement.

Manuel: we need to keep an eye on our purpose as helping with good governance

Laurentius: we have to change the bylaw to do so, but that seems to to be a big problem

Manuel: Domains are registered

Call closed @21:23 UTC