Wikimedia Conference 2012/Documentation/Day 2/Council

Lead: Ziko van Dijk Begin: 13:48 - End: 16:45

1.) AMMENTMENTS

To be added: results concerning the other amendments.

  • A1: “No judicial Board”
    • Explanation and discussion was yesterday
    • Proposal: Remove section D.
    • Opposite: Keep section D implemented to reactivate it in case it is needed. Write a new amendment in case it is not accepted.
      • Yes: 9 No: 14
  • A2: Rename Council to General assembly
    • Finished yesterday (and the outcome was ...?)
  • A3: Dues
    • Finished yesterday (and the outcome was ...?)
  • A4: “Membership of the council”
    • Postponed
  • A5: “Associate members”
    • Short Explanation by Charles
    • Short discussion: “Only chapters can sign” vs. “Chapters –to-be can help”: Different steps.
      • Manuel Schneider: This could be helpful in case chapters don’t meet the requirements.
      • Delphine: We invite chapters-to-be to be involved in the discussion but we don’t need to fix this in the discussion.
      • Charles: It’s a question of wording (support)
      • Delphine: No, she does not want this in the charta.
      • Christophe: We want to sign this, in case something is broken, we will fix it and improve it, but we must keep in mind that we want to sign the council now.
        • We don’t want to have a decision on this today, it’s not important enough.
  • A6: “Sanctions”
    • We don’t want to have a decision today, it’s not important enough.
  • A7: Meeting
    • Finished yesterday (and the outcome was ...?)
  • A8: Common programs / projects
    • Finished yesterday (and the outcome was ...?)
  • A9: Simplify amendment ratification
    • Short explanation by Frieda.
      • Proposal: Remove A, 4
        • Yes: 15 No: Minority
  • A10: Add financial advisors
    • Short explanation by Frieda
      • Short discussion about the wording.
      • Delphine: We cannot vote on this in this form (wording).
      • Proposal I: Add a comment about financial advisors in the charta (Frieda is going to write a wording for this later).
        • Yes: 17 No: Minority.
      • Proposal for the wording: Add Section X: “1. The Auditors guarantee that the resources of the Association are used according to the mission and that transparency is maintained. 2. The Auditors are appointed by the Council for a term of two years. They cannot be members of the Council or the Secretariat or hold positions in a Chapter member of the Association.”
        • Yes: 25
  • A11: No umbrella organization
    • Short explanation by Simon Studinsky
    • Explanation: “all other aspects” can make chapters unindependent.
    • Kulac: Proposal: Replace A1,5 :”and to serve as an umbrella organization for the Chapters in all other aspects not mentioned before.” by “and to serve as an umbrella organization for the Chapters."
    • Delphine: We don’t want to make the council less and less powerful and smaller
    • Sebastian: The sense of A1,5 is to be able to expand the topics.
    • Proposal: Strike A/1/5 completely.
        • Yes: 6 No: 14
  • A12: No common interests
    • Explanation by Simon: Common interests are critical.
      • Delphine: We all have common interests.
      • Proposal: Strike A,1,8 – Yes: 6 No: 20
        • No vote
      • Proposal: Add “member” in A,1,8. – Discussion
        • No vote
      • Delphine: “Chapter” is used in very different ways, we cannot only change this here.
      • Short discussion about this.
      • Proposal: Change “chapter” to “member” were appropriate
        • Yes: 19 No: 0
  • A 13: Veto / limit on dues
        • Withdrawn
  • A 14: “Size of the Secretariat”
  • Explanation by Sebastian: Agrees with Lodewijk that this is not important enough to discuss it today.
    • Proposal: Change it as proposed.
        • Yes: 15 No: 5
  • A 15: Majority for amendments
        • Withdrawn
  • A 16: Languages
    • Explanation by Daniel Bravo: Everybody has to be informed – multilingual.
      • Charles: Problem: This can cause a lot of work.
      • Delphine: Why this four languages? Better: Commitment to find languages so that every chapter can participate
      • Khan: English should be enough, this can just cause work without helping every language.
      • WMAR: We don’t want to change the working language but just define official languages
      • Osmar: We just want languages that gives every chapter the opportunity to participate and engage more people. We’re tired of WMF using English.
      • Stanislav: proposes six other languages.
      • Kristin: If we want to have opinions from non-English-speakers we must bring an interpretor.
      • Jeremy: What is an official language? What is required? No clear definition.
      • WMIT: This is not a problem, the representative of the chapters can translate.
      • Tomer: Suggestion: The council will hire translators, so translation will be done.
      • Proposal I: Do we agree that writing something in the charta concerning multilingualism:
        • Yes: 16 No: 10
      • Proposal: Add: “The Council conducts its business in public and publishes minutes of its meetings, votes, etc., unless the subjects matter requires confidentiality. The council makes a commitment to multilingual engagement in its internal and external communication.
        • Yes: 24
  • A 17: Combined vote
    • Introduction by Ziko: Two different amendments on this topic: A4 and A17.
    • Explanation: to be added by Ziko.
        • A4: 24
        • A17: 2

2.) ELECTION

  • Explanation by Sebastian:
    • First meeting at Wikimania
    • Interim “Secretary” (2 “official” people) until Wikimania: Prepare a program plan.
    • Sebastian: The conditions for this work can change after Wikimania.
    • Proposal: Sebastian: Specifics for interim Secretary General.
          • Facilitate creation of a program plan and budget for 2012/13
          • Present plan and budget at council meeting in Washington DC
          • Follow up with chapters on joining and selecting a representative
          • Call for nominations / candidates for first “regular” secretariat.
          • Prepare first council meeting
          • No compensation will be provided for services, costs will be reimbursed.
            • Yes: 24
      • Proposal: Not having an interim-SG having an interim-committee of four that takes over the specifics of the general.
        • Yes: 19 No: 1
      • Delphine: We have to make clear who is candidate for a committee before we can decide whether we want to build a committee or elect a general.
          • Candidates:
              • Tomer, Manuel, Craig, Frieda, Damian
  • Discussion about the election-system.
    • Ziko: Proposal: One interim secretary-general is building the team. This is Tomer.
        • Yes: 26 No: 0
        • Tomer accepts.

3.) SIGN THE AGREEMENT

  • 23 are in favour of this.
  • 4 are not ready to join yet.

Difference: Members // State of support.