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 ...?)

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.

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.

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 14: “Size of the Secretariat”
Explanation by Sebastian: Agrees with Lodewijk that this is not important enough to discuss it today.

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.

2.) ELECTION

- - 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

Difference: Members // State of support.