Dear all,
Just to update you on our application for recognition by the taxman of our charitable status.
I have spoken to the HMRC Charities Unit to understand why there is such a delay with our application. They are currently struggling with an increased workload arising from the reduction in tax rates last year; the amount of tax that charities could reclaim was similarly reduced, so the government introduced a temporary "transitional relief" so that charities' income would not be affected in one go. Unfortunately this means that every claim for Gift Aid now has to be manually processed which has created this ever increasing backlog.
The Unit are currently taking six weeks to process routine payments and 11 weeks to process mail regarding new applications. In our case, the response that we sent earlier this month has been put at the bottom of the pile and we expect it to be looked at some time in June. If they have further queries on our application this is likely to delay it further.
We are looking at options to complain about this situation and also options for accelerating the timescale for applying direct to the Charity Commission - which needs £5,000 of pledged income first.
I will keep everyone informed of any developments with this.
regards,
Andrew Turvey
Company Secretary
Wikimedia UK
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Company Limited by Guarantee
Registered in England and Wales, Registered Number 6741827
Registered Office: 23 Cartwright Way, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1RL
One of our tellers has unfortunately had to pull out, so the Board is
looking for a replacement. Is anyone able to volunteer?
We have one teller, so if no-one comes forward we'll just appoint a
second person to count the votes at the AGM. However, it would be
ideal if we could get a second teller beforehand, so that they can
receive the electronic votes as they come in.
Please let me know if you can help us this way.
Regards,
Andrew Turvey
Secretary
Wikimedia UK
2009/3/12 Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com>:
> At 22:17 +0000 12/3/09, David Gerard wrote:
>>2009/3/12 Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com>:
>>> And was anybody asking the BBC about the use of Open Standards?
>>The main problem in the discussions I had was there wasn't a whole lot
>>we could do for each other, except convince the BBC to release
>>something - ANYTHING - under a proper free licence. This was almost
>>impossible, for various obvious and stupid reasons.
> Reasons such as this?
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/creativearchive/licence/full_licence.shtml
Nothing so specific. The main problem was that no-one could work out
how to get an actual free content license past the lawyers. We're
talking about an industry where CC by-nc-nd counts as radical
openness.
"Please release just ONE GODDAMN IMAGE."
"I'll take it to the lawyers, but I don't think they'll like it ..."
- d.
2009/3/12 Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com>:
> And was anybody asking the BBC about the use of Open Standards?
The main problem in the discussions I had was there wasn't a whole lot
we could do for each other, except convince the BBC to release
something - ANYTHING - under a proper free licence. This was almost
impossible, for various obvious and stupid reasons.
- d.
This blog post (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2009/03/interesting_stuff_an_open_bb…)
and picture (http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996583811@N01/3345242414/) from
a BBC event seem very interesting and promising! Maybe we should consider
contacting them, as a chapter, to see if there is anything we can start to
do together. The picture shows that they seem to want to encourage their
experts to contribute and forming a Wikipedia club, also licensing BBC
content for Wikipedia so to me it sounds like something that we should be
following up on and offering as much assistance as possible both on the
individual level but more importantly as a chapter.
Thoughts?
Regards
Mark
We're hoping to make the business side of the AGM as quick as
possible, but does anyone have any resolutions they would like to be
put to the meeting?
At the moment the resolutions are:
1. Setting the maximum number of Directors to seven
2. Appointing those people elected under the Election Rules as
directors
3. Setting the Membership fee to £12 per year and £6 for concessions
4. Entrenchment of Election Rules
5. Adoption of Membership Rules
6. Entrenchment of the Chapter Agreement
(entrenchment is a legal term which means a future Board would be
unable to repeal or revise them without the permission of the
membership)
Members will be able to vote by email for these if they prefer, or in
person at the AGM. Full details are set out at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetings/2009_AGM/Resolutions.
Also, does anyone want to propose any amendment to any of these
resolutions?
Please let me know if you have anything you would like to raise.
regards,
Andrew Turvey
Company Secretary
Wikimedia UK
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited.
Wiki UK Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is at 23
Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL, United Kingdom.
Hi all,
Unfortunately we've drawn a blank with finding a suitable free venue in Birmingham, so we've decided to move to plan B, which is Manchester.
Does anyone have any contacts - for instance at the University - which would enable them to book a room for free on Saturday 25th or Sunday 26th April?
If so please could you reply to the list or to me directly asap.
regards,
Andrew
On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 11:45 PM, Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com> wrote:
>
> Errr.... I thought notice of an AGM was a legal... notice?
>
Well, presumably only as soon as it is finalized and approved by the board.
Michael
--
Michael Bimmler
mbimmler(a)gmail.com
Reminder: There is a board meeting on IRC tonight at 8:30pm.
My main reason for this email, though, is to unilaterally announce a
meeting to discuss the Wikimania bid before the board meeting (we
tried doing so after the board meeting before but we were all asleep
by then), so that meeting will be at 8pm. Hopefully enough people will
get this email and turn up, if they don't then we'll have to schedule
a meeting with a little more advance notice!
Hi, this is a reminder to all that a meetup is being held in Manchester this
Saturday at 1pm. Details are found at the following page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Manchester_4
Hope to see you there!
--
Alex
(User:Majorly)