[Foundation-l] Report board meeting in Florida 6-7 of october

Thu Oct 11 12:34:57 UTC 2007

Christophe Henner wrote:
> Thanks Anthere for this first mail.
> 
> There's no mention of the financial audit. Is it on going or not started
> yet?

It is not mentionned because it was not on the agenda :-)
The audit is ongoing. The auditors started their field work, then it was 
suspended in the expectation of information still missing. I am not sure 
when they come back. Next monday ? or the one after ?
What is certain is that I doubt Oleta had the time to gather the docs 
when the office was populated with all board members and entire staff :-)

> and will the budget will be public? Or at least a really simple one to know
> how much the Foundation is spending on specific items.

A simplified high level budget will be. I do not know if it is planned 
that the tech team provide a more detailed budget (tech department still 
has the largest budget part by far :-)).

> Thanks again :)
> 
> On 11/10/2007, Florence Devouard <anthere at anthere.org> wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> Time to give you news of the activities of the Foundation.
>> The board and the staff of WMF were all in Florida in the past few days.
>> I was in the office on thursday and friday, largely to meet and talk
>> with Oleta, the bookkeeper, and to prepare the board meeting, which
>> occured during the week end.
>> Monday was a day dedicated board+staff. Tuesday and wenesday were staff
>> days.
>>
>>
>> First, for those who missed the story, the office will very soon move to
>> San Francisco. In the next few weeks, Sue will look for an office over
>> there, interview candidates for various positions and moving will start
>> soon after. At latest, the office in St Petersbourg will be closed end
>> of january. As you may guess, unfortunately, some staff members will not
>> follow us there (do not ask me to cite names, I am not sure everyone
>> 100% made up their mind, nor that they wish the information to be
>> announced now). So, this meeting was also the last time we were meeting
>> with some staff members who will soon part from WMF. Over the past few
>> months, bonds were obviously created, so, there was of course a bit of
>> nostalgia.
>> On monday evening, the board plus staff interested went to visit the
>> colo (the servers will stay in Tampa, they will not move to SF). We took
>> many pictures, including the very neat area of servers bought since Rob
>> started working for us, the very messy area of the old servers (some old
>> ones from back to 2003) and the pile of main databases servers
>> (yeah, Wikipedia entirely hold in 40 cm height).
>> The colo visit was followed by a little good-bye party.
>>
>> -----------
>>
>> Now, report regarding work in itself :-)
>>
>> The agenda of the board was pretty dense, so I will try not to go in too
>> much details. Part of the reporting is copied from the board minutes
>> made by Erik.
>>
>> Present: Frieda, Kat, Erik, Jan-Bart, Anthere, Jimmy, Sue, Mike in some
>> discussions
>>
>> Saturday started by an executive report from Sue, and a report from Mike
>> regarding our trademarks. There was some extensive discussion in
>> particular centered on the organizational chart and its likely future
>> evolution. Some positions will be opened very soon (either
>> new positions, or replacement of staff not moving to SF). I will not go
>> into details here, the announcement of job openings should come very
>> shortly, and you will be informed at that moment.
>>
>> We moved on the approval of various policies.
>> One is actually already implemented since last december, at the last
>> fundraising. But whilst cleaning up records, I realised it was never
>> formally approved, so here it is.
>>
>> http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Donor_Privacy_Policy&oldid=22406
>>
>> A second policy regarding travels was also passed. The first was about
>> the conditions of reimbursement. This one deals with the check and
>> balances (any person travelling on behalf of the Foundation, should get
>> an approval from another person from the Foundation. This policy fix
>> these terms.
>> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Travel_Approval_Policy
>>
>> A third policy, called "Code of Conduct" was passed. It clarifies the
>> obligations of the staff and board members in terms of behavior toward
>> their peers. Hmmm, this policy generated a LOT of discussion, in
>> particular because it tends to be SO american ;-)
>> However, we considered that past events made it absolutely mandatory to
>> clarify what was acceptable from what was NOT acceptable.
>> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct_Policy
>>
>> Mona, our financial expert, started working on various financial
>> policies, but we agreed that those should be approved later on by the
>> audit committee. I expect several of those to be on the agenda of next
>> board meeting.
>>
>> Afternoon was dedicated to
>> First, a 2 hours discussion with Larry Biddle (look up
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry Biddle) on fundraising strategy.
>> Larry is helping us on our fall fundraiser, and it has revealed very
>> useful so far.
>> Second, a presentation from Erik, regarding communication architecture.
>> We agreed that the Board should focus on high level principles. That
>> development of a statement of principles on tool use & practices (e.g.
>> open source vs. proprietary tools) would be desirable. And that revision
>> of current practices was not a high operational priority.
>>
>> We also took some time to officially create an ED committee (this is the
>> second board committee). The membership is Jan-Bart, Kat ? and Anthere.
>>   The roles of this committee are all related to the Executive Director.
>> It may be 1) to find and hire an ED, 2) to provide an annual assesment
>> of the ED work, 3) to negotiate working conditions, 4) to fire him etc...
>>
>> ---------
>>
>> Present: Frieda, Kat, Erik, Jan-Bart, Anthere, Sue in some discussions
>>
>> First part of sunday morning was dedicated to board membership.
>> The length of term of appointed board member was discussed, but not
>> changed. It consequently stays one year.
>> (Appointed and elected members can be re-appointed or re-elected with no
>> limitations).
>> We also decided that board stability was one of our prior concern.
>> Frieda joined recently and is still quite a bit in the learning mode,
>> and a member will be replaced. Each time board membership is changed, we
>> need to adjust to the new person, which is rather energy draining. None
>> of us would consequently consider a board expansion at this stage.
>> Decision on election 2008 was also postponed to next Board meeting.
>>
>> Jimbo and Jan-Bart were both reappointed for a one year term.
>>
>> Michael was not reappointed. His term will end 1st of december.
>>
>> We held officers elections. Hmmm, we actually dealt the cards, and
>> picked up the same than last year. So, I stay chair, Erik is still our
>> executive secretary and Jan-Bart our vice-chair.
>>
>> At this point, some should wonder "hmmm, and what about the treasurer ?"
>>
>> Yeah, what about the treasurer... well, the treasurer term ends up 1st
>> of november, at which date, we'll be out of treasurer.
>> Mona and I worked in the past few weeks on a "job description" document
>> to find a new treasurer. To be fair, given the state of the organization
>> now, much bigger than a year ago, and expected to grow even more, we
>> really need an expert on financial matters. We have reached a stage when
>> we just can not simply nominate one of us treasurer. We need someone to
>> truely provide financial high level oversight.
>> So, what we did was to draft this job description and qualification
>> requirements. What is intended is to polish it in the next few days,
>> then post it publicly, here, on the website, and also on other charity
>> venues.
>> However, this quest could not be handled uniquely by Mona and I. So, to
>> organize this quest, we created a Treasurer Search workgroup. Current
>> membership is Kat, Erik and I. Erik is the chair of that group.
>> More to come on the treasurer search soon.
>>
>> We also discussed (but not yet officially approved) the principle of
>> imposing a delay of 6 months before a staff member can be a candidate
>> for board election, as well as 6 months before a board member can fill
>> up a staff position.
>>
>> There was also a brief discussion about the advisory board, and
>> essentially it boils down to "larger discussion at next board meeting".
>>
>> We then had a two hours discussion with Ruth-Ellen, a consultant, prior
>> spoke-person at the CBC. Topic of the discussion: Media Training 101
>> (aka, how to deal with the very nasty or very intrusive questions of our
>> friends the journalists).
>> This presentation was made to all board members on sunday. Then to the
>> staff on monday. During monday, Ruth-Ellen also had individual sessions
>> with board members.
>>
>> This was actually the first time we ever included in the agenda, a
>> session meant to "educate" us. I think it was really worth it.
>>
>>
>> The afternoon was two folds. The first part was about budget. The second
>> was related to chapters.
>>
>> Hmmm, budget.
>> The budget was built by Mona, based on a feedback of all staff members,
>> plus I for the board. It was not easy...
>> First because there was no budget last year, second because we are
>> growing so fast that our needs also grow very very fast.
>>
>> Budget discussion occured with consultant Mona Venkateswaran, resulting
>> in approval of the FY 2007-2008 overall budget value.
>> This is the first properly planned budget in the history of the
>> Wikimedia Foundation. It is understood to be tentative and contain a
>> significant margin of error. Budget will be refined as data capture
>> improves.
>> We also asked that more granular capture of accounting categories was
>> needed, e.g. Wikimania.
>>
>>
>> We ended sunday with a large discussion. Sue Gardner began the
>> discussion by presenting a possible strategy to clarify the relationship
>> between WMF and Wikimedia Chapters. The strategy outlines 4 types of
>> relationships, essentially ranging from business development with
>> revenue sharing over traditional non-profit activities to informal
>> affilitations.
>> Far ranging discussion resulted, hmmm, with obvious agreement resulting.
>> We agreed in the end that the discussion stage was still too early for a
>> Board/Chapters Retreat to be likely to result in meaningful output.
>> Therefore, December Chapter Retreat is cancelled. We also agreed on the
>> need for a systematic process of gathering feedback from the chapters on
>> their expectations & perceived purpose should precede a strategy draft
>> from WMF about the relationship with chapters.
>>
>>
>> I hope this will feed your thoughts for a few days. Other emails will
>> follow to inform you further in the next few weeks. A more in-depth
>> discussion will also occur with the chapter members. Resolutions will be
>> posted when finalized.
>>
>> See also
>>
>> *http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Meetings
>> *http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolutions
>> *http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Policies
>> *http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Messages
>>
>> Best
>>
>> Florence
>> Chair Wikimedia Foundation
>>
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