Wikimedia South Africa/Annual General Meeting 2012

Wikimedia ZA - Annual general meeting (1 September 2012)

Attendees

• Blessing Chataira (10:00)
• David Robert Lewis
• Douglas Scott
• Dumisani Ndubane (10:30)
• Isla Haddow-Flood
• Lourie Pieterse
• Maarten Deneckere
• Mohau Monaledi (10:30)

Proxy

• David Morris (via Lourie)
• David Richfield (via Dumisani)
• Kerryn McKay (via Douglas)

Note: We did also received proxy forms from Ian and Charlene, both invalid however. Ian made Lourie his proxy, but at the time Lourie already accepted to be the proxy of David Morris. Charlene's proxy missed the deadline as specified by the bylaws.

Agenda

1. Report back from Wikimania.
2. Update on current state of Wiki Loves Monuments.
3. Filling of the vacant board seats by vote on candidates.
4. Resolution of conflict amongst board members, possibly including a vote of confidence on current directors.
5. Proposal of code of discipline for board members.
6. Proposal of membership fee structure.
7. Discussion of procedures around WMZA's banking, spending, and authorizations.
8. Discussion on national membership drive.
9. Call for outreach projects for consideration by WMZA for 2012/3.
10. Finalization and signing of the MOU between WMZA and Africa Centre.

Additions

1. Outreach with a basic purpose. Starting Wikimedia training in the schools of townships to get grassroutes education to the people. Include this in the bid for Wikimania. Relevance of offline wiki editing and how do do this. Introduction to WikiAfrica primary project, harnessing technology (Wikipedia zero, hotspots, etc.).

Topics

Original etherpad to be found here: http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/T2gSsFJW1y.

Report back from Wikimania

Four members attended Wikimania in Washington D.C. and Douglas is to supply the photographs to give a visual idea of the conference. We spoke to Asaf about budget applications, the alliance with Africa Centre, and then we also spoked to Lodewijk of WMNL. Wikimedia ZA also discussed at length with people at the conference about the possibility of hosting Wikimania in 2014. This coincides with Design Capital 2014. Douglas has already proceeded by creating a sandbox, using the Haifa application. Dave suggested that we get a partnership with Equal Education. The focus is being set for after WLM. The idea could be to establish a per-emptive 'local' Wikimania on the Cape Flats. WMF uses Africa as a media selling-point, so we need to make use of it. Sandbox by Douglas: User:Discott/Wikimania_2014_bids/Cape_Town.

Membership drive

Use of banners on the projects. Having regular meetups so that the organisation has a central force. Meetups to occur in places with wifi, and that happens simultaneously in Cape Town and Joburg, and other sectors as they grow. Activating hackathons at universities, especially open society chapters and student chapters. Approach faculty and universities to open access, but also to include in the their course. Have regular meetups, such as once a month. Proposed the first Saturday morning of the month at 10:00 via technology or physically.

Membership fee

Set at R30 annual membership fee as a requirement, offering a sponsorship for free, allowing student and outreach programmes to join. Board members need to be paid up members. Lourie is biased against decimals and odd numbers (only prime are acceptable). Membership fee from 1st September. We are going to use CiviCRM to bring the community together and manage the membership.

WMZA and Africa Centre MOU

Isla explained the mechanics thereof. Also talks about grant management and the reporting thereof afterwards. MOU has been ammended to include WMZA's responsibility for financial and project reporting for the Wiki Loves Monuments project to Wikimedia Foundation. Agreement from meeting to sign the MOU with Africa Centre.

Proposal of code of discipline for board members

Conflict resolution should work in alignment with the Wikimedia community guidelines - to assume good faith and be bold. Over the next month, we will discuss the elements for resolution on Meta. Once we agree on a set amount of principles, they should get legalised and then add it to the bylaws and statutes. Create mechanisms to avoid conflict in order to stop people from leaving due to a perception of a negative environment.

Resolution of conflict amongst board members

Mohau explained the conflict between Lourie and Charlene. There was a general discussion about the level of aggressive and insulting communication that has come from Charlene to five members of the chapter over the last year (Grants: WM_ZA/Gauteng_meeting/Report/SMS). Dave talks about governance issues and vexatious issues that affect the organization. He asked if there was anything learnt that could change the situation. How can we draw on institutional memory to stop this from carrying on? Mohau answers saying that people were eager to move on and get beyond it and so decided to ignore the conflict. Mohau has been contacted by other chapters who have similar situations and give insight into how to deal with it and move on. To create these mechanisms from being put into place - not making someone so powerful, how do we decentralize power, how do we make sure there are active Wikipedians on the board who understand the processes and culture? Steps to remediate the conflict, any things learnt to avoid this in the future. Went towards a formal vote: who has confidence in Charlene as a board member? Results: 13 chapter members. 10 votes in total. 9 have no confidence. 1 abstention. According to article 13.1.3 of the statutes for Wikimedia ZA, Charlene Foster is removed from the board.

Filling of the vacant board seats by vote on candidates

With 3 spaces to be filled and 3 candidates put forward, a resolution was voted on by those present to accept all candidates (with the attending candidates abstaining). 13 members, 3 candidates abstentions, and 7 votes: unanimously passed.