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Meetings/2011-04-20

From Wikimedia Canada
Province [1] Time zone
British Columbia 15:00 PDT
Alberta 16:00 MDT
Saskatchewan 16:00 CST
Manitoba 17:00 CDT
Ontario, Quebec 18:00 EDT
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island
19:00 ADT
Newfoundland and Labrador 19:30 NDT
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A board meeting is planned on April 20, 2011 at 18:00 EDT (Ottawa time). The meeting will take place electronically via Webex. All directors will receive an email to their Wikimedia Canada email account with instructions on how to connect to the meeting. You will be also able to read read the minutes in the days following the meeting. Alan Walker will send out the invites for the Webex meeting and James Heilman will chair the meeting.

Attendees

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Only members of the board of directors may attend and those invited to give input. To be able to participate, you must provide your Skype username and we will contact you minutes before 18:00 EDT (Ottawa time) on April 20, 2011. If you can not use Skype, please email Alan.ca with your phone number to arrange a call.

Agenda

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  1. Declaration of Conflict of Interest.
  2. James and Alan - Q & A / Report Chapters Conference in Berlin (10 minutes)
  3. Alan Walker - Report on Web Site (5 minutes)
  4. Jeffery Nichols - Report on Membership (5 minutes)
  5. Ray Saintonge - Report on Finance (5 minutes)
  6. Benoit Rochon - Report on French Communications (5 minutes)
  7. Jit Lahiry - Report on legal obligations / letter to Industry Canada (5 minutes)
  8. Jeffery Nichols - Elect board members to officer positions. (5 minutes)
  9. Benoit Rochon - Change of provider for the mailing list. (Mailman vs. Google Groups) (5 minutes)
  10. Alan Walker - Wikimedia Start-up grant application for basic operations. (10 minutes)
  11. James Heilman - Discussion of projects and potential projects (10 - 15 min)
  12. James Heilman - Schedule of next 2 meetings (May 25, June 29 @ 19:00 Ottawa Time)

Minutes

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  • Date: 2011 April 20, 18:00 EDT
  • Location: Teleconference
  • In attendance:
    • Board members:
      1. Zana Gordon
      2. James Heilman
      3. Alan Walker
      4. Jeffery Nichols
      5. Bonoit Rochon
      6. Ray Saintonge
    • Observers:
      1. Prosenjit Lahiry

Text of minutes

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Approval of minutes

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  • James Heilman motioned to approve the minutes of the meeting of 16 March 2011.
    • Seconded by Zana Gordon.
    • Unanimous agreement.
    • Motion passed.

Declaration of conflicts of interest

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  • James Heilman declared that he has a conflict of interest with WikiProject Medicine.

Report on chapters conference in Berlin

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  • Alan Walker reported that he and James Heilman went to Berlin and met a large number of other chapters. He believes that this has helped with the chapter approval process.
  • Alan Walker reported that Delphine Ménard is writing a letter to the board of trusties recommending Wiki Canada for chapter status.

Report on website

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  • Alan Walker reported that the website is receiving approximately 25 unique visits per day, but 98% of those visitors leave after front page. Steps are being taken to investigate this.

Report on membership

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  • Jeffery Nichols reported that as of last count we have 25 paying members, and that those members were acquired without any kind of membership drive outside of the corporate website.
  • He also reported that before we do a membership drive, we would need to list the benefits of membership and create a new membership signup form.

Report on finance

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  • Ray Saintonge reported that our one bank statement showed a balance of $0.37.
  • It was noted that the PayPal account has a balance of $226.44.

Report on French communications

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  • The museum project has been replaced with a "Wikimedia takes Montreal" project, which is still in development.
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  • Prosenjit Lahiry reported that:
    1. Industry Canada gave two suggestions on our bylaws:
      1. The bylaws must specify the quorum number of teleconference meetings, and
      2. There are specific requirements related to the auditor that must be met.
    2. The annual filing deadline is at the end of June. This filing includes a $30 fee. It also requires that we provide information about the new board members.
    3. To apply for charitable status, we need information about the directors. We also need to decide how much to make public.

Ratification of board members to officer positions

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  • Alan Walker nominated: Ray Saintonge for treasurer, James Heilman for president, and Jeffery Nichols for secretary.
  • James Heilman nominated Alan Walker for vice-president.
  • Unanimous agreement.

Discussion about change of provider for the mailing list

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  • Benoit Rochon reported that some contributors to the mailing list were upset about the switch to Google Groups.
  • This was discussed on both the old and new mailing lists.
  • James Heilman motioned to continue to use Google Groups.
    • Seconded by Alan Walker.
    • Unanimous agreement.
    • Motion passed.

Discussion about Wikimedia start-up grant application for basic operations

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  • Alan Walker presented the application, which has been discussed online prior to the meeting.
  • Ray Saintonge inquired about why the grant was for a 20-month period and why a higher-price security certificate was needed for the website.
    • Alan Walker answered that the grant is intended to last until the end of 2012 and that the certification is standard for websites that ask for personal information and money.
  • James Heilman motioned to submit the grant to the Wikimedia Foundation.
    • Seconded by Jeffery Nichols.
    • Unanimous agreement.
    • Motion passed.

Discussion of projects and potential projects

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  • James Heilman asked for the discussion about getting medical students involved in editing be rescheduled.

Schedule of next 2 meetings

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  • The next two meetings are scheduled for 25 May and 29 June.

Verification

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  • James called the meeting to a close at 18:45 EDT.
  • Minutes verified by Jeffery Nichols, secretary.
  1. Please note that the provinces in this table are for guidance only, since some have two time zones (e.g., The Magdalen Islands and the south-eastern part of British Columbia are not in the same time zone as their provinces). Please refer to your time zone instead of your province.