Meetings/2011-09-28

Province	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 Sept 28, 2011 at 18:00 EDT (Ottawa time). The meeting will take place electronically via Webex at Wikimedia Canada's Webex Site. 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 the minutes in the days following the meeting. Alan Walker has sent out the meeting invites by email, James Heilman will chair the meeting.

Attendees

Only members of the board of directors may attend and those invited to give input. If you have difficulties using the Webex conferencing service, please contact Webex support directly in advance of the meeting at 1-866-229-3239.

• James Heilman
• Benoit Rochon
• Alan Walker
• Ray Saintonge

Agenda

• Charity status (Jit)
• Website ownership (James)
• Outcomes of Wikipedia Takes Montreal (Benoit)
• Upcoming events (James)
• Finances (Ray)
• Method of meeting (WebEx again)
• Introduce need for 2012 strategic plan as a requirement for funding. (Alan - 20 minutes)

Minutes

• Date: 28 September 2011, 18:00 EDT
• Location: Teleconference
• In attendance:
  • Board members:
    1. James Heilman
    2. Jeffery Nichols
    3. Bonoit Rochon
    4. Ray Saintonge
    5. Alan Walker
  • Observers:
    1. Jit Lahiry

Text of minutes

Charity status

• Jit reported that the application for charity status is nearing completion. There is a need to add Wikimedia Canada's relationship to the Wikimedia Foundation. There is a problem with vagueness in the application as it is. There is still some information from board members that is required.
• Jit reported that some upcoming legislation might affect our application.
• After the application is sent to the government, it might take up to twelve months to be approved.

Website ownership

• Alan reported that the transfer of website ownership is almost complete.
• If Ray is charged any fee for the transfer, he will be reimbursed.

Outcome of Wikipedia Takes Montreal

• Benoit reported that the event was successful. It had over one hundred attendees despite a hurricane. There is a discussion about doing another one in Quebec City next year.
• Alan congratulated the valunteer work of Benoit's parents.
• ACTION: Benoit will write a short summary of the event, including the number of photos added to Wikimedia Commons.

Upcoming events

• James reported on Healthcare Information For All By 2015, which hosts conferences about the free distribution of health information. James will attend one conference to determine whether it would be in our interests to host one about creative commons licences. Hosting would cost $2300.
• James reported on a science journal that could host peer-reviewed Wikipedia articles. This would give Wikipedia contributors credit that is recognized by academics and would give peer review to some articles. James would like enough funding to partially fund the publication of ten articles at a rate of aromatically $1000 per article.

Method of meetings

• Alan disputed the resolution from the 24 August 2011 meeting regarding WebEx.
• It was agreed that the next meeting will use Skype to allow board members the opportunity to compare the two systems. The issue will be debated again after that meeting.

2012 Strategic plan

• Alan said that the board needs to have a discussion about its overarching goals and how those goals translate to projects for the upcoming year.
• There was a discussion about how to combine this discussion with the proposed in-person board meeting.

Schedule of next 2 meetings

• The next two meetings are scheduled for 22 September at 20:00 EDT and 19 October at 18:00 EDT.

Verification

• James called the meeting to a close at 19:15 EDT.
• Minutes verified by Jeffery Nichols, secretary.