Meetings/2016-11-29
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Meeting Information[edit]
- Location: Online
- Date: November 29, 2016
- Time: 18:15 (EST)
Participants[edit]
- Benoit Rochon (President)
- JP Béland (Vice-President)
- Jeffery Nichols (Secretary)
- David Fourney (Treasurer)
- Ha-Loan Phan
- James Heilman
- Absent
- Patrick Paul
- Philippe-Olivier Daniel
Minutes[edit]
- Meeting opened at: 18:15 EST
- Meeting chaired by: JP Béland
- Minutes: JP motions to accept the minutes of the previous Board Meeting as written. James seconds. Nothing to blackout. Minutes updated with info from Treasurer. No opposition, motion accepted.
- Agenda: JP motions to accept the agenda. Benoit seconds. No opposition, motion accepted.
Standing Items[edit]
Membership Update[edit]
- Secretary
One new member since the last meeting, bringing total to 34. No report last meeting, but two expiries with no update since then. One is about to expire before next meeting.
Budget Update[edit]
- Treasurer
5 transactions on PayPal since last meeting, one of them is a membership renewal. Currently, our PayPal is just over 350 CAD. Bank statement: CAD 23,819.40. All of this is committed.
Old Business - Due this meeting[edit]
French PayPal donation page & language link[edit]
- Treasurer
Patrick Paul and David Fourney figured out the problem and fixed it. David noted accessibility issues for blind users and improved it, mostly buttons that were graphics. The page is now HTML5. The only open issue is that the pages in English and French are not responsive. Somebody will need to strip out the table layout and put in place a proper CSS layout. This issue will need to be looked at a later point, not a priority at this moment. David reported that WM France have separate pages for donations and membership. Our setup is more confusing being on only one page. It would simplify things to have two separate processes/pages for donation and “join us”. Something else to be looked at at the future. Suggestions about this are to be sent to David. Eventually, the intent is to bring those pages into our wiki framework so they are not separate floating elsewhere; a task for next year.
Primary account holder for PayPal[edit]
- Treasurer
- Jeffrey Nichols
Patrick Paul and David Fourney examined the PayPal issue. The PayPal business account right now is setup as a tree. The superuser for the whole thing right now is Alan Walker. Jeffrey Nichols and David Fourney both have their own views on this account, they can only see a few pages. Patrick Paul and David Fourney will sit with Alan Walker to figure out what paperwork PayPal will require to change the name of the superuser of the PayPal account. Task for the next couple weeks. About the address, right now there are two addresses on the PayPal account. The intent is to use the BAnQ address as a mailing address and leave the same business address in place. The business address will require a meeting of the members to change it from one province to another.
One option is to investigate the possibility to find a pro bono law firm in Ontario to be used as a business address. Task for Philippe-Olivier. David Fourney does not recommend changing province due to taxation, right now we fall under Ontario regulations which bring some more rules such as AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) by 2025. (fr:Accessibilité pour les personnes handicapées de l'Ontario) (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4672486)
Scan & upload corporate documents[edit]
- Secretary
All done, in the Google Docs folder.
Write welcome message[edit]
- Benoit Rochon
Done; he will share after the meeting. He will also write a thank you message for donating.
Access to Google App / G Suite[edit]
- Benoit Rochon
Benoit Rochon wants the Executive to have administrator access to G Suite. He will also work on archiving old documents, long term task, asking help from other board members to help. David Fourney received access from Patrick Paul as an administrator on G Suite. He discussed the file organization problem with Patrick Paul who is already working on that. Benoit Rochon will talk with him to work on that. Benoit Rochon mentioned issue with the distribution list “confidential” for the Board because he is not sure who actually received those emails. Adminship of David Fourney to be confirmed. More to follow at next meeting.
Transfer of the bank account[edit]
- Treasurer
Right now the documents are signed by all 4 board members and should be back at Montreal. Benoit Rochon will call RBC on Wednesday to confirm. He will confirm at next meeting.
Strategic Plan[edit]
- President
Wikimedia France is offering to write both the Strategic Plan and the annual plan grant (APG), working with some or at least one of us to have an overview of where we are and where we are going. It will be beside their regular hours, so it will be pro bono. They will write in French and we will need to translate it into English. Next step is to share the draft document with them and have them start.
David Fourney proposes to have a face to face Board meeting around February time frame in Montreal to discuss possible gaps, risks, goals, and how to reach them. The WMF supports face to face Board meeting in a Canadian city at least once a year. David Fourney will draft a budget/plan to submit a grant request. Need a decision for a date that will work for most people and who from Western Canada that wants/can come in, so we can figure out cost. Right now tentative date is the weekend of February 18.
NetFirms and server space[edit]
- David Fourney
David Fourney and Patrick Paul discussed the issues around NetFirms and server space. Right now we own 3 domains through NetFirms, wikimedia.ca, wikimediacanada.com and wikilovesmonuments.ca. All 3 expire at different dates in 2017. Patrick suggested that he may be able to find a lower cost domain name registration service, but current cost of $13 is pretty low. Currently, hosting is being paid personally by Patrick at CAD $2.99 a month. Patrick mentioned that this dedicated server can support the CiviCRM system and it sits on a very large server farm, which is very secure and crash resistant.
Benoit Rochon propose that his family business, Fraxion, can do the hosting for a donation or for $1 a year to avoid zero-cost hosting. Fraxion can also manage domain name for the cost of domain name. This option will allow more control. David mentions that we need a clear contract with Fraxion even if it’s $1 a year, detailing what they will provide, such as domain name registration and space. We do not require much space since the wiki pages are hosted by the WMF. Patrick Paul will identify our needs before the next meeting. Benoit Rochon will recuse himself from discussions on this topic from now on because of conflict of interest.
Old Business - Update needed[edit]
Financial rules[edit]
- Treasurer
Tabled to next meeting.
Mailing lists domain name[edit]
- Benoit Rochon
No update because we do not manage our own domain name. Will be tabled until the server issue is resolved.
Financial statement[edit]
- Treasurer
Financial Statement was due April 2016. David proposes to have a separate meeting with president and vice-president and pro bono accountants to solve this issue. They will meet before next meeting and have a plan.
Bénévole d’affaires accountant[edit]
- Ha-Loan
- Philippe-Olivier
Last week, the Bénévoles d’affaires Committee interviewed 3 candidates, we retained the services of two of them: Guillaume Lafrance and Zedekia-Elijah Miseda. Ha-Loan gave a brief introduction of both.
Motion: David motions to have the Board’s permission to share all financial documentation with Guillaume Lafrance and Zedekia-Elijah Miseda, the two pro bono accountants from Bénévoles d’affaires, after they sign a Confidentiality Agreement. JP seconds. No opposition. Motion accepted.
New business[edit]
Board email reading frequency[edit]
- Vice President
The current policy is to have a week to read our emails. JP stated that it does not make sense since we are meeting every two weeks. Benoit propose two days to read email. The Board agreed with this new frequency to read email. David propose that Doodle should be up for at least a week. Secretary agreed to the new Doodle time frame and to post the closing date at the time of closure. Jeffery will check with Patrick and POD to make sure the proposed times work for the next one.
Are we a soliciting corporate donations?[edit]
- Jeffery Nichols
When we are collecting more than $10k/yr in donations, we need to change our status with the government. We received more than that for the Atikamekw project. Jeffery will update our status with Industry Canada. Effect is minimal and doable. He will update the Board at the next meeting.
Discussion points and announcements[edit]
Nil
Closing[edit]
JP motions to close the meeting. David seconds. Meeting closed at 19:20.
Jeffery will send a Doodle to schedule the next board meeting within the next week.
New action items / deliverables[edit]
| Action | Who | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Create a donation/membership page(s) within our wiki framework | Treasurer | 2017-05-31 |
| Get PayPal primary account holder to the Treasurer | Treasurer | 2016-12-16 |
| Confirm David Fourney has full adminship of G Suite | David Fourney | 2016-12-16 |
| Confirm who are the members of confidential alias email | Patrick Paul | 2016-12-16 |
| Confirm bank account is transferred | Benoit Rochon | 2016-12-16 |
| Organize face to face Board Meeting in February in Montreal | David Fourney | 2017-02-03 |
| Define Wikimedia Canada’s server needs | Patrick Paul | 2016-12-16 |
| Identify the process and requirements for a soliciting corporation | Secretary | 2016-12-16 |