2014-07-02 Wikimeet Brussels

Minutes of Meeting 2 July 2014

Present: Robin, Geert, Dimi, Romaine, Alberto, Maarten, Lionel

Location: Place de Londres 6, Brussels

Agenda:

News from AffCom about Chapter Recognition

In August 2013 we have filed a request for Chapter recognition. As the number of Chapters increases the Foundation wants every Chapter to be viable. They decided in December that a new Chapter should stay an informal User group for 3 years. But they agreed that a Chapter in creation phase could have a case by case derogation. A user group status for Wikimedia Belgium would not be acceptable because the impossibility to receive grants and sign contracts with official institutions and government. In addition to that there is a problem of representation for the name/logo/community visibility. Therefore in March 2014 we sent a registered letter to the AffCom to request them to reconsider our Chapter request. In June 2014 the AffCom decided to propose the Wikimedia Belgium Chapter creation to the Foundation Board, see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Wikimedia_Belgium_-_June_2014

Steps after approval

We could use the address of the shared office space of WMDE in the Troonstraat as our first official address.

Once the Wikimedia Foundation Board agrees the Founding of the Wikimedia Belgium Chapter, we can organise our founding meeting. Using the list on the website and the "General WMBE mailinglist", interested founding members will be invited to join the founding event.

Anybody present on the Founding meeting can be a founding person. In addition to that the Founding document will be available for signature in the shared office space in the weeks before the Founding meeting. Any founder has to register his name, firstname, and complete address.

There was discussion on the best way to select the initial board. There is consensus that the organisation should be as open and accessible as possible. To allow a practical preparation of the founding process and to make sure that the founding board members are fully aware of the existing legal documents (eg. statutes), we propose to select the community members who actively participated discussing the statutes and the founding of the association. Board members have to register their name, firstname, complete address, birth place, and birth date.

To avoid an "incrowd feeling" amongst the members, the first Board meeting will decide to organize the first general assembly to conduct the election of a regular board within 2 or 3 months after founding.

The founding meeting (considered as a General Assembly) should decide on the amount of the first membership fee. It was felt as necessary that members should pay their membership fee before, or at the beginning of the first real General Assembly;

Activities after founding

Email domain, and email user creation. Question: who could get an email domain username?

Usage of the mail lists

All communication to our users should flow through the email list. The advantage being that an automatic archive is created. Serious issue is that confidential information is available through Google Search! For the Board a separate restricted list will be created.

Wikimania event in London

6-10 August 2014 - Wikimania in London

Wiki Loves Monuments

Romaine proposes to organise WLM 2014, to ensure the continuity of the activity. There is a proposal to remove the uplink for monuments which have already a photograph, in order to encourage photo shooting missing images. Romaine and Geert will contact each other to agree on a task list + planning.

Cooperations and Institutions coordination

Dimi proposes that we should complete the page to list all potential collaboration with institutions, government, associations, foundations, etc. We should mention: the name, goal, contact person, and other useful information.