2015-01-24 General Assembly
| APPROVED |
General Assembly (GA)
- Date: January 24, 2015
- Time: 14h00 - 18h00
- Venue: Avenue du Pérou 80 Perulaan, B1000 Brussels
- Excused: Dimi_z
The General Assembly of Wikimedia Belgium takes place January 24, 2015 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., in the premises of Transforma Bxl Avenue du Pérou 80 Perulaan, B1000 Brussels.
- Agenda
Introduction
Maarten explains the agenda and the of goal of the GA. The founding board was presented.
- Refused agenda points
- Lionel wanted to discuss the Internal rules of procedure (RIO).
Derek noted that only subjects on the GA agenda can be discussed. The agenda of the GA requires proactive Board approval and is communicated at least 8 days before the GA. Moreover only the Board can establish the content of the RIO. The GA can subsequently vote the RIO. The Board needs to write the RIO first; this activity will be added to the agenda of the next board meeting.
Matters related to membership
As per the statutes:
- Associate members are anybody wanting to participate in the activities of Wikimedia Belgium; they have no voting rights in the GA
- Associate members can only become effective member upon written member request, after being an associate member for at least 6 months, and after Board approval.
- Approval of new effective members
The organisation was founded by 8 effective members, of which there are 7 board members. As this is the first General Assembly since the founding of the organisation on 8 October 2014 5 additional effective members were accepted by the 4 present members of the Board at the beginning of the GA: Smile4ever, SPQRobin, Oreo Priest, Ste.caneva, Smiley.toerist
- Mission statement
On December 7, 2014, the board selected the following mission statement:
|
EN: Engaging people in free knowledge |
|---|
Everone agreed.
- Approve the membership fee
Maarten explains that there exist 2 types of membership:
- a complementary membership (free of charge) for everybody actively contributing to one of the Wikimedia projects
- a paying membership (of minimum 20 €) for anyone else wanting to support the organisation
Details about the financial account will be communicated later.
Everone agreed.
- Suspending and excluding members
There was a question about temporarily suspending members after some kind of abuse. This will be described in the RIO.
The board can decide to reject a membership request. The member has the right to appeal during the next GA.
- Statistics
There are currently 40 members.
| Region | Count |
|---|---|
| Vlaanderen | 19 |
| Brussel | 10 |
| Wallonie | 4 |
| International | 7 |
Gender: seems to confirm the gender gap of 10/90 as experienced amongst the Wikipedia editors...
- Men: 36
- Women: 4
Romaine is registering new users via OTRS. He is also using the membership list for e-mailing purposes. He commmunicates the list regularly/upon request to the secretary.
We apply privacy rules.
Matters related to the Board
- Voting for the first Board
Since we were only founded 3 months ago, there was no real voting session. The GA confirms their confidence in the current board (1 vote against). The current board is appointed for 2 years, according to the statutes. Board fuctions are decided amongst the Board members.
Financial report over 2014
We did not have a previous year since we were founded only 3 months ago. The grants requested to establish the organisation will be properly reported to the Foundation.
Budget 2015
Maarten introduced the first half year budget 2015.
We want to be transparent and at the same time we want to apply easy business rules and do want to stimulate personal engagment amongst our members.
After a budget has been granted, and the activity has finished, of course a a clear financial reporting, with invoice and/or proof of payment needs to be provided.
We assume the following decission matrix:
| Limit | Approval |
|---|---|
| < 150 € | 1 board member |
| < 600 € | 2 board members |
| < 1500 € | Board decision |
| ≥ 1500 € | Via Meta PEG request |
Closing
After the General Assembly, members were invited to attend the 2015-01-24 Board Meeting to discuss some aspects in more detail (transparency!).
Participants
- MADe
- Lionel Scheepmans ✉ Wiki ou eMail
- Afernand74 (talk) 16:13, 15 January 2015 (UTC)
- Geertivp (talk) 19:09, 15 January 2015 (UTC)
- DerekvG (talk) 08:27, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
- Romaine (talk) 18:03, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
- Smile4ever (talk) 08:41, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
- SPQRobin (talk) 19:14, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
- Oreo Priest
- Ste.caneva
- Smiley.toerist
- M0tty