Meetings/2016-09-30

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Wikimedia Canada Board Meeting - September 30th, 2016

Meeting Information

• Location: Online
• Date: September 30, 2016
• Time: 18:00 (EDT)

Minutes

Opening Business

• Meeting chaired by: Jean-Philippe Béland (Chair and Vice-President)
• Jean-Philippe Béland opens the meeting at 18:03 (EDT).
• Jean-Philippe Béland motions to allow Philippe-Olivier Daniel to attend the meeting. Benoit Rochon seconds. No opposition. Motion accepted.
• Jean-Philippe Béland motions to accept the minutes of the previous Board Meeting as written. Benoit Rochon seconds. Opposition from the Board. Acceptance deferred to the next Board Meeting.
• David Fourney motions to accept the agenda. Jean-Philippe Béland seconds. No opposition. Motion accepted.
• Attendance:
  • Benoit Rochon (President)
  • Jean-Philippe Béland (Chair and Vice President)
  • Jeffery Nichols (Secretary)
  • David Fourney (Treasurer)
  • Ha-Loan Phan
  • James Heilman
  • Patrick Paul
  • Philippe-Olivier Daniel

Standing Items

1. Membership Update: Wikimedia Canada (WMCA) has a total of 34 members. No new members or expiries since the last Annual General Meeting (AGM).
2. Budget Update: No formal budget so far. WMCA has a little over CAD 3,000 in the bank account. We over a little below CAD 3,000 to refund members. The bank account has CAD 4 monthly fees.

Old Business

1. French PayPal Donation/Membership Page. Treasurer does not have PayPal access yet. So there is no update on fixing the page. (Action by: Treasurer).
2. Corporate insurances for Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)'s office. Benoit Rochon wrote an email to Hélène Cadieux at BAnQ and she will send the legal information regarding the agreement. WMCA will ask BAnQ to donate insurance. There is the possibility to get the agreement signed and start using the mailing address, but wait before occupying the office, not needing insurance yet. (Action by: Benoit Rochon).
3. Membership management software. James Heilman updates the Board: the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and Wikimedia Switzerland (WMCH) use CiviCRM, Manuel from WMCH does the support for free and just charge for web server. Other chapters say that CiviCRM is too complex. WMCA only has 34 members and does not have a long list of donors, so it may be too early to get something like this software, and we could use Google Sheets instead. Argument in favour of CiviCRM is the importance of looking professional and having the system in place before Wikimania and the associated membership drive. Manuel from WMCH offers to set up and support it for free, WMCA would just need to have server space. Patrick Paul can give a remote access to his server to Manuel. (Action by: Secretary and Patrick Paul).
4. Update Industry Canada. Industry Canada is updated for everyone except for Ha-Loan Phan because the Secretary was missing her address. (Action by: Secretary).
5. Transfer of the bank account. There is a meeting with the bank on October 12, 2016. (Action by: Benoit Rochon, David Fourney, Ha-Loan Phan and Jean-Philippe Béland).
6. Transfer of the PayPal account. Treasurer proposes to create a generic address @wikimedia.ca for the Treasurer. Currently the PayPal account is associated with donate@wikimedia.ca. Patrick Paul got the credentials from Alan Walker. He needs a few more days to go through the accounts and modify the ownership information as well as look into sharing access to the account. (Action by: Treasurer).
7. Roles and Responsibilities of the officers/directors. Board members will go through the document during the next two weeks and submit comments to Jean-Philippe Béland. The new policy is to be accepted at the next Board Meeting. (Action by: Jean-Philippe Béland).
8. Strategic Plan. The Board identifies two set of priorities, for the next year and for the next five year. Everyone will look through the document before the next Board Meeting. (Action by: Jean-Philippe Béland).
9. Mailing lists. No change for now. (Action by: Patrick Paul).

New Business

1. Election of Philippe-Olivier Daniel as a Director. Benoit Rochon motions to elect Philippe-Olivier as a Board Member of WMCA, effective immediately and until the next Annual General Meeting (AGM). David Fourney seconds. No opposition. Philippe-Olivier Daniel is elected as a director. Patrick Paul will create his account on Google App. (Info)
2. Election of Chair and Vice Chair. Jean-Philippe Béland proposes to elect directors to the offices of Chair and Vice Chair. Consensus is to leave those offices empty. (Info)
3. Confirmation of Secretary. Jeffery Nichols confirms that he accepts the position of Secretary and that he can handle the workload related to this office. (Info)
4. Amendments to General Bylaw. Jean-Philippe Béland proposes to amend the General Bylaw to remove the office of "Project Manager". Other board members mention that the General Bylaw may need other amendments. Patrick Paul suggests to compile a document of proposed amendments to our General Bylaw for the next AGM. Philippe-Olivier Daniel will review the General Bylaw and compare it to the standard bylaw on the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) website. (Action by: Philippe-Olivier Daniel)
5. Mission Statement change. Jean-Philippe Béland proposes to change the mission statement that is now four points into a single more generic sentence encompassing everything. Jeffery Nichols mentions that the mission is included in the Articles of Continuance and that it cannot be change that easily. Consensus is to keep the current Mission Statement. (Info)
6. Legal advisor. Ha-Loan Phan introduces Philippe-Olivier Daniel from PodLegal as a pro bono legal advisor for WMCA. (Info)
7. Contract for the Atikamekw Project. A contract will need to be signed with a local coordinator for the Atikamekw Project, as approved in the grant from the WMF. The Board will review the grant and Jean-Philippe Béland will write the contract and present it at the next Board Meeting for approval. (Action by: Jean-Philippe Béland)
8. Board Meeting dates. Jean-Philippe Béland proposes to set a fixed day and time for Board Meetings. There is opposition from the Board. The Board will keep using Doodle for every meeting. (Info)
9. Financial rules. WMCA needs to define financial rules on who and how cheque can be signed and how records need to be kept. David Fourney will draft those financial rules and present them to the Board for approval. (Action by: David Fourney)

Discussions Points and Annoucements

1. NIL.

Closing Business

• Meeting closed at: 15:35 (UTC-5)
• Next Meeting
  • Location: Google Hangouts
  • Date: To be determined.
  • Time: To be determined.

Other Notes or Information

1. NIL.

Authors and Acceptance

• Minutes written by: Jean-Philippe Béland (Vice President)
• Minutes reviewed by: Benoit Rochon (President) on September 30, 2016.
• Minutes amended by: Jeffery Nichols (Secretary) on October 16, 2016.
• Amendments reviewed by: Benoit Rochon (President) on October 16, 2016.
• Minutes accepted as written by the Board on: October 20, 2016.