Meetings/2019-10-07

Recent meetings
General meetings	2019 AGM
Board meetings	February 1 • February 12 • May 3
Committee meetings
← full list of meetings

Meeting info

Date and location

• Date: 7 October 2019
• Time: 19:00 EDT
• Location: Online

Participants

• Benoit Rochon (President)
• Lëa-Kim Châteauneuf (Vice President) (Chair of the meeting)
• Charlotte Badin (Secretary)
• Guillaume Lafrance (Treasurer)
• Jean-François Pilon
• Michael David Miller

Absents

• Gabriel Arsenault
• Ha-Loan Phan
• Marie D. Martel

Observer

• Jean-Philippe Béland (Consultant)

Minutes

Reports

President and Executive Committee Report

• Links to the minutes of Executive Committee meetings since last Board meeting: 16 September 2019.
• Since last Board meeting, the Executive Committee approved one expense: the bill from consultant Jean-Philippe Béland for August 2019 for a total of $3,081.33.

Secretary Report on members

• WMCA currently has 49 members, including seven new since last Board meeting.

Treasurer Report

• The Treasurer presented the total amounts in the bank and PayPal accounts.

Programs Committee Report

• Links to the minutes of the Programs Committee meetings since last Board meeting: 25 June 2019 and 30 September 2019.

Report on contractuals

• Jean-Philippe Béland: We are under the forecasted budget so far.
• Pierre Choffet: The contract for the project Weather Observations of the Meteorological Service of Canada in Wikimedia Projects just started. The operational communications with Pierre must go through Jean-Philippe Béland. If there is a need to take a decision, the Project Committee will need to meet. We need to organize a meeting with Benoit Rochon, Jean-François Pilon, Jean-Philippe Béland and Miguel Tremblay to talk about the details for the process for payments for the week of 21 October 2019.

Expenditure Approvals

• The Board unanimously resolved to accept and pay the September 2019's bill from the consultant Jean-Philippe Béland for a total of $4,116.11.

Old Business

• Digital visibility. No change since last meeting, awaiting for the new Board.
• Review of the Communications Policy. No change since last meeting, awaiting for the new Board.
• Report from the Bénévoles d'affaires Committee. Benoit Rochon asked a volunteer from Bénévoles d'affaires for the translation of subtitles for a video from the Atikamekw Project. A new mandate was published on the Bénévoles d'affaires platform.
• Individual grant requests to the WMF. Benoit Rochon mentioned that he talked with the WMF regarding grants for large amounts, and not simply rapid grants. The Board is questioning the fact that grants for amounts of the same magnitude that WMCA's Annual Plan Grant are given to Canadians in particular for a single project.
• Preparation for the AGM. The Board discussed the motions to be presented to the members. Initally, the Board wanted to propose to fix the number of Board members to seven, but the Board unanimously decided to keep the current number of nine in order to encourage the diversity on the Board and to not exclude good candidates. The Board will propose to the members to have a seat of the Board that is designated by the Board instead of being elected by the members. The intent for this is to be able to nominate the Treasurer which is a key position and to ensure a greater continuity. The Board will also propose to the members to modify the General Bylaw to lower the quorum for members meetings to 15% instead of 20%.
• Budget surplus for the contractuals. The Board discussed the idea to hire a permanent contractual employee. The Board gave the task to Jean-Philippe Béland to develop a mandate for a sponsorship plan. It will be necessary to ask the WMF to re-allocate the surplus, and to have their approval for the new staffing plan.

New Business

• Signatories for the bank account. The current situation is that there are four signatories and this is a problem. The required minimum is two signatories. Benoit Rochon proposed that there is only two signatories. The Board unanimously decided to remove Jean-Philippe Béland and Guillaume Lafrance as signatories to the bank account.
• Guaranteed investment. Since WMCA has unused funds, Benoit Rochon proposed to invest an amount in a Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) redeemable within 48 hours after 30 days following the purchase without any penalties. The Board unanimously agreed, and there was one abstention.
• Creation of two wings (anglophone and francophone) for WMCA. The Board discussed the idea to create two wings, one anglophone and one francophone, for WMCA. This would only be for the Programs Committees, the Board will not be divided and will always make final decisions. The goal is to rally both linguistic communities. The Board would divide the budget for the programs between the two wings which afterwards would have a degree of autonomy. The Board agreed. The details will be finalized at the next Board meeting. It is important to note that this is for two Programs Committees and not a division of the Chapter.
• Annual Plan Grant 2020 request to the WMF. The deadline for the request to the WMF to have the funds for 1 January 2020 is 1 November 2019. Interested members of the Board and the Programs Committee will meet on 19 October 2019.

Discussions and announcements

NIL.