Agenda

Wiki Spot Board
Agenda
Tuesday, February 16, 2009
6 PM California time (UTC-8)

Probably true, check back for confirmation: Dial +1 415 593 5575 or SIP:[email protected] . Use PIN '95616'. Call will be recorded.
or join #wikispot on irc.freenode.net. See the IRC for more information on how to use IRC.

1. Call to Order

2. Approval of Minutes

3. Nonprofit status update

4. Financial Report

5. Officer Reports

6. Grant update

7. Grant project plan

8. Board and Officer Elections

9. Working Groups Proposal - See: Working Groups Proposal 00.pdf

10. Audit Committee

11. Any other business

Minutes

Wiki Spot is a community for communities. Including yours. | http://wikispot.org
jraller: Howdy!
thelabster: hi!
codetoad: omg hi
thelabster: rofl bbq
thelabster: Vote for me!
jraller: Want me to take notes here in IRC?
thelabster: sure, i think we have a quorum
arlen has joined the channel
jraller: Brent says we have everyone but Ashley
jraller: We started reading off names
jraller: Philip
jraller: here
jraller: Arlen
jraller: Graham
jraller: Evan
jraller: Brent
jraller: Ashley and Paul did not respond
6:05 PM
jraller: Paul just joined
jraller: Lets skip approval of minutes and do that in e-mail in the future
JWokky has joined the channel
jraller: Next chair should work with next secretary
jraller: Subject: non-profit status update
JWokky: Brent suggests minute approval via email.
jraller: We received IRC exemption, but State process is not finished
jraller: Philip submitted paperwork to state
jraller: We are a 501 C 3
JWokky: Correction: IRC above should be IRS
jraller: need a working group to take that process on
jraller: submitted form to secretary of state, but need to investigate more
jraller: We need to call if we don't hear back from them in two weeks
6:10 PM
jraller: We should look up our status on the Franchise Tax Board website
jraller: We need to file a couple of forms by the end of this month like the IRS 990
jraller: Based on our fiscal year
jraller: Moving on to financial report
jraller: $500 in paypal account
jraller: Bank account is opened
jraller: Philip doesn't have access to account yet
jraller: Philip has been working with Paul
jraller: Will get it worked out on Thursday
jraller: Philip was mugged and lost last card
jraller: Philip has checks that are waiting to deposit
jraller: has checked with donors to make sure we are clear to cash them
jraller: Needs to write a check to amit for server lease
jraller: we are using a virtual server
arlen: aside: can we get a donate tab on the hub? i'm not an admin.
jraller: we are not in bad financial situation
MikeIvanov has joined the channel
6:15 PM
jraller: recently reduced our monthly bank account fees (within last month
codetoad: is paul cutting off for other ppl?
jraller: from $24 to $13 per month
thelabster: no
jraller: a little
thelabster: un poquito
jraller: codetoad: did you get my Paypal donation in December?
MikeIvanov: fine here
arlen: no
arlen: how are you connecting, philip?
codetoad: phone
codetoad: it's ok now
codetoad: jraller, yes - need to update donate page & sent receipts
jraller: ok, I feel better knowing it went through
jraller: Back to taking notes
jraller: Financials ok, Philip needs access
jraller: then will wire paypal into bank
jraller: and get online access
jraller: to send checks through website
jraller: and create receipt for donors
jraller: needs to include EIN # and thank you and amount of donation
jraller: a simple pdf file
jraller: needs someone to create that
arlen: i can work on that
arlen: or graham...
JWokky: So can I.
JWokky: Hehe.
JWokky: I was trying to say that I would, but Philip kept talking when I thought he was done.
JWokky: Lots of volunteers.
6:20 PM
jraller: end of finances
jraller: officer reports
jraller: starting with Brent
jraller: has been trying to organize this meeting and working groups proposal
jraller: Philip has been working on things other than technical
jraller: Philip has been focused on a big grant application
jraller: Freeman:
jraller: has been doing patching of system
jraller: systems are patched
jraller: infrastructure
jraller: Paul:
arlen has quit the server saying: Quit: Page closed
jraller: financial report covered some of it
jraller: has had other obligations since Sept
jraller: will not be seeking extension in current position
arlen has joined the channel
jraller: was able to mail out new card to Philip this week
jraller: Paul can cover check to amit if needed
jraller: arlen:
jraller: has been working on grant stuff with Philip and Mike
jraller: Brent called for other reports
jraller: then moved on
jraller: paul has a few minutes left, motioned to move into elections
jraller: Elections!
6:25 PM
jraller: Board elections, are there any nominations
jraller: we suspended rules last year to elect to 1 year terms, but bylaws allow for 1, 2, and 3 year terms
jraller: Grant could change things dramatically in as soon as two months. It will change the nature and responsibility of the board
jraller: — from philip who said we might want to do 1 year again
JWokky: (above was noted by Philip)
jraller: Brent said it sounded ok
jraller: (there needs to be a motion for that)
jraller: Philip moved, Evan seconded motion to suspend bylaws so election is for 1 year terms
jraller: Vote to suspend the bylaws passed unanimously by those present
jraller: call for nominations
jraller: Mike Ivanov self nominated
jraller: Brent nom Philip
jraller: Evan nom Brent
jraller: Philip called for responses to current members, is anyone other than Paul not interested in continuing?
jraller: William wants to be on board as well
jraller: William Lewis
jraller: Brent nominated Jason
6:30 PM
jraller: Arlen nom himself
jraller: nom nom nom
jraller: Evan nom himself
jraller: Graham nom himself
jraller: discussion about Ashley and her potential interest
jraller: 9 members of the board currently
jraller: Philip counts 9 running and 9 seats
jraller: Paul and Ashley out, William and Mike in?
jraller: Brent wants to discuss treasurer
jraller: hasn't heard interest in the position
jraller: need chair secretary and treasurer, but treasurer can't be combined with any other position
jraller: Philip suggested doing board vote now
jraller: Paul leaving meeting to go back to work
jraller: Evan suggested group vote
6:35 PM
jraller: Evan moved for group vote to approve nominated people
jraller: List:
jraller: Philip, Brent, Evan, Graham
jraller: Jason, Arlen, William, Mike
jraller: Arlen
jraller: wait, I listed Arlen twice
jraller: question about split vote with 8 board members
jraller: chair abstains
jraller: nominated folks are:
jraller: Philip, Brent, Evan, Graham, Jason, Arlen, William, Mike
jraller: Voice vote by role call proceeded
jraller: Philip's connection dropped
thelabster: Philip: how do you vote?
jraller: Philip reconnected
6:40 PM
jraller: Vote is unanimous
jraller: officer elections!
jraller: Brent nom Philip to Exec Director, seconded by Arlen
jraller: looking for nom for treasurer
jraller: Brent suggested physical proximity to Philip is good idea for treasurer
jraller: Graham has disconnected
jraller: sirens on someone's connection
jraller: treasurer is temportary
jraller: Graham has reconnected
jraller: Arlen is nominated
jraller: Brent nom to chair
6:45 PM
jraller: secretary and vice chair still open
jraller: Graham nom to chair or vice chair
jraller: Evan nom Jason for secretary
jraller: One nominee for each office
jraller: Philip for Exec Director: taking the vote
jraller: Philip elected Exec Director
jraller: Chair: Brent and Graham
jraller: SPEACHES!
jraller: Graham: would be happy to take seriously any position, but not seeking any particular position
grahamfreeman got dropped by ATT again
jraller: Brent: has been happy serving, starting to get into groove
jraller: Graham got served by AT&T again
jraller: Brent thinks there need to be more accountability for all of us
jraller: Graham is back!
jraller: Vote:
6:50 PM
jraller: ab ab bl bl bl bl bl bl
jraller: Brent with 6 votes and two abstains
jraller: Brent is Chair
jraller: Vice chair, Graham running
jraller: SPEACH!
jraller: will try to grow and expand the org
jraller: Vote: Unanimous
jraller: I think I just got dropped
arlen: yup
thelabster: you did
grahamfreeman: Sounds like it
JWokky: I am temporarily taking over log, as Jason dropped.
JWokky: Graham was elected as vice chair.
jraller: AT&T sucks, Graham was right!
jraller: I'm back in
jraller: Secretary:
JWokky steps back and returns the pen to Jason
6:55 PM
jraller: discussion about secretary being board member or step in person
jraller: If elected I will serve
jraller: Sounds unanimous to me
jraller: Arlen is up for Treasurer
jraller: SPEACH!
jraller: thinks it would be a way to get more involved with wiki spot and to learn more about the financials
jraller: Arlen is elected unanimously
jraller: Congratulations
jraller: Grant update:
jraller: Philip wrote e-mail about strategy and link to video that was made as part of the grant application
jraller: it is a Knight Grant
jraller: we've applied not as wiki spot, but as a particular project
jraller: they want to fund something that is innovative and new
jraller: will change the way communities get and exchange information on a local level
jraller: we've been about communities collaborating
7:00 PM
jraller: but that is more general, but we applied for the grant as localwiki
jraller: premise is mass collaboration, but focus on local stuff
jraller: designed for just local communities
jraller: most of the application is talking about Davis Wiki, but what can be done as a new form of local media
jraller: we know that what we did in Davis works and is powerful
jraller: like knowing local community radio is a good idea, but there is no infrastructure
jraller: massive improvements to the software
jraller: proposing specific project
jraller: we did a good job with DW that proved theory, but we want to make new form of local community media
jraller: slant is toward "here is what we want to do"
jraller: Knight runs their process like a contest
jraller: thousands submit, but they pick the best idea to fund
jraller: strategy was based on researching prior years results
jraller: spoke with people
jraller: think we have good shot at it
7:05 PM
jraller: it would be a big deal if we get it
jraller: ryan is involved, owner of localwiki. domain name
jraller: Knight has dropped focus on news, so we applied this year
jraller: Philip thinks we sent in a strong application
jraller: Philip and Arlen made video
jraller: Harvard Media Lab interviewed Philip
jraller: Later named Davis Wiki world's best local wiki
jraller: feedback that Philip got was from newspapers
arlen: http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/11/welcome-to-davis-calif-six-lessons-from-the-worlds-best-local-wiki/
jraller: they questioned our traffic
jraller: newspapers doubted the figures, but philip sent the figures to the interviewer
jraller: the stats were very impressive at 80,000 visitors per month in a town of 60,000 and 1 in 7 people in town contributes over the course of a year
jraller: video in Davis asked several questions
jraller: Do you know DW
jraller: Do you use the enterprise
jraller: several other questions and some interviews
jraller: it was filmed and edited down to 73
jraller: 20 random people, all used the DW
7:10 PM
jraller: all had good things about it mostly unprompted
jraller: video is password protected
jraller: Philip will share with board, but it isn't for public sharing
jraller: proposal has been sent
jraller: take a step back and what can we dream up to do better
jraller: the idea behind the project is really good
jraller: we are asking for 1,000,000 dollars
jraller: "obviously that is a shit load of money" — Philip
jraller: but over two years that isn't a lot
jraller: Philip thinks that this year they will be giving out sums around that amount
jraller: pitched as "the project"
jraller: they want to fund something that will improve news in a local community built on open source
jraller: task was to see Davis wiki as proof of concept and base to built on
7:15 PM
jraller: experiment with new models for creating wikis
jraller: want to experiment with outreach
jraller: structure of proposal is:
jraller: software and technical
jraller: rewrite of software (include semantic wiki and other features)
jraller: built around GIS, mapping, time, local needs
jraller: read the wiki for news and things that happen
jraller: pages have chronology
jraller: all this with the aim of building something that is the best for a local community to use
jraller: coordinate with pilot communities
jraller: select 5 communities and work with them extensively
jraller: steward them through the process
jraller: taking outreach to a much higher level
jraller: Evan asked for clarification
jraller: on statement of direction
jraller: Evan asked for specifics about outreach, call center, or what?
jraller: Philip said there is vagueness
jraller: intentional, due to several reasons
jraller: need to pick the testbed communities
jraller: pick people in each community
7:20 PM
jraller: then figure it out based on those people
jraller: talk to them and figure out how to help them and build corpus of educational material
jraller: we need more successful examples
jraller: Mike Ivanov has left the conference
7:25 PM
jraller: Philip talked about funding models
jraller: incentivize the boring things
jraller: "Make good edits in order to earn revert points" — Jason
jraller: Philip will send out the full proposal to the board
jraller: "The video is REALLY worth watching" — Jason
7:30 PM
jraller: should know by mid march if we get the grant
arlen: (thanks jason)
jraller: Philip discussed more of the specifics of the process
jraller: Philip discussed our risks with the grant. ways to not get it
7:35 PM
jraller: Philip thinks we've addressed those items that we can control, we can't control a better application coming in from somewhere else
jraller: Graham says that sounds great
jraller: sorry brent says, not graham
jraller: open for questions
jraller: Evan says he doesn't think there is a conflict of interests with his business contacts with Knight Ritter
jraller: and two of his board members might have contacts there
jraller: raised issue of perception of secrecy
7:40 PM
jraller: Philip said they didn't know which approach to take
jraller: a lot of talking
jraller: 100 hours or more
jraller: level of work and strategy meant that the more people the lower of chance of getting the grant
jraller: this is a proposal, not a fiat action
jraller: as a proposal a smaller working group made sense
jraller: It came together as a discussion about rewrite, and awareness of the Knight grant
jraller: viewed it as separate from role of board
grahamfreeman: I'll voice this in turn, but a $1M grant app for an org with a <$1K annual budget is _absolutely_ appropriate for Board involvement
jraller: wasn't an issue of secrecy, wasn't sure what they were doing until it was underway
thelabster: I agree graham.
JWokky: About to touch on the difference between secret vs. closed and try to connect thoughts between everybody so we are all going in the same direction.
jraller: Philip quoted "you should think about what you can do right now, not in the future"
7:45 PM
jraller: Evan discusses impact of the grant as a change in plans for other board members
jraller: Graham is for world changing, but it is a radical change in the organization's direction and is a board concern
jraller: during the initial stage isn't committing the org, but board involvement should take place
jraller: sees that too many cooks in the kitchen isn't good either
jraller: Philip responded
7:50 PM
jraller: Philip says he can take it to heart based on the comments
jraller: the reality is that the timeline was short
jraller: Philip says he discussed this at the last board meeting in general terms
jraller: we wrote the initial proposal about a month ago
jraller: then we heard from them about three weeks ago that we needed to write a full proposal
jraller: they then went and made the video and started writing
7:55 PM
jraller: Even responded that Philip did interact with him about this even given the short time frame
jraller: Executive Director position is to do things like this
8:00 PM
jraller: Jason Evan and Graham chimed in saying that this was a big move, but it got done
jraller: Brent called for us to move on as it has been an hour
jraller: Brent segued into working groups as more functional and productive
jraller: I wasn't able to read it yet
jraller: several people said they had read it
jraller: Graham hadn't read it
jraller: committees as working groups
8:05 PM
jraller: board members on it, but can invite others to join in the effort
jraller: one would be for grants
jraller: Brent asked what kinds of tasks
jraller: One would be for technology
jraller: one would be system administration
jraller: that has been Philip, Graham and Amit
jraller: One would be community outreach
jraller: fundraising
jraller: budget
jraller: budget and paperwork
jraller: so we will know who is responsible
jraller: monthly reports due back even if (no change)
jraller: helps things not be dropped
jraller: also serve as outreach to involve people who aren't on the board
jraller: Evan discussed bylaws version and what would need to be expanded
jraller: allow non-members to participate on those working groups
jraller: Brent said that system admin should be able to make purchase decisions under $750
jraller: qualified people making decision, and then letting the board know what is going on
jraller: committee members would be vetted by the board
8:10 PM
jraller: Philip had comments about the particular groups
jraller: The system admin group is too much red tape, but it could make people feel more empowered
jraller: Brent said system admin might be responsibility of Exec Director
jraller: Evan said we need thank you letter to Amit
jraller: Evan talked about creating titles as opposed to recognizing what already exists
codetoad has quit the server saying: Ping timeout: 245 seconds
grahamfreeman raises his hand to speak
8:15 PM
jraller is eating
jraller is back to note taking
8:20 PM
jraller: Graham is talking about Carver's policy governance
jraller: Brent pointed out we don't have staff, just volunteers
jraller: Philip: talked about working groups reporting to Exec Director not board, and Exec Director reports to board
jraller: Philip asked what action are we going to take right now
8:30 PM
jraller: Brent will send out second draft of proposal
jraller: Brent asked for comments
jraller: Dog barked
jraller: appoint audit committee
jraller: William and Evan nominated
jraller: and Graham
codetoad has joined the channel
jraller: nominations approved by voice vote
jraller: Philip noted potentially another grant application coming up
jraller: next week, but individuals apply, not organizations
8:35 PM
jraller: they want to find people for community information projects
jraller: maybe $30,000 per year
jraller: will reuse same materials from localwiki proposal
jraller: Graham noted intellectual property needs to belong to Wiki Spot as a result of that grant
jraller: Evan brought up motion to send letter to Amit thanking him for his efforts
jraller: seconded
grahamfreeman: jraller: Clarification: I'm not asking that it be owned by Wiki Spot, but rather than Wiki Spot share unrestricted usage of it
jraller: passed
jraller: ok, that will be in the notes
jraller: evan will do it?
jraller: meeting is adjourned at 8:38pm