Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-09-29/Wikimedia UK

Following the dissolution of the first UK Wikimedia chapter (see previous story), its proposed replacement elected an initial board. The results of the vote, open to anyone who had expressed interest in membership of the new organisation, were announced on Tuesday 30th September in a post to the wikimediauk-l mailing list. 27 members voted, and of the eight candidates standing five received the required 50% support and were thus elected to the board:


 * Kwan Ting Chan (KTC)
 * Andrew Turvey (AndrewRT)
 * Tom Holden (Cfp)
 * Michael Conn (Warofdreams)
 * Michael Peel (Mike Peel)

It is hoped this first board will serve to get the fledgling chapter off the ground. This includes filing for incorporation, seeking charitable status, and opening a bank account. Once these foundations have been laid a new board will be elected at the company's first annual general meeting (AGM), tentatively planned for January 2009. To avoid the limbo which the previous chapter entered, the community has agreed that if incorporation has not happened by March 2009 then new elections will be held, and if there has not been an AGM by 6 months after incorporation then the Wikimedia Foundation will be asked to withdraw any trademark licenses and chapter status granted.

An initial board meeting via IRC is being planned. Discussion also continues on the mailing list and meta-wiki pages, and the chapter is expected to be a topic of discussion at the next London meetup, scheduled for Sunday 12th October.

"Wikimedia UK v2.0" currently has 40 people signed up as interested in being guarantor members, and has received support on the mailing list from Wikimedia Foundation officials including Board of Trustees chair Michael Snow and Executive Director Sue Gardner. It is hoped that the chapter will be able to help with the Oxford bid for Wikimania 2010.