1 Introduction
This review was commissioned by the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK in October 2012 following a competitive tender.
As stewards for their donors, contributors, readers and others, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK wish to ensure that the governance of Wikimedia UK conforms to and develops in line with commonly accepted best practice requirements for UK charities. They also wish to ensure that Wikimedia UK operates within the demands of the worldwide Wikimedia movement. This imposes a greater level of duty and accountability than the basic legal requirements.
1.1 Brief
The brief for the review was to examine the governance of Wikimedia UK and to ensure that any deficiencies in governance, including the handling of potential and actual conflicts of interest, are being addressed.
As part of this review we were required to suggest any practical constructive steps which Wikimedia UK and its board should take to improve governance and to help ensure excellent future management of conflicts of interest within a UK context. These are to be found in our recommendations that make up chapter 4. The terms of reference stated that ‘the aim of the review is not to allocate blame to specific individuals for historic acts’ but rather to make recommendations for improvements. This report does not intend or purport to allocate blame.
1.2 Methodology
At the inception of this review we agreed a methodology with our clients. The main elements of this have been to:
- review key Wikimedia UK governance documents including policies and procedures and the chapter’s compliance with these policies and procedures
- review minutes of recent board meetings
- have regard to lessons that could be learned from the identification, declaration and management of potential conflicts of interest. To this end we studied the sequence of events that occurred in 2011 and 2012 by reviewing the minutes of board meetings and other key documents and interviewing Wikimedia UK trustees and staff and some former trustees about these events
Compass Partnership
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