While there is no absolute requirement to spend money within a year, there is a requirement to justify your reserves. Having big reserves just because you didn't get around to spending it isn't going to sit very well. Transferring more to the WMF is an option, but we don't want to end up with raising funds for the WMF looking like our primary mission (that wouldn't necessarily preclude charity status, but it would complicate things - it may also not sit well with the membership). The big question is, is transferring the funds to the WMF going to further our mission better than spending it ourselves in a rush? That's not easy to answer...
On 20/06/2011, Chris Keating <chriskeatingw...@gmail.com> wrote: > To deal with these points one by one; > > * Charity status - a bit of a change of tack here. We are seeking a meeting > with the Charity Commission to work out some issues face to face, and the > objective is to submit a revised application in August. > > * Recruitment - We're recruiting the Chapter Manager position and the Office > Manager position. The logic is that the senior post will have a very heavy > input into the development of our staff structure, which is as it should be > - while there is an obvious workload for the Office Manager to get on with. > > * Budget/underspend - yes, we will be underspent on staff, we're > overspending on some other areas (for instance, the Opportunity Fund, where > we haven't yet said no to a proposal from an individual for money to make > something cool happen). > > The way we are working is to look at the long-term development of the > organisation. Thinking "OMG we have money we must spend it now!" is not the > right way to take decisions. The Charity Commission says charities need to > spend money "reasonably promptly" to fulfill their objects and that is what > we intend to do, but "reasonably promptly" does not require us to spend > money within 12 months of receipt. > > We need to develop an outline 2012 Budget by October 1st (this is one of the > fundraiser deadlines). In doing so we will take into account the likely 2011 > underspend. Speaking personally, if I think we have a level of reserves that > is too high as we enter 2012, I will suggest we make a further transfer to > the Foundation. > > Hope this helps, > > Chris > > > On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 10:28 PM, Thomas Dalton > <thomas.dal...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> In addition to the charity status already mentioned (which is >> extremely concerning in its absence), I'm concerned about the budget. >> Recruiting just a CEO (or whatever they end up being called - please >> don't forget that "Chapter Manager" was agreed as a placeholder name >> by the last board and shouldn't be used as the final name without a >> lot of thought. I still think a more standard name that outsiders will >> understand is needed) and an office manager and then letting the CEO >> handle the recruitment of the rest of the staff was originally my >> preferred strategy. I changed my mind when I saw how much money we >> were making in the last fundraiser and realised that we needed to >> speed things up. >> >> If you go along with your preferred strategy, especially getting off >> to such a slow start (I know that's partly the fault of the last >> board, and take my share of the blame, but the new board was formed 2 >> months ago and hasn't moved particularly fast so far), then you are >> going to massively underspend on budget. What is the plan to deal with >> that? The charity commission aren't going to be impressed if we're >> raising lots of money and not spending it. >> >> On 15 June 2011 20:03, Chris Keating <chriskeatingw...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > Dear all, >> > There is a brief write-up of the Board's two-day-long face-to-face >> meeting >> > last weekend, up on our blog: http://bit.ly/jTHRLi >> > >> > Key highlights are; >> > >> > - we're going ahead with advertising for two staff, a Chapter Manager >> > and >> an >> > Office Manager >> > >> > - we've committed ourselves to participating in the 2011 Wikimedia >> > Fundraiser >> > >> > - we did a lot of useful work that's necessary for the development of a >> > long-term strategy - we'll share this with you guys shortly (we're >> waiting >> > for the notes to be typed up!) >> > >> > There will be more details on all of this soon, but we thought it was >> best >> > to share what we have now rather than wait. >> > >> > Regards, >> > >> > Chris >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Wikimedia UK mailing list >> > wikimediau...@wikimedia.org >> > http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l >> > WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org >> > >> > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia UK mailing list >> wikimediau...@wikimedia.org >> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l >> WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org >> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
