Open Knowledge Foundation
Board of Directors

Board Meeting Minutes, November 2016

A meeting of the Open Knowledge International (OKI) Board was held in London and virtually via GoToMeeting on 9th November, 2016.

Present: Karin Christiansen (KC) - Chair, Tim Hubbard (TH), Jane Silber (JS) and Helen Turvey (HT) via Gotomeeting
Observing: Pavel Richter (PR), Mark Gibbs (MG), Paul Walsh (PW), Andrew Clarke (AC) (attend in place of Martin Tisne) and Franka Vaughan (FV) for minutes
Apologies:  Martin Tisne 
 

Presentation of OKF End of Year accounts

Mr. Edward Finch of Buzzacott presented the Year End Accounts.

ACTION: MG to provide a one pager glossary of the terminologies as well as the clarifications/categories used in Accounts. 

ACTION: Board to review the revised version of the Year End Accounts and return to MG with comments and questions in two weeks time if any.  

Review of minutes & actions of last meeting [Chair]

The Minutes of the last two Board meetings (4th August and 9th September) were approved in principle, with an action for the Board to review in detail and sign off in two weeks time. 

ACTION: FV to send an email to the board to initiate review, e-approval vote and sign off in two weeks time.   

Actions from previous meeting

  • [KC] & [MG] Have a chat offline to sort out her concerns with the budget- aggregation of certain digits, classification etc. - done  

  • [TH] Share articles on spinning-out projects out of NGOs with PR - done 

  • [HT] Share contact of lawyer (who can explain the legal implications of the Board & subsidiary related issues) with PR - done

  • [KC/PR/MG] to talk to the lawyer recommended by HT about OKI becoming a charity, and any implications of current resource structures. - done

  • [MG] Send to Board the updated DRAFT Accounts reflecting the income recognition (capital gains tax) - done

  • [PR] Send to Board and OKI leadership team argument regarding the publication of Minutes - not done

  • [MG] Send TH OKI’s current organogram - not done

  • [MG] Provide a pivot table for the budget - not done

  • [MG] Provide an explanation doc for the codes & acronyms used in the budget - not done  

CEO Update

PR issued an update on the following: 

  • Meeting with Ben Goldacre in Oxford regarding the joint funding proposal for OpenTrials phase II. While Ben G is committed to a joint proposal, there is a lack of understanding about the amount of work that will be done by OKI versus Ben G and his team in Oxford. Ben G considers OpenTrials as an academic project and as such does not give credence to the Network/Community aspect of the project; OKI does not agree with that assumption.

    • PR to inform the Board if they are needed to intervene in anyway. 

  • Reach out from Transparency International (TI) & Transparency International-EU (TI-EU): PR to meet the research team of TI and the CEO of TI_EU to determine how OKI can assist them as CSOs to use their available data to improve people's lives.

    • KC: it will interest the board to know how these relationships progresses, the learnings etc. 

  • OK Summit: All OKI Staff are meeting in Thessaloniki, 20th-23rd Nov, 2016. 

  • OKFestival: OKFest 2017 is definitely happening - preliminary dated for October/November and venue is likely to be at Vienna, Thessaloniki or Berlin. It will have a bit of conference feeling because there will be no IODC in 2017. We are in the process of hiring a Program Manager to handle the role.

  • Fundraising Working Group: use an outside consultant [Nikki) to offer capacity building training on fundraising, this is enabled by a grant from the Hewlett Foundation.  

  • Project Management capacity: a common Project management training (PRINCE II) - help with PM capacity and the use of the same methodology for budgeting, planning, resource allocation etc. 

  • Logic Models and Metrics: this will be used to track OKI’s progress against the strategy 

    • AC: there should be a clare distinction between the impact and outcomes; Also, Goal 3 is critical if Omidyar is to have any funding relationship with OKI after this last grant. 

    • ACTION: PR to provide an updated version of the Logic Models and Metrics doc to the Board 

    • ACTION: PR to use the Logic Models & Metrics as a template and report against it to the Board.

    • HT: There is a need for a narrative around the various terms of reference in the Metrics model

    • ACTION: PR to share with Board the narrative around OKI Strategy and the Metric model when it’s ready.

COO Update including Financial Update

MG presented an update on his findings/actions to date [Operations Update for details]:

  • Pensions has been boarded with Royal London, accrued contributions ready to be paid into the pensions by November.

  • Waiting on feedback from the Charities Commission; we have engaged the services of an independent consultant (formerly employed by CC) to review the application before re-submission.

  • Working to minimize the Corporation Tax for 2016

  • Nearly all Project Managers are now PRINCE2 certified; this is to align all PMs on the same methodology.

  • New Head of Finance and New Grant Manager in Ops; move Michelle out of finance into Grant Management- grant reporting, working closely with PMs.

  • Boarding of International Employees; want to move some OKI staff who are currently contractors to fulltime employment status eg. Paul (now part of the leadership team); wants permission to be able to do this without having to refer to the Board everything such a situation arises.

    • ACTION: MG to provide a bounded proposal that explains location policy, parameters etc. regarding the Boarding of International Employees. 

  • Budget for 2017/2018/2019; this has already been presented to the Board and then to Omidyar. It has been reviewed again, we are happy with it as it stands. 

  •  Finance Reporting

Tech Department

PW presented an update on the Project and Technical Delivery OKI 

  • ACTION: PW to send to [KC] a doc outlining the changes in GODI

Actions Arising 

  • [MG] to provide a one pager glossary of the terminologies as well as the clarifications/categories used in the Accounts. 

  • [MG] to submit a revised version of the Year End Accounts to the [Board] for review & comments.

  • [MG] to provide a bounded proposal that explains location policy, parameters etc. regarding the Boarding of International Employees.

  • [PR] to provide an updated version of the Logic Models and Metrics doc to the Board 

  • [PR] to use the Logic Models & Metrics as a template and report against it to the Board.

  • [PR] to share with Board the narrative around OKI Strategy and the Metric model when it’s ready.

  • [PW] to send to [KC] a doc outlining the changes in GODI