[UK-TUG] Payments made by UK TUG in 2020/2021

[Keiran Harcombe]

Hi Joseph,

The issue around remote meetings should have been addressed by the
committee in 2020, considering that courts, local authorities,
governmental departments and other organisations had very quickly moved
to remote means. This (in my opinion) shows the committee have failed to
be proactive in ensuring UK TUG business is dealt with appropriately.
The committee had ample opportunity in the early stages of the COVID-19
pandemic to make changes to the constitution that would allow for a
remote AGM.

Kind Regards,
Keiran Harcombe
 

On October 4, 2021, Joseph Wright <joseph.wright at morningstar2.co.uk>
wrote:
> Hello Keiran,
>
> > In this
> > respect, a meeting dissolving the group should not be held through a
> > public forum like this where the group are unable to confirm
> individuals
> > membership to UK TUG. This issue came up at TUG 2021 where, the
> > chairperson of the meeting was unable to verify membership status of
> > participants.
>
> UK-TUG Announce is not a public list. Subscription is limited to the 
> UK-TUG members, and all UK-TUG members should be subscribed. It is 
> therefore the usual forum for carrying out electron business of the 
> group, and has hosted SEGM business in the past.
>
> > I would also bring up that UK TUG has NOT had a AGM in the year
> 2021,
> > meaning the current committee is breaching it's own constitution. I
> > would encourage the committee to hold an AGM as soon as possible.
>
> The Constitution makes provision for electronic special meetings, but 
> not for the annual meeting to be held remotely. COVID restrictions 
> prevented members attending a physical meeting for 2020. An absolute 
> minimum of business was therefore performed: essentially to allow 
> renewal of committee membership. Documents were circulated for 2020
> AGM 
> period: https://tug.org/pipermail/uktug-announce/2020q4/000266.html.
>
> The Constitution requires a maximum of 15 months between AGMs. For
> 2021, 
> the allowed gap between meetings would put a final date in early 
> February 2022.
>
> > If dissolving the group is necessary, the committee, should take
> note
> > that if possible, to avoid providing funds to projects where
> committee
> > members have a personal interest. This has been the case through
> motions
> > proposed by the committee over the last 12-18 months.
> > 
> > This includes the following:
> > LearnLaTeX (Joseph Wright) - <£6000
> > Rpi 64 bit TeX builds (Payment made to Simon Dales, a committee
> member)
> > - £200
>
> UK-TUG has struggled to attract interest in funding from people not 
> associated with the committee, as these members are generally active 
> more widely. As is standard practice, no committee members take part
> in 
> discussion of support for any projects in which they are involved.
>
> Specifically on learnlatex.org, whilst I am the lead for the project, 
> note that
>
> - No money was requested for any of the people involved in the LaTeX
>  content creation, only for web development
> - The final cost of the work funded by UK-TUG was significantly lower
>  than the limit set at the point of request for funding
>
> Regards,
>
> Joseph Wright
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