[Wikimedia-Canada] Fwd: Wikimedia Canada

[L.Gelauff]

Hi,

it seems the list moderator never approved this message (sent twice),
so re-sending.

Lodewijk Gelauff

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lodewijk <lodewijk at effeietsanders.org>
Date: 2010/11/28
Subject: Wikimedia Canada
To: wikimedia-ca at lists.wikimedia.org
Cc: Chapters Committee list <chaptercommittee-l at lists.wikimedia.org>


Dear all,

(sending this to the mailing list, hoping to make sure that way to
reach all relevant people)
I understood from Barry Newstead that James Heilman have been in touch
with him about Wikimedia Canada. As chapcom, we have had some
communication with several people (on a few occasions) from Canada in
the past about creating a Canadian chapter, but somehow contact was
lost and the discussion went into nothing.

To me, it is unclear what the current status is exactly. I would
appreciate it if you could give us an overview of the what the
situation is. The last thing I heard was that there was a discussion
whether to found under the old or new laws, both having advantages and
disadvantages. You will of course understand that chapcom will not
take a position in such discussion, and that that has to be resolved
internally.

Most likely you are already aware of a lot of the following
information, but I will send it in any case, just to make sure all
information is put together.

Wikimedia Chapters are local organizations striving for the same goals
as the Wikimedia Foundation - supporting creation and dissimination of
free knowledge and content. Generally speaking, a Wikimedia
organisation in any country should definitely involve members of the
local Wikimedia communities – the membership shouldn't be exclusive to
Wikimedians, yet the local Wikimedia communities should be able to
feel a sense of ownership towards the nascent chapter in their
country.

As the people are the glue that hold together and propel a chapter to
sustainable activity, I would urge you to try to gather more local
supporters - especially Wikimedians among them - for the idea of the
local chapter and to set up a central planning page on Meta Wiki[1]
and list yourselves on the list of chapters in discussion[2]. This
meta planning page and setting up a mailing list could help you in
gathering the people - as well as organising local meetups or
seminars. Once the venues for discussion are set up, you could
probably have more luck soliciting input by approaching the active
editors on the various Wikipedias and motivating them towards taking a
more active local role in the Wikimedia mission. I see you have
already made a very good start with this, but to have a viable
chapter, you might want to try and gather more people to become active
members.

You can find a lot of information about the approval process on
metawiki[3], where we tried to outline every step. Let me know if you
have any questions or need help finding the relevant venues to contact
local Wikipedians (e.g. the mentioned Village Pumps, sitenotices,
etc.). Please keep me updated on the progress you are making and how
things are going. We are especially interested in knowing who and how
many people are involved, and what your ideas are for forming a
chapter. If you would like to brainstorm, give or take suggestions or
be in contact for any other thing, please do email me.

Good luck and please do stay in touch,

Best regards,

Lodewijk Gelauff

chapters committee

[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Countryname
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Step-by-step_chapter_creation_guide