gerald lists wrote:
I'm going to suggest that we draft up the bylaws and seek legal advice to make sure they are compliant with Federal Law. We can then pass them back to Wikimedia Foundation to ensure they pass muster there. Once these two milestones are passed, we can post the proposed bylaws on the site and have a request for comment period (2 weeks? 1 month?) for people to raise objections. If we hear nothing back by then, we can instruct our legal adviser to proceed with filing the papers.
How does this sound? I would just like to put the process on a timetable and still allow ample public comment.
Given that Delphine is chair of the Chapters Committee, and she has been present in these discussions, I'm sure that she will be pleased to raise any concerns that the Foundation. In view of her recent comments on another list I'm sure that she would prefer this to having a lot of comments come out after everything has been written.
If you think that you want legal advice before the comment period feel free to do so, but it should be made clear that any expense for that advice is entirely yours.
At this point I would much rather see interested persons taking an active interest, and making constructive comments for writing these by-laws. We will need an initial Board of Directors, and a willingness to actively participate in the process should be a positive indicator for choosing who will be on that board. When someone says, "I will be on the board if you can't find anyone else," I am inspired to look for someone else. Remember, that being on the board means accepting legal responsibility for Wikimedia Canada.
Ray