Hi Gerald,
thanks for your reply. The chapters committee would like to assist chapters in their founding, and not merely rubber stamp bylaws. As I wrote in my e-mail ( http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-ca/2010-December/000632.html ) you can find a better explanation of the approval/creation process on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Step-by-step_chapter_creation_guide .
Part of that process is to help you determine if the chapter is likely to be viable (although I do not expect that to be a problem, we would still like to collect a little information on that), and another major part is the bylaws/charter (the legal documents). Surely you do not have those yet, but usually the chapters committee takes a look at the proposed documents before they are sent to the responsible government. That way we can both make sure that the necessary safeguards are there as they are expected in the Wikimedia movement (not necessarily covered in your jurisdiction), but also lots of practicalities we might want to give an advice on based on our prior experiences with founding chapters. The chapters committee doesnt have to look at official documents, but rather the documents that will be submitted for such status.
I guess it would be a good begin if someone would write down a summary of the current situation for the chapters committee (not necessarily extensive) on who are behind this application, how many people, what kind of people (Wikipedians or not etc), the timepath up to now and expected with the steps set in motion yet, what the plans are of the chapter-to-be, how you expect to tackle the long distance problems and whether a legal expert has yet reviewed the submitted documents. If you could also submit the current draft to the chapters committee, so that we can take a shot at it, we can keep moving. Also, it would be good to know how many people have actively been involved in the current submission, and how big the support is for that (as I understood, there have been some issues about submitting before or after jan.1st, but please correct me if I'm wrong).
Thanks on beforehand,
Lodewijk
2010/12/4 Gerald A geraldablists@gmail.com:
Hi,
On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 12:34 PM, L.Gelauff lgelauff@gmail.com wrote:
As I read from your email, you submitted already to the government?
I believe so.
Somehow I must have missed something here. I realize that there have been some miscommunications in the past between Canadian wikimedians and the chapters committee, but the regular way to start up a chapter is by first going through chapcom and thén go through the government process. The chapters committee does not want to make your life hard, but would like to give input on bylaws and structures (we think we might have some experience in chapters that might come in use), and would like to give that input before you apply for incorporation to make it easier to process some possible changes.
I have to admit that I am somewhat surprised by your move for incorporation, the chapters committee was not aware of that until I read the archives of this list (although we knew there was an interest in setting up a chapter). I hope that communications can be improved from here on, and that we can follow regular processes.
Well, it seems you aren't the only one surprised -- a number of list members, including myself, weren't aware of the decision to submit the paperwork to the government.
Now, I have to admit that putting together the basic by-laws to get the chapter off of the ground seems to have been a stumbling block in the past, and killed at least 2 attempts to get things off the ground. There is a groundswell of support for doing some work with regards to Wikimedia projects and goals, but to be honest the legal stuff is dull and boring, and involves many fine details that are hard to be excited about.
From what I understand from the banter on the list (and those in the know correct me if I'm wrong), we are still waiting on word back from the Government, which could take some time, and there is no guarantee that it will be accepted. That said, what needs to be done to make WM.CA come into good standing as far as the Chapcom is concerned?
There is a little bit of chicken-and-egg here, since nothing is "official" legally here until the Government approves things, and if memory serves, chapcom just looks at the charter of a chapter (which won't exist until we are approved by the Gov't).
So, let us know what we have to do to get back on track.
Thanks, Gerald