I'm sorry guys, but all this work on bylaws has really put me off. When I formed my corporation, the lawyers drafted the bylaws from some very basic direction from me. The group lacks a local team who are willing to meet regularly, at least every 2 months, in person. This group will need to do fund raising, various corporate tasks and make the commitment that they will not abandon their responsibilities without adequate notice and preferably making some effort to find a replacement. In discussions I had with other successful chapters, that local group was identified as the critical piece.
The fundraising is necessary for many reasons, but most importantly this draft group would need to put up some share of their own money or time to find the seed money to get the basic legal assistance required to get this moving. Running a charity is not a hobby, it requires serious people who are going to make it work.
I am willing to be a part of this team, but before I'm willing to get involved again, I need to know I have at least 4 other serious people in the GTA who are willing to step up. I define serious as willing to:
1) Meet roughly 6 times per year in person.
2) Willing to donate between 200 and 500 dollars or raise a similar amount by some form of fundraising
3) An understanding that we are not forming a HUGE multinational corporation, but a small Canadian based charity to get things started in Canada that will be managed and governed by a local group of people. This does not mean that things cannot become more complex as it grows, but I am looking to keep it simple to get it started.
2010/1/18 Ray Saintonge
<saintonge@telus.net>
Jeffery Nichols wrote:
> Wikimedia Canada is still in the phase of writing the bylaws, there isn't much we can do until we finish those, but if anyone wants to do some long-term planning or make a website, that would be great. They were almost complete, but there is a new law governing not-for-profit organizations and the bylaws have to be checked against it with a fine-toothed comb, preferably by more than one person. I started that process last summer, but this past autumn has been very hectic for me because of a family emergency and some professional issues, so I haven't touched it in a while. If there is still interest in the process, I can get started on that again in February and we could present them to the WMF by spring.
>
> Bylaws as of now:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Canada/Proposed_by-laws
> New law:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3864664&Language=e&Mode=1
>
>
had a number of exchanges with Jeff about various points. Unfortunately,
no-one else showed much interest, and a number of points would be helped
by wider discussion. I appreciate that Jeff has now explained his very
valid reasons for not continuing his participation; and I am glad to see
that there was more to this than a simple loss of interest.
The question of the new law remains. For an explanation of some of its
effects see http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cd-dgc.nsf/eng/cs04239.html .
That law received royal assent last June, but it was expected to be a
year before it could come into effect. Someone incorporating now under
the old law would need to make adjustments to its corporate by-laws
within three years of the new law coming into effect. Thus, in some
respects, I have not been overly concerned about hurrying the process
until after we can use the new law.
I contrast with the old law, the new law does not require by-law
approval by the government; those by-laws simply need to be filed within
one year after incorporation. If we apply now those by-laws would need
to be approved. In the interim then, we need to live through a
government created Catch-22. Not that Industry Canada approval would be
a problem, but that subsequent approval by Revenue Canada for charitable
status is what would require careful crafting.
Ray
--
View Alan Walker's profile on LinkedIn
[
http://www.linkedin.com/in/walker1]