On 4/18/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
I have no problem with the Foundation's policy that a national chapter should be membership based, but just who will be a member for legal purposes still needs to be defined. In some respects there is a romantic attraction to having every Canadian who contributes to either the English or French Wikipedia treated as a member, but that would be totally impractical. Membership can be based on making a positive statement that one wants to become a member, perhaps accompanied by a membership fee; this would also need to be accompanied by a section about when memberships terminate.
Maybe a little insight as to what others chapters do may help here. I am not familiar with Canadian law, so I can't say that this fits, but here are the bulk of membership options that have been developped by other chapters.
1) membership tied to the payment of a member fee Anyone who wishes to join can join => members are given the right to vote in the General Assembly which elects the board
2) membership tied to the activity in the Wikimedia projects Only people with a record of activity in the projects can join. Others may have to be presented to the board for acceptation. => members are given the right to vote in the General Assembly which elects the board
3) membership is broken down in different categories depending on the chapter => voting (active) members =>supporting members (pay a fee but don't vote) => honorary members (pay a greater fee and vote, or don't vote) => members that are companies (may vote or not vote)
4) members each need to be approved by the board
5) members may be refused by the board (veto option)
Almost all of the existing structures have an elected board, means of election vary depending on the status adopted.
Hope this helps,
Delphine