On 9/4/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge@telus.net> wrote:
Gerald A wrote:
> Now that school has started and summer is starting to wind down, I'd
> like to start to move the Chapter
> creation process forward, and give it a solid schedule.
What has school got to do with anything?
Not sure if it's rational or not, but as you know, their are different sweeps of activity for different projects at different times of the year. Most of the time people are away during the summer, school keeps them routed in place and makes it easier for them to do other work.
> I've made preliminary contact with a lawyer with the intention of
> getting some assistance in drafting the various bylaws
> that are required to give Wikimedia Canada a legal footing. I'm hoping
> having someone with skill and knowledge will
> shorten the time that it is taking us to tackle this task at present.
The only thing that contacting a lawyer at this late stage can do is
make sure that the process drags on even longer, not to mention
additional costs out of a bank account that does not yet exist.
I disagree, many chapters should have their own lawyer remove any bylaws and ask them to help them follow the steps properly for their local jurisdiction. ChapComm is great, but it has a lot on its plate and they review the bylaws for their own purposes, a lawyer will review it for different purposes. The problem about money, they could hold an unofficial fundraiser or the founder's could pay the lawyer costs. I think the involvement of a lawyer is a good idea.
> My intention is to keep the process as open as possible, and make
> available the by-laws on wiki (and possibly on the
> mailing list), so everyone can review and comment on them before we
> submit them for official consideration.
>
> I'd like comments or questions and concerns.
Having the process open is fine, but it needs to be balanced with
getting things done. I have already drafted a substantial part of the
bylaws, and in nearly two months there hasn't been a peep from anybody
with alternative suggestions, except for Greeves' complete alternative,
but that has received no comments either.
Yeah, a lot of the items like this have gone dead. If someone hasn't already, a post to Foundation-l and more spamming wouldn't hurt. This also re-iterates the fact of items being proposed in the summertime. ;-)
For me the tricky issue remains defining the nature of meetings, given
that the directors would be scattered across the country, and getting
physically together would be unnecessarily expensive.
This could be fixed rather easily. A chapter does not need to hold all their meetings face to face (though it is rather good if they have a few); some could be held over IRC or teleconference. I'd suggest a minimum of 1 face-to-face meeting per year.
If people could be bothered to give their opinions on bylaw specifics we
could have this ready in a couple of weeks, agree on the three persons
who would submit the incorporation, get their signatures on the
application, and send it in. The bylaws may need to be amended later,
but that can be done when we have more people who are really serious
about participating.
Sounds awesome, just get spamming! :-) I'm sure Greg Maxwell would help you if you wanted to send an e-mail via Special:Emailuser on meta to all the people who signed up on "Participants" notifying them of this.
Ec
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