mikelifeguard@fastmail.fm wrote:
Sue actually foreshadowed this development in an interview she gave at Wikimania: “We also know that, for example in the United States, there is no United States chapter – there can’t be, it’s too big of a country. Arguably there won’t be a Canadian chapter either, for the same reason, right? Because to the extent that chapters are about bringing people together and nurturing community face-to-face, they just can’t - Vancouver and Toronto just aren’t gonna get together, you know, for meetings and things.” And I can agree with that sentiment. Part of my reluctance to get involved is that there’s basically zero chance of me travelling to be involved in this. Unfortunately, regional chapters don’t help me either as there’s nobody nearby, AFAIK. However for the organization as a whole, it is worth pursuing regional or city chapters, I think.
The biggest difficulty for the US chapter is that WMF is also US based. The country's size comes behind that.
I commented on Meta about what the chat-people had come up with for by-laws more than a month ago, and there hasn't been a single response. A lot of these things don't require in person meetings. Many of these issues can be negotiated on wiki.
Bringing people together is not the primary purpose of the chapter. That can be done on a regional or city basis without a chapter. What's a lot more important is the fund-raising aspect which will allow us to put more emphasis on Canadian priorities.
Ec