The next step to getting Wikimedia Canada up and running is finishing our Statement of Purpose. I have altered and added what Wiki UK has to what we had before.http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Canada/Proposed_by-laws#Statement_o...
Our main justification for charity status will be "advancement of education". The purpose also include aspects of "research in a recognized field of knowledge" and "providing and maintaining museums and public art galleries". If all could comment it would be appreciated. Once we agree one things I will use this to apply for charity status with the CRA.
James Heilman wrote:
The next step to getting Wikimedia Canada up and running is finishing our Statement of Purpose. I have altered and added what Wiki UK has to what we had before. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Canada/Proposed_by-laws#Statement_o...
Our main justification for charity status will be "advancement of education". The purpose also include aspects of "research in a recognized field of knowledge" and "providing and maintaining museums and public art galleries". If all could comment it would be appreciated. Once we agree one things I will use this to apply for charity status with the CRA.
The specific "advancement of education" as a main justification won't work. The courts have been consistent in their interpretation of this in the very strict sense of formal education. This legacy of 1601 is precisely what was behind Wikimedia-UK's initial failure to receive charitable status. Something modeled on what was achieved by Vancouver Free Net in court would be more likely to succeed.
I have to some extent been marking time on incorporation because of the pending changes in the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act. It was passed by parliament in 2009 and received royal assent. It is expected to be proclaimed later this year. I greatly simplifies the incorporation process.
I would propose a meeting in person of key interested people from across the country in the fall. I would suggest that this takes place in Ottawa. Since Canada has the highest proportion of Wikipedia users in the world there is a strong desire at WMF for a Canadian chapter to get its act together. I had some discussion about this with Sue Gardner in Berlin, and she advised that subsidies may be available to get people together in one place. She has also indicated that there have been inquiries from potential donors willing to provide significant donations once charitable status has been achieved.
It would also be great if someone additional to myself could find his way to Gdansk for Wikimania. Some of the other chapters have had impressive success and accomplishments. Nothing illustrates that point better than meeting these people in person, and many of them will be in Gdansk. I will be flying there from Vancouver on July 4.
Ray
A couple of things I'd like to say,
I've watched this mailing list be hung up on charitable status. And I don't see why it's of such huge concern. Yes, Canadians currently can't get tax receipts when they donate to wikipedia. Is that why we need to be a charity? If so, I've been on the mailing list since the beginning of this year and I have yet to see anyone say that. If that's the focus, you need to have documentation from WMF on what the costs are for providing canadian access to wikipedia and other WMF directives, and then use that as a basis to collect donations from Canadians. Then only if the charity decides to, does the money flow back to WMF. That's how it would need to work.
But a non-charity corporation can still receive donated funds. They just can't issue tax receipts. If your donor is the government or a very large corporation, it isn't that big an issue. A non-profit I work with hasn't bothered becoming a charity because of just that. We will be changing it fairly soon to open up the donor list but there's no urgency to it.
While charitable status can be granted to non-corporations it's not an easy task. From what I know, they are designated as charitable trusts and so require a declaration of trust. Some of the religious organizations and foundations do this in order to "tweak" the governance to their requirements. It is always easier to just incorporate and put a charitable head on the corporation unless there's a strong overriding interest. If the CRA has said otherwise, I'm not going to go against them on what they've stated but I would strongly recommend that someone doublecheck the CRA on that. Also if at some point a charitable non-corp decides to incorporate it will need further approval from the CRA.
On the issue regarding Corporations Act, Canada - I've asked this before but why is there such a focus on the federal act? You can easily incorporate under one of the provincial statutes. In fact, the federal act is almost dead-on to the Ontario Corporations Act. There's been a focus on keeping it Canadian but this type of minute attention is unnecessary. There's no reason why a corporation can't be incorporated provincially and act nationwide and in the interests of all Canadians with all languages in mind. That's what most charities have been doing. Why are we trying to do something different? Ontario, for good or for bad, has had the most experience with a wide range of profit and non-profit corporations. Hence their legislation is the most current. It's the same reason why most corporations in the US are based out of Delaware.
I would think the first real issue is the manpower. Are there enough people with enough time to actually get something going? You also need to find someone or someones to actually bear the administrative burden of running this. Is there anyone prepared to do that? I know I can help but I don't have a whole lot of time to volunteer. And I'm pretty sure most people are in the same boat.
I forget who it was, but someone on the list mentioned that wikimedia australia started off (and maybe still is) a non-profit corp. And that's exactly how I personally envisioned it. Collect enough funds from interested people to incorporate, get it started now and get the kinks out of the system. There will be problems with staffing, direction (definitely that) and people. Once that's done chase the charitable vision. Right now it seems people are torn between inaction and chasing the dream.
I'm not trying to aggravate anyone but these are my thoughts.
Jit
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:35 AM, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
James Heilman wrote:
The next step to getting Wikimedia Canada up and running is finishing our Statement of Purpose. I have altered and added what Wiki UK has to what we had before.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Canada/Proposed_by-laws#Statement_o...
Our main justification for charity status will be "advancement of education". The purpose also include aspects of "research in a recognized field of knowledge" and "providing and maintaining museums and public art galleries". If all could comment it would be appreciated. Once we agree one things I will use this to apply for charity status with the CRA.
The specific "advancement of education" as a main justification won't work. The courts have been consistent in their interpretation of this in the very strict sense of formal education. This legacy of 1601 is precisely what was behind Wikimedia-UK's initial failure to receive charitable status. Something modeled on what was achieved by Vancouver Free Net in court would be more likely to succeed.
I have to some extent been marking time on incorporation because of the pending changes in the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act. It was passed by parliament in 2009 and received royal assent. It is expected to be proclaimed later this year. I greatly simplifies the incorporation process.
I would propose a meeting in person of key interested people from across the country in the fall. I would suggest that this takes place in Ottawa. Since Canada has the highest proportion of Wikipedia users in the world there is a strong desire at WMF for a Canadian chapter to get its act together. I had some discussion about this with Sue Gardner in Berlin, and she advised that subsidies may be available to get people together in one place. She has also indicated that there have been inquiries from potential donors willing to provide significant donations once charitable status has been achieved.
It would also be great if someone additional to myself could find his way to Gdansk for Wikimania. Some of the other chapters have had impressive success and accomplishments. Nothing illustrates that point better than meeting these people in person, and many of them will be in Gdansk. I will be flying there from Vancouver on July 4.
Ray
Wikimedia-ca mailing list Wikimedia-ca@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-ca
I agree that we don't really fit into the education category. What did Vancouver Free Net call themselves to get status? I can't find their constitution after a quick search. The two functions that people have proposed—teaching people to edit and setting up a wiki commons based on restrictive Canadian laws—sound more like the law's library example in the "other" category. Either way, I agree that we should be basing our work on the new law rather than what is currently on the government's website.
I would also like to meet in person at some point. I'll be living in Victoria BC for at least the next year, but I visit Toronto every four months, so I might be able to attend one of the meetings in Ottawa, especially if we could find subsidies for it. I'd love to go to Gdansk, but that's quite a bit out of my price range.
---- Jeffery Nichols (User:Arcitc.gnome), BA, MA, MPA candidate
On 2010-06-21, at 1:35 , Ray Saintonge wrote:
James Heilman wrote:
The next step to getting Wikimedia Canada up and running is finishing our Statement of Purpose. I have altered and added what Wiki UK has to what we had before. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Canada/Proposed_by-laws#Statement_o...
Our main justification for charity status will be "advancement of education". The purpose also include aspects of "research in a recognized field of knowledge" and "providing and maintaining museums and public art galleries". If all could comment it would be appreciated. Once we agree one things I will use this to apply for charity status with the CRA.
The specific "advancement of education" as a main justification won't work. The courts have been consistent in their interpretation of this in the very strict sense of formal education. This legacy of 1601 is precisely what was behind Wikimedia-UK's initial failure to receive charitable status. Something modeled on what was achieved by Vancouver Free Net in court would be more likely to succeed.
I have to some extent been marking time on incorporation because of the pending changes in the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act. It was passed by parliament in 2009 and received royal assent. It is expected to be proclaimed later this year. I greatly simplifies the incorporation process.
I would propose a meeting in person of key interested people from across the country in the fall. I would suggest that this takes place in Ottawa. Since Canada has the highest proportion of Wikipedia users in the world there is a strong desire at WMF for a Canadian chapter to get its act together. I had some discussion about this with Sue Gardner in Berlin, and she advised that subsidies may be available to get people together in one place. She has also indicated that there have been inquiries from potential donors willing to provide significant donations once charitable status has been achieved.
It would also be great if someone additional to myself could find his way to Gdansk for Wikimania. Some of the other chapters have had impressive success and accomplishments. Nothing illustrates that point better than meeting these people in person, and many of them will be in Gdansk. I will be flying there from Vancouver on July 4.
Ray
Wikimedia-ca mailing list Wikimedia-ca@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-ca
wikimedia-ca@lists.wikimedia.org