On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 1:50 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
As I mentioned in another private email, I am skeptical that a chapter
is needed for this community -- I'd rather see us put our energy into
actually doing projects rather than in doing the paperwork to build an
organization to do projects.
I replied to the question you mentioned about what a chapter can do
than a non-chapter group can not at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_California
* chapters are not (just) local social clubs, but are
part of the
international group of chapters; expectations include international
travel to the annual chapters meeting for two officers, participating
in internal discussions about fundraising and chapter-appointed board
seats, etc. There's a lot of email traffic and work that goes along
with this role for the officers; I see some of it because of my role
in planning Wikimania and frankly I wouldn't want to deal with it on
an ongoing basis.
Phoebe, I apologize. You recently expressed some interest in chapter
formation (though the comment "Wikimedia-Phoebe" was probably in jest)
and wrote a blog post about work more suitable to support your
writing. I thought Chapter Director may have been the kind of
alternative you were considering.
* There is a fair amount of real-world work: filing
the paperwork,
keeping up with taxes, etc. that is required by any nonprofit
organization. This requires expertise, patience and a good amount of
time.
UC Hastings law student Stephen LaPorte has generously offered to help
with the 501(c)3, incorporation, bylaws, and associated paperwork.
Regards,
James