Hi Cascadians,
The Affiliation Committee, in association with WMF Legal, has reversed its previous approval of our proposed group name of Cascadia Wikimedians. There appears to be a desire on their part to emphasize within our legal name that we are a user group. Personally I am frustrated by this change of opinion, I feel that this degree of concern with group names is excessive, and I feel that groups should have more autonomy in choosing their names since we are legally independent of WMF. I hope to discuss these and other matters via a Hangout conversation with the chair of the Affiliations Committee, and preferably also with Stephen LaPorte and Asaf Bartov from WMF. Affcom and WMF are aware of our frustration with the length of what should have been a lightweight approval process for our group, and I have made clear to Affcom and WMF that I believe that the user group approval process has gone astray from the easy process that the WMF Board intended.
Our frustration aside, let us now discuss how we might agree on an alternative group names. I have placed two options on Meta and voiced my personal opinions, and I hope that other Cascadians will also comment so that we can achieve consensus within about a week. Please visit this link [1] to comment.
Thank you,
Pine
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Cascadia_Wikimedians#User_group_name_di...