On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 8:00 PM, MZMcBride <z@mzmcbride.com> wrote:
This is a general comment, but having finally gotten around to reading some
of the mailing list posts to this list (wikimedia-dc) from the past few
days, a lot of the tone of various aspects of this proposed chapter, etc.
strikes me as stiflingly and wholly unnecessarily formalistic. I appreciate
organization and I appreciate passion, but I think there are some people who
are much more interested in mock government and rules of order than a more
laid-back approach where the goal is that people who enjoy free
culture/wikis/etc. hang out and geek out.
There are several factors at work here, I think:
1. A lot of organizational and procedural discussion that, in most non-profit organizations, takes place behind the scenes is here happening on a widely-subscribed mailing list. While this is good in many ways -- transparency, increased public input, etc. -- it does have the effect of over-exposing more "casual" participants to the sausage-making process. Some of this will likely be mitigated with the introduction of one or more mailing lists intended specifically for organizational matters, which will allow this list to cater more to those who want to "hang out and geek out".
2. In a broader sense, the organization aspects of running a non-profit corporation are meant to support the normal activities of the Wikimedians in this area rather than replacing them. The rules of order and such are indeed necessary -- we are running a legal entity that needs to comply with various IRS requirements, and will be handling considerable sums of money for Wikimania 2012 -- but they are primarily a matter for the Board and Officers to deal with on a day-to-day basis; once we get past this initial stage of forming the chapter, I expect that most participants will be able to avoid the procedures entirely, with the exception of the formal membership meetings each year. (Of course, anyone who *likes* the procedure will certainly be able to take part in it; but I suspect that this applies to a small minority of subscribers here.)
3. On a more basic level, a certain degree of over-enthusiasm is natural when people start doing a new and exciting thing. I'm sure that things will have become somewhat less frenetic in a few months, regardless of anything else.
Perhaps I'm alone in these feelings and perhaps I simply need to stop
associating with whatever Wikimedia DC becomes, if the general consensus is
that things are headed in the right direction. I do wonder if others agree,
though.
Does Wikimedia DC have a statement of principles or anything like that at
this point?
I'm not sure that a statement of principles per se, beyond those already set out in the incorporation documents and the bylaws, would be particularly useful. What would be more valuable, in my opinion, is some sort of strategic plan -- in other words, where are we going, as an organization, in the next few years? This will obviously take time to develop, however.
Kirill