Hello everyone,

Looking at the various discussions surrounding the Berlin Agreement -- and particularly in anticipation of the first meetings of the Wikimedia Chapters Association, where future plans for chapters in the US might become a point of contention -- I think it may be beneficial for us to more formally adopt and promulgate a shared vision for the future of US-based chapters at our in-person meeting at Wikimania.

Having said that, I think that trying to come up with something as detailed as the Berlin Agreement -- establishing a formal organization, adopting a detailed charter, and so forth -- would be premature for us; most of our regional groups haven't gone down the path of formally incorporating and becoming official chapters, and there's little value to creating a formal infrastructure until that happens.

Instead, I'd like to propose that we put together an agreement in principle to outline a shared vision for the development of US chapters.  The agreement would essentially outline three key goals:

(1) Creating a network of regional Wikimedia chapters across the United States;

(2) Building collaboration among the regional Wikimedia chapters in the US; and

(3) At some point in the future, forming an association of Wikimedia chapters in the US.

By signing the agreement, the signatories would simply indicate their support of these goals.  The agreement could therefore be signed on an individual basis -- i.e. each of the attendees at our July meeting could sign on their own behalf -- rather than only by chapters or other regional groups (which would sharply limit the number of potential signatures, and significantly increase the complexity of the entire exercise).

Would something along these lines be of interest to the participants here?

Cheers,

Kirill

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