fyi. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: rupert THURNER <rupert.thurner(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, May 3, 2014 at 9:02 AM Subject: simple and effective creation process for chapters To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> hi, out of the experiences of creating 50 chapters, and the recent frustrated feedback from persons involved in the creation of new chapters, e.g. belgium and ghana, could we please find a simple and effective way to organize the chapters creation process? existing chapters not meeting the requirements have 3 years to adjust their bylaws. target and purpose of chapters: chapters match a country as defined by the league of nations defined in 1939 and reaffirmed by the united nations in 1945 [1], to follow local jurisdiction. they are membership organizations. requirements to be a chapter in the bylaws: * support the mission of the wmf * be a membership organization, i.e. the highest body is the assembly of members * be a member must be possible for everybody who contributes (i.e. edits, writes software used by wmf projects) at zero cost (or low cost, e.g. price of one meal?) * meet the tax exemption criteria. justification needed if not possible, reviewed regularly. * an audit committee, consisting of members, who are also allowed to seek professional help this means chapters can created within days, not years. the rules are clear right from the beginning. measures are already in place if something goes wrong. problems addressed: * creating a chapter is possible immediately one finds the legal minimum number of contributors in a country, most of the time 2 or 3. * the bylaw requirements guarantee contributors can easily join any time and no lockout can happen. negative example: german football federation, allowing a red bull club (rb leipzig) with 7 members, exorbitant membership fee, existing rb leipzig board decides who can become member. * proper names may be used immediately, current negative example: "planning wikimedia ghana" registers facebook, and other social accounts with a temporary name to gather people. the risk is that it is "planning" forever. later change of such accounts is nearly impossible without breaking history. * bank accounts with limited liability are used immediately, allowing to properly pursue misuse in local jurisdiction. negative example: kenya, where money disappeared from a personal account. * the bylaw requirements allow the inclusion or lockout of people not contributing at the chapters discretion. example: germany, switzerland allowing persons and even legal entities to become member. * it allows to organize itself in some federal way within a country, at the discretion of a chapter. * it guarantees to have the highest level of local jurisdiction control by meeting tax exemption criteria. examples: germany, uk. there critieria are in place which can be fulfilled, austria. criteria exist what cannot be matched, but discussions are ongoing to change the law. * initial signing of policies and contracts with the wmf is not required. using trademarks without approval is easily controlled by established procedures (legal, fdc, etc). the movement is used to deal with people and organizations trying to do that every day, in many countries. * "contributing" is easily and globally defined by commits, and edits, as currently used for elections [2] * no block is there by enforcing auditing costs, as well preventing a chapters board to "appoint a best friend auditing firm". negative examples: enron, which was audited by arthur anderson, and anyway exploded. positive examples: wmf, using volunteers and kpmg, most chapters. * there is no different treatment of newborn chapters, chapters with experienced boards, and chapters who just changed the whole board. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2013 kind regards, rupert. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh