On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 12:48 AM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
I believe a guide stating, that these are the sample goals that you should incorporate into your bylaws, would be very helpful. Also a list of activities based on the other chapters, in a choose-all-that-applies fashion would also be helpful.
That would be very helpful. While some modifications may be required to make them fit the requirements of each jurisdiction, the basic idea should be the same everywhere. I know our board spent a LONG time discussing the objects of the charity.
That's very interesting, as I just wrote about my opposite experience. But as said, I think it is a good idea to draft a framework with general aims sentences etc. However, you could start questioning the "independent chapters" bit somewhat, if every chapter has exactly the same "Aims and Purpose" paragraph afterwards... I think there is also a lot of value in chapters deliberating what they want to do, where they want to set their focus etc. One chapter might more be into technical development, one into educational projects, one into publishing, one into soliciting images and so on and so on. I oppose restricting this latitude. So, on second thought, I would rather want to set up a document saying "This is 'acceptable': A, BC, D, E, F and others'. The following will lead to disapproval: 'Represent Wikimedia Foundation in Country X; Be the Operator of the French language Wikipedia; Elect the ArbCom of German Wikibooks etc."' We receive always many different sets of aims, and we make sure that we only point out when we actively disapprove of something and I don't think we should start saying "Hey, this is a new / slightly different formulation, it's not in our framework, change this".
M.