On 8/16/05, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
Regarding Wikimedia chapters, I wrote:
I have no plans for encouraging the formation of one anywhere near me, unless I see solid evidence that it makes financial sense.
I'll just add to that that I did a quick review of the tax situation with charities in Australia. It seems a Wikimedia chapter in Australia may qualify as a charity but would not qualify as a "deductible gift recipient" (DGR). This means that although it would be exempt from paying income tax, donations would not be tax-deductible. So there would be very little financial benefit in creating an Australian chapter.
Financial benefit is not the only thing that makes chapters useful. In Germany the chapter helped a lot in getting more publicity and getting the community together, and in setting up such fruitful partnerships like the one with the Deutsche Bibiliothek (national library) or the one with Directmedia who published the German Wikipedia DVD. I doubt that this would have happened without a German chapter. Of course we need money, but to reach our long term goals we'll need more than that.
-- Arne (akl)