2012/10/14 James Heilman jmh649@gmail.com:
Thematic organizations have the same amount of authority over content on Wikipedia as chapters. To spell this out clearly that means NONE. One does not put these sorts of details in a NGOs by laws however this will be clearly described in the policies once incorporated.
Authority - none - but as the main goal of chapters is just to support Wikimedia projects and communities as a whole rather without any direct influence over project's content or rules of the projects, thematic associations are clearly about the content of projects as such. If Wikimedia Medicine activity had no any impact over medical content of Wikipedias there would not have any sense to have such organization :-)
I think it is nothing wrong with it, I rather see great opportunity here - for example in bringing more professionals to edit Wikipedias and - maybe - be able to successfully apply for scientific grants from relevant governmental and private sources...