Jimmy Wales wrote:
In other cases, we will have chapters which cover only parts of some nations. For example, a 'U.S. local chapter' makes no sense because the US is much much too big and diverse for that to be sensible. I can easily imagine an "eastern seaboard" chapter, a "california" chapter, etc. How to draw those lines, and why, well.... too early to speculate since no one has really tried to form one yet. :)
The U.S. is also somewhat unique in that it doesn't have a need for a separate "Wikimedia U.S." to fill legal beaurocratic roles, because the global Wikimedia Foundation is already headquartered in the U.S. and subject to U.S. law, so can fill any of those roles itself (tax-exempt donations, applying for U.S. grants, etc.).
I suppose for consistency's sake we could have the same setup in the U.S., but from a pragmatic perspective it seems that as long as U.S. Wikimedians trust the Wikimedia Foundation to handle the accounts and legal aspects, the same effect could be accomplished just by having non-incorporated/informal associations of U.S. Wikimedians do everything a local foundation would normally do except for the legal aspects, thereby avoiding legal and beaurocratic duplication.
-Mark