Hoi, Without the five persons that make the difference, there is no chapter anyway.
Andrew, the NYC does not need my approval but given what I know of their activities so far, they are doing great. This does however not mean that the issues that are raised have been answered, far from it.
Your realisation that several national chapters have not been performing as they should is correct. It is however not the issue that we are discussing. At the same time Ting indicated that the board takes this seriously and this gives me hope that non performance is not without consequence. Thanks, GerardM
2009/1/20 Andrew Whitworth wknight8111@gmail.com
On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
When the right five friends come together, they do not need their dog to make a successful organisation. Five people are enough to make a bored,
five
people are enough to raise money. It takes dedication and a lot of
effort.
5 people is not critical mass, and I cannot imagine that the chapcom would approve a potential chapter that has only 5 members. 5 people can do many wonderful things, but that does not make them a chapter.
Ting ruled out the existence of an USA chapter because of the existence
of
the New York chapter. It is equally clear that the WMF organisation does
not
want to fulfill the role of an USA chapter. When Dan asks me and Anthere
not
to use the "sub-chapter" word, he is right in that the board names them a chapter, but the issue of the New York chapter having fewer abilities and responsibilities is conveniently swept under the carpet in this way.
This is all blatantly false. What "abilities" and "responsibilities" are not available to WMNYC that our other national-level chapters have? Besides the fact that the WMF itself is based on the USA and therefore is more able to enter into business agreements with companies here then in other countries, I see no limitation on this or any other subnational chapter. Do not assume that this group is at any disadvantage compared to our other national chapters. In fact, this chapter is in BETTER shape then some of our national chapters are, having already sponsored a number of outreach projects, creating working relationships with other organizations, and soliciting high-profile donations from museums and other content repositories. We have national chapters that have not had as much activity in the last year that WMNYC has had in the last two months.
The prefix sub indicates that it is less then the norm. For me it is
obvious
that some great five or more people will make the NYC a success. What I
want
to learn is in what way the national concerns that I expect a functional chapter to take care off will be handled for the USA. This is the crucial bit of thinking, information that is missing. And as long as this is not clear, the NYC is a sub-par to me.
WMNYC does not need to impress you, and does not need your approval Gerard. Their success will be measured in volunteers, donation dollars, and media contributed to our projects. What "national concerns" do you expect that they will not be able to address? Our "sub-national" nomenclature indicates only that they are smaller in size then the country that contains them, nothing more. If I called them a "super-municipal chapter" or a "regional chapter", would your opinion of them improve? If I called our current chapters "sub-global" or "sub-continental", would that change your opinion of them too?
--Andrew Whitworth
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