Mike Godwin wrote:
Florence writes:
The chapters has agreement with the WMF that they may in their area negotiate with third parties on use of wikimedia project logos and names.
Actually, that's a pretty optimistic view of the situation. The very largest majority of chapters do not have agreement. Afaik, only one chapter has. When propositions are received, either we forward them to the Foundation and hope someone will deal with them. Or we just dump them because we can not negociate.
After ongoing review of the chapter agreements, both as templates and as they have been specifically implemented, I believe Florence's characterization here is fundamentally correct. In general, the chapter agreements as they are implemented nowadays do not delegate to the chapters the right to negotiate business propositions regarding wikimedia project logos. I should add that I have not reviewed every single chapter agreement (notably, I haven't reviewed the German chapter agreement), and that in the course of trying to regularize chapter agreements we have discovered that our records of chapter agreements are incomplete, or at least scattered. (This is not a result of the relocation to San Francisco -- I think the records were disorganized or complete prior to the move.)
Among my goals for this calendar year are (a) improving record-keeping of the specific chapter agreements, (b) harmonizing, to the extent possible, the chapter agreements so that there is a fairly standard understanding of what chapters may do or are likely to do as a function of their agreement with WMF, (c) improving chapter agreements in terms of trademark management and brand identification. We have asked the Stanford Law School Organizations and Transactions Clinic to work with us on reviewing and revising our standard chapters agreement this year, and if our previous experience with them is any guide, we expect this collaboration to be fruitful.
Good to read :-)
Go for it !
By the way, <whisper>we still have not received the signed agreement for the fundraiser. Since we raised 50 000 euros or so, that means WMF could loose the control of possibly 20 000 euros. Can you make sure we get that paper so that we can start discussing means to use this money for international goal ? Otherwise, we keep it all ! I mean... one thing we can not complain about WMF is acting like a sharp ;-) </whisper>
hihi
ant
On another topic, for what it's worth, I find it clearer to think of "subnational chapters" rather than "subchapters."
--Mike
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