First, I do not want to diminish the happiness of the New Yorkers having a chapter making their activities easier. But I do think very negative about this step of the Board, both for emotional and practical reasons.
Emotional: Having a NYC chapter next to the French, German etc. makes France, Germany etc. look the equals to New York. It makes the Wikimedia Foundation look an American organization that has regional chapters in the 50 states, and also has some afiliates in the "colonies" (France, Germany etc.). As Gerard has said, some countries are more equal than others.
Practical: When I once talked with Arne Klempert about the possibility of an Esperanto or Latin or Alemannic chapter, he explained to me that Wikimedia accepts only chapters within international boundaries, one chapter per country. There is a German, Austrian, and a Swiss chapter, not a German language or a French language chapter. If this would not be so, if we would have chapters based on something else, we would get into a lot of trouble. And he easily convinced me, because I know similar problems from other organizations.
Allowing sub national chapters (or super national chapters) is giving wrong ideas to a lot of people. If we did not deny a chapter to the New Yorkers, how can we deny it to other regions, minorities etc.? (Or prevent that personal conflicts are realized on the level of regions?)
Some more questions: * NYC chapter does not clearly define its borders, talks about a region where it wants to be active. What if other Wikimedians wants to create a chapter in a city that is now in the New York chapter region? When a North Eastern US Chapter knocks on the door of WMF, will the NYC chapter be happy about and volontarily dissolve?
* Ethnically divided countries: Belgium, for example: What if one group of Belgian Wikimedians wants to create a Belgian chapter, but others want three regional chapters (Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia)?
* Minorities without region: What if there is an Estonian chapter, but Russian speaking people there demand a chapter of their own?
* When the chapters are going to work together more than now, and are going to elect WMF board members: Will one chapter have one vote? Will there be 50 US chapters with 50 votes, and one French chapter with one vote?
* Isn't it much easier for WMF to relate to a limited number of national chapters than with a potentially unlimited number of national, sub national, or super national chapters?
It might have been better to consider the NYC chapter indeed as a "sub chapter", a stand-in until there will be an US chapter.
Kind regards
Ziko
2009/1/19 Michael Snow wikipedia@verizon.net
I've been assembling my notes from last week's board meeting to pass along. The first set of items I have to report is business from the chapters committee. All of these resolutions have been posted on the foundation website.
We approved two new chapters, and there's something special about each of the two. Wikimedia New York City is special because it's the first one recognized under the new sub-national chapter guidelines. And Wikimedia UK is special because it's the second version of that chapter. For the sake of formality - and nobody does formality better than the British, which has been part of the difficulty - we revoked the recognition of the first one, which is dissolved or in the process of dissolving. Anyway, welcome to both of the new chapters!
Also, two resolutions relating to the chapters committee's membership and procedures were approved. One recognizes the current members and the other allows the committee to determine its own membership in the future. This allows them to keep their work going without waiting for the board to pass a resolution (the board reserves the ability to appoint and remove members and will still be informed of changes).
--Michael Snow
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