On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@googlemail.com wrote:
- Of the organizations Lars mentioned, only ISOC has "chapters". I still
find it not clear about whether the national organizations are independent or merely national agencies of the center (as it is the case with Greenpeace).
IEEE uses the term "Sections", to basically describe the same construct. However, IEEE sections are arranged in a way that even we might find strange: They have several chapters in the US alone, and one chapter that covers all of Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The reasons for this are the number and distribution of electrical engineers.
- It is also irrelevant whether individuals choose to be member in a chapter
that does not belong to the nation state they live in, like nationals of France living abroad (as Florence has explained well), or Belgians who go to the Dutch chapter as long as they don't have own of their own.
Some chapters do stipulate in their bylaws that to become a member you must "live or work" in the chapter's geographic area. I don't know how common it is amongst our existing chapters, but I have seen it on more then one occasion.
- If the Wikimedians in the USA did not manage to create a national chapter,
it is not my fault. Why can't there be a Wikimedia US? I don't know the reason: Large and ethnically diverse countries have WM chapters, other movements have US chapters...
Organizers decide what is best for themselves. If organizers in the USA think it's better to create community-oriented groups, that is their prerogative. It is not you who decides if there will be a Wikimedia US, and it is not me who decides it either: The organizers decide that, and they have decided to pursue locally-based chapters instead of a nationally-based one. There is no "fault" because there is no problem.
- "Sub national chapters" in the US states make WMF the default Wikimedia
US, dealing with American institutions and personalities in a way usually a chapter would. American Wikimedians have no reason to take effort for a WMUS if they see this and that they can have US states chapters.
This is perhaps a factor, but then how do you explain situations like Canada and India where organizers have tried unsuccessfully to create a national chapter and are now pursuing sub-national ones instead?
- The world is divided into countries, like it or not, and this has
consequences for us.
And countries are divided into states and provinces and municipalities, like it or not, and this has consequences for us.
--Andrew Whitworth