I infer that you would have preferred a single US chapter from the start, wouldn't you?
Il 28/06/2015 06:08, Risker ha scritto:
Ironically, Ricordisamoa, the "decision" to not have a US chapter was made around 10 years ago at the strong urging of other chapters. The theory (as I understand it) was that the US was the home of the WMF itself, which in the view of the era, meant that the US didn't need the "protections" that came from a chapter; the WMF itself was perceived to speak for US Wikimedians. (Given the times, back when there were literally only enough employees to run the servers and sort of keep an eye on MediaWiki, this was perhaps an incorrect assessment.) Then US regions started to form chapters, first New York then DC; there are now a significant number of user groups. If there had been a US chapter formed back at that time, there would only be one US chapter; the rest would never be recognized at the chapter level. Instead, we now see the specter of what could come, since the US alone as a nation with a large number of Wikimedians does not have the opportunity for a single chapter: given a little bit more organization, and the ambition to do the paperwork to become a chapter, the US could have as many (or more) chapters than exist in all of Europe in a few years. One has to wonder if some other countries, especially those with a large number of Wikimedians or a massive geographic area, might wish they had gone with regional affiliates rather than a national one.
Risker/Anne
On 27 June 2015 at 23:26, Ricordisamoa ricordisamoa@openmailbox.org wrote:
I know the confederated approach may surely make more sense for the local communities, but I think an established regional subject would help uproot the Foundation from a single country it relies too much on.
Il 28/06/2015 05:00, Pine W ha scritto:
Hi Ricordisamoa,
There are multiple chapters, user groups and thematic organizations that are active in the US and have a degree of separation from WMF. The US affiliates are cooperative with each other, and the affiliate leaders communicate with each other fairly frequently. May I ask what benefits you think would come from having a consolidated US chapter? We've talked about this casually among ourselves but so far we seem to be satisfied with a confederation of smaller affiliates instead of a single national affiliate.
Thanks!
Pine
On Jun 27, 2015 7:20 PM, "Ricordisamoa" <ricordisamoa@openmailbox.org mailto:ricordisamoa@openmailbox.org> wrote:
The WMF will become a truly global organization when a Wikimedia US chapter is founded ;-) Il 08/04/2015 06:58, Pine W ha scritto: Hi Garfield, I'm asking this on Wikimedia-l because a number of Wikimedians have noted the expensiveness of the San Francisco area including its high cost of living for staff, employer competition for engineering talent, and associated high salaries for WMF employees. I see onhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/8a/RFP_for_Real_Estate_Se... that WMF is considering relocating its offices when its current main office lease expires.
Questions: What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its current location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for the remodel by the building owner? I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds, have less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is this being considered? Thanks very much, Pine _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
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