On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org wrote:
Effe's correct. Delphine is the point person for chapters, so if volunteers in the United States want to formally organize, she would be their contact for that. The fact that she's not in the United States doesn't/shouldn't matter - she's the chapters' global representative (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Argentina, Israel) and is used to working with people who are far from her geographically. There's no need for the United States to get any special treatment.
I first entered contact with Delphine on these issues several months ago. She does not appear to be unsympathetic to these ideas.
On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com wrote:
I think that Pharos' approach, ahving the WMFoundation dedicate specific resources to a "US local chapter" (which by the way, does not have to operate US wide, but could just be the point of communication of more regional chapters) actually makes sense, and it is definitely one approach I am going to take into consideration, among others.
We have a situation where the US, because of its population distribution, is ripe for regional affiliates. Other countries may be similar, and there may be a desire, for say, a "Wikimedia Canada Affiliates Coordinator", appointed by a future Wikimedia Canada. But the WMF is the non-profit responsible for Wikimedia in the US, and fulfills the role of 'de facto' chapter here, and so I think would be the appropriate entity to designate an "Affiliates Coordinator" for this country.
The WMF also has a unique role vis-a-vis US groups in that it has the capacity to grant them a "Group Exemption Letter", conferring non-profit status on a related organization. It is not possible to do this for groups in other countries.
On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org wrote:
People who don't want to organize formally into chapters or chapter-like entities can continue to work with Cary, who is the point person for individual volunteers. So Pharos working with Cary for Wikipedia Takes Manhattan makes perfect sense :-)
We do wish to organize formally; we just don't wish to register as many separate non-profits. We would be organized in a manner legally identical to local chapters of the American Red Cross.
Thanks, Pharos