On 5/31/06, Gavin Chait gchait@gmx.net wrote:
- Chapters - I'm assuming this has some oversight of the projects?
Oversight and coordination of [[m:Wikimedia chapters]], which have no direct connection to projects. See [[m:Chapters committee]], [[m:Wikimedia chapters]].
[[m:Wikimedia committees]] were created to allow the Board to delegate responsibility for certain necessary, day-to-day Wikimedia operations, providing for more effective management while still retaining final authority. They don't yet have any legal status, so this delegation is currently de facto only, but as a practical matter they operate as originally conceived.
How committees organize and conduct themselves is generally left up to them, and varies considerably. Chapters, for instance, comprises five members and two advisers, with the committee officers (chairman and vice chairman) holding mostly "administrative" roles rather than governing ones, in a primus inter pares sense. Other committees may have a more hierarchical approach, with the chairman steering the direction of the committee and taking on more of a leadership role.
What's important is that the system, which is still very new and working itself out, is an improvement over relying on the overtaxed Board to micromanage WMF operations.
Austin