On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 12:38 PM, Henning Schlottmann h.schlottmann@gmx.net wrote:
Get the organizers of all local meetups, the Pennsylvanians, the New Yorkers and everyone else who ever made some steps to chapterhood together on a mailing list, ask around if one of the Wikipedians involved is a lawyer who can handle any questions, choose a state where to incorporate the chapter (based on locality of a few core members and the answers of your lawyer) and set up the chapter. That's not rocket science. Wikipedians usually are smart people, you should be able to get it done without any problems.
I think you need to look at what's currently being done by Wikimedia New York City. They have a couple dozen or more people interested to some extent in forming a chapter, they've appointed an interim president, they've run a "scavenger hunt and free content photography contest", they're looking into a project for the "digitization of the CYCO Yiddish Encyclopedia", and they've "had preliminary discussions about a free content photography contest at the Brooklyn Museum". They've had numerous speakers at their meetings, and they have their next live in-person meeting scheduled for June 1, 2008.
They've got well enough support for a chapter. Telling them set up a mailing list and invite other people from around the United States in order to get this chapter formed doesn't make any sense. I bet at least half the people who will show up at that June 1 meeting wouldn't even read the mailing list, let alone participate on it.