Hi Wikimedians,
The "chapter system" in the US and North America is a work in progress.
In addition to the two full regional chapters (New York City - where I am, and Washington, DC), there are also usergroups for the New England, Cascadia/Northwest, and North Carolina Triangle regions, with other groups still in the process of formation.
There is a historical difference from the large-budget Western European chapters and the US situation, which has been more grassroots and never participated in things like fundraiser payment-sharing, and the funding for WMF HQ in San Francisco indeed shouldn't be conflated with funding of US volunteer-based activities.
If anyone else is interested in organizing regionally in any part of the US / North America, feel free to get in touch; Wikimedia NYC and others would be very glad to help you :)
Thanks, Pharos
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 11:15 AM, Robert Fernandez wikigamaliel@gmail.com wrote:
The US may be too geographically spread out to develop a robust chapter system. We have vibrant chapters in a few dense population areas. Wikimedia District of Columbia is particularly awesome. But for most US editors there isn't a critical mass of editors in some areas. Often we work with with chapters that are geographically distant. There's at least two of us on the Board of Directors of WMDC who don't live particularly close to DC.
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 11:00 AM, Jane Darnell jane023@gmail.com wrote:
"We also do not have a strong chapter system"
This has always puzzled me, because I am a firm believer in the chapter system, despite its faults and limitations. Isn't it time to address this for the more active areas of the USA?
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 10:43 AM, Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com
wrote:
GerardM,
As much as I agree with you on many things related to Wikimania, your statement about en.wp and USA being “over subsidized” is off base.
For the last few years I’ve held my tongue as American applicants get a fraction of 10% of all the funding for Wikimania scholarships. That’s because 10% is allocated to all of North America, so US based folks
compete
with Canadians for that small slice of the pie. Indeed, key community members from the US could not afford to go to Wikimania, and did not, because of the limited funding. We also do not have a strong chapter
system
to make up for that shortcoming, where European chapters can, and do, underwrite their local members with other funds.
I am not against the bulk of the scholarship money going to underrepresented developing markets and giving new voices a chance to attend. But I wanted to dispel the myth that Americans are always
gorging
at the trough.
https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships#Scholarship_selection_...
https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships#Selection_process
-Andrew
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 6:49 AM, Gerard Meijssen < gerard.meijssen@gmail.com> wrote:
Hoi, Pine with all due respect, the USA is not the problem and English
Wikipedia
has been overly subsidised, given way too much attention. Indeed
having
more people from the USA attend Wikimania is not a good value
proposition.
The USA and Britain is overrepresented as it is. Thanks, GerardM
On 10 February 2016 at 10:13, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
From a US perspective, even here in the global north we have plenty
of
students and middle-class participants for whom $1500 in travel,
food
and
lodging plus 5 days away from work, family, or school amounts to a significant or impossible sacrifice.
Perhaps someone could tell us the statistics for how many people
have
attended Wikimania each year who were not WMF employees, FDC or WMF
Board
members, scholarship recipients, or financially sponsored by WMF
affiliates
or WEF. Of those people who pay 100% of their own costs plus the
cost
of
admission tickets, my guess is that many live within a day's travel
time
by
train, car, or bus.
I would hypothesize that thematic conferences also have a low
percentage
of
people who pay 100% of their own costs, but that regional
conferences
which
have lower travel costs for the average attendee receive modestly
higher
percentages of unsubsidized attendance.
It seems to me that WMF finacial support for conferences, including regional and thematic conferences, will continue to be the norm.
Whether $1 million is appropriate for Wikimania and whether a more
modest
budget would be appropriate and feasable are different questions
that
merit
careful reflection.
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