2008/9/1 Anthony wikimail@inbox.org:
The impression I've gotten is that the chapters are mainly just used for social networking and meetups. The German chapter seems to be doing a bit more, but I don't know if they get significant donations from non-participants, and, well, most of the information on the chapter is in a language I don't speak. This impression might very well be wrong. Finding out information about Wikimedia matters is extremely difficult. I try to keep up with all the blogs and mailing lists and unofficial and official websites, but I still don't know more than a small fraction of what's going on.
You will probably find this page enlightening.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Summaries
Brianna