Arne Klempert wikipedia@klempert.de wrote:
On Wednesday, June 16, 2004 5:03 AM Angela wrote:
Delirium wrote:
I'd personally prefer if important things, like votes for foundations, not take place at "in-person" meetings, because not all of us have sufficient funds to attend such meetings. Internet elections are much more inclusive.
German law requires "in-person" meetings for the setup of a "Verein".
I don't believe on-line voting is legal in all countries, so it may not be possible for all of the Wikimedia chapters to do this. I do think that postal voting should usually be made available though, and the recently formed German Wikimedia Association certainly allows for this. � 8.2 of the Verein's bylaws (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vereinssatzung) state that when elections are taking place, the possibility of voting remotely must be given to the members (by post or fax as far as I could tell).
On-line voting is possible in theory but up to now it's extremely difficult to do this legally effective. Afaik there is only *one* german "Verein" who did this - and there are a great many of such associations in Germany. I'm sure this becomes more easier in the future but until then we have to do absentee votes (as stated in the bylaws this is necessary for board elections and changing the bylaws) by snail mail, at least for those members who are not able or willing to come to the annual meetings.
Congratulations again to everyone elected, and to all those who worked so hard in getting this set up.
Thank you, Angela. It was a great pleasure to have you with us in Berlin.
-akl
I concur with Mark wish for online voting, but I know it is not always possible.
We were wondering as well if it was possible for the french wikipedia local chapter, and indeed e-vote is legally acceptable now. However, it is still very recent, so little use. I hope it becomes widely legal soon.
Anyway, I am real glad that the german association was finally founded. I would be happy to discuss a bit its organisation and the roles it intends to hold with anyone involved in it. I would be like to do so, both as an interesting reference to be used for next local-chapter-to-be, and of course, to see how the Wikimedia Foundation and the local chapter could be related in the best way.
I regret I was not among you, it would have been nice to meet german wikipedians...
Florence/Anthere
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