On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Effe's correct.
Delphine is the point person for chapters, so if volunteers in the United
States want to formally organize, she would be their contact for that. The
fact that she's not in the United States doesn't/shouldn't matter -
she's
the chapters' global representative (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Argentina, Israel)
and is used to working with people who are far from her geographically.
There's no need for the United States to get any special treatment.
I first entered contact with Delphine on these issues several months
ago. She does not appear to be unsympathetic to these ideas.
On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Delphine Ménard <notafishz(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I think that Pharos' approach, ahving the
WMFoundation dedicate
specific resources to a "US local chapter" (which by the way, does not
have to operate US wide, but could just be the point of communication
of more regional chapters) actually makes sense, and it is definitely
one approach I am going to take into consideration, among others.
We have a situation where the US, because of its population
distribution, is ripe for regional affiliates. Other countries may be
similar, and there may be a desire, for say, a "Wikimedia Canada
Affiliates Coordinator", appointed by a future Wikimedia Canada. But
the WMF is the non-profit responsible for Wikimedia in the US, and
fulfills the role of 'de facto' chapter here, and so I think would be
the appropriate entity to designate an "Affiliates Coordinator" for
this country.
The WMF also has a unique role vis-a-vis US groups in that it has the
capacity to grant them a "Group Exemption Letter", conferring
non-profit status on a related organization. It is not possible to do
this for groups in other countries.
On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
People who don't want to organize formally into
chapters or chapter-like
entities can continue to work with Cary, who is the point person for
individual volunteers. So Pharos working with Cary for Wikipedia Takes
Manhattan makes perfect sense :-)
We do wish to organize formally; we just don't wish to register as
many separate non-profits. We would be organized in a manner legally
identical to local chapters of the American Red Cross.
Thanks,
Pharos