I think the answer is, as Brion said, "it's hard." It has been really difficult to organize US-based chapters so far because of our particular legal structures. Therefore a better question to ask is "If we had one, what would the chapter be doing, and can we do those things anyway?" Because we are in the US and therefore money can be handled directly by the Foundation, having the structure of a chapter may not actually provide much benefit. That does not stop us however from getting together and doing stuff, like the current chapters do now.
-- phoebe
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM, Geoffrey Plourde geo.plrd@yahoo.com wrote:
Several meetups have already occurred, I am curious as to whther or not people are interested in making a chapter.
----- Original Message ---- From: Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-sf@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 12:27:25 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-SF] California Chapter
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Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
San Francisco Wikipedians (Sanfranpedians?);
I am looking into starting Wikimedia California. Would anyone here be interested?
I think we have yet to figure out firmly what the mission or legal structure for chapters in the US would be... :)
For other countries, a big part of it is to establish a local legal structure that can accept tax-free donations -- something the Wikimedia Foundation itself handles here the US.
But that structure can also be a useful way to organize local activities, outreach, conferences and meetups as well as other online and offline activity by Wikipedians other Wikimedians. Since the Wikimedia Foundation decided not to become a membership-based organization, concentrating on the high-level hosting and PR, there's a bit of a vacuum still on how individuals can get involved and organized.
Rather than starting by saying "let's start a chapter", I might suggest picking some particular event to organize, such as a California or west coast-based Wikimedia user conference, and then we can see what kind of organization can and should grow up around the community that builds it.
I should also stress that such an event should be a community-organized, community-oriented affair. Make the Wikimedia Foundation a guest, not an organizer or a funder... :)
- -- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
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