On Sep 6, 2014 8:03 AM, "Arun Ganesh" <arun.planemad@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> About a year ago there was some interest in creating a Mediawiki India group but met with opposition from the chapter.
>
> Is there currently a restriction on creating user groups independent of the chapter? It would be good to know what this is?
> Do I need permission from the chapter to start a Wikipedia editors club in my neighbourhood?

To answer just this simple, technical question: no, there is no restriction, and any group is welcome to seek recognition independently of the chapter, and does not need its permission.

See here:

https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Step-by-step_user_group_creation_guide

As Pradeep notes, the Affiliations Committee will invite comment from the chapter as a courtesy, but it is ultimately strictly up to AffCom to decide.

It is also true that historically, the chapter EC has strongly(!) opposed the recognition of any other group in India, and swayed AffCom into referring the applicants to be a SIG within the chapter instead of proceeding with user group recognition.  Disappointingly, this never happened.

Happily, we now hear a different tune from the EC, so I'm confident it won't stand in the way of any prospective user groups.

I agree it's perfectly possible to have regional or language focuses in groups within the chapter; we haven't seen it happen so far, but it's certainly one possibility.

Ultimately it's about identity and decision making, and it's up to each group to determine whether they're comfortable with their decisions or activities being subject to the chapter EC or not, or whether they're interested in operating under the national-level identity of Wikimedia India. (Remember some Indian languages have significant speaker bases outside India.)

Let me clearly state that the Foundation is agnostic about these questions, and is simply interested in supporting all communities in the forms most effective in their context.

   A.