Dear colleagues
in Kenya,
I would like to
let you know that (after
consultation with
the Affiliations Committee) the
Wikimedia Foundation Executive
Director, Sue
Gardner, is not extending the Board
of Trustees' provisional recognition
of
your group as Wikimedia Kenya.
We recommend you
pursue recognition as Wikimedia User
Group
instead.
The recognition
was conditional upon incorporation
within
a year, and that has not happened.
In addition, the provisional board
disintegrated (with some people
leaving the chapter entirely) and no
replacement announced, almost no
activity took place this past year,
casting
doubt on the group's sustainability
as a chapter, and certain personal
issues
added much confusion and
demoralization, which no doubt
contributed to the
inactivity.
In parallel,
the Wikimedia movement has created
new models
of affiliation, not available at the
time your group was seeking
recognition,
that we are confident would better
serve your group at this stage, and
would be
more appropriate, than the
traditional incorporated chapter
model.
Specifically,
we encourage you to seek Wikimedia
User
Group recognition (via AffCom --
e-mail affcom@lists.wikimedia.org)
right now, which will give you
almost all the benefits of chapter
recognition,
with almost none of the bureaucracy:
trademark permission will be
available to
you, and as you know, grants are
always available, even to
unincorporated
groups (and we will take steps to
improve group oversight and
governance to
minimize risk). Everything I know
about this group and about AffCom
suggests this should be a smooth
process.
Note that this
does mean that the name "Wikimedia Kenya"
should no longer be used by you or
others to refer to your group, and
specifically, that you are not to
incorporate under that name. (It is
best if incorporation under any name
is postponed until there's a better
idea
of the group's interest, capacity,
and plans. Creating a formal entity
prematurely could saddle you with
inconvenient responsibilities
without any of
the benefits.)
"Wikimedians in
Kenya",
"Friends
of Wikipedia in Kenya",
and
any number of other names you may
feel comfortable with, are good
possibilities for the name of your
group, and can be recognized by the
WMF if
you do choose to pursue User Group
recognition.
We'd like to
stress this is neither a punishment
nor a
demotion of your group; it is
actually an adjustment of what we
call the group
to match reality and to adhere to
the original terms of the
provisional
recognition. We recognize your
dedicated and valuable contributions
in
the past, and look forward to
renewed energy and accomplishments
on this new
path, as a user group, and will be
happy to support you in this in
every way we
can.
On behalf of
Sue Gardner and the Wikimedia
Foundation,
--
Asaf
Bartov
Wikimedia
Foundation
Imagine
a world in
which every single human being
can freely share in the sum of
all
knowledge. Help us make it a
reality!