Hi,
As yet we do not have any bylaws or even draft bylaws. I can think of
a few regulations that will be of use - one for each membership
category (e.g. members in category X can / can not vote, they have to
provide an email address so that we can let them know the date of the
AGM, they have to pay some amount of money every year... ), one to
specify how we will report the accounts to the AGM (the accounts will
be reported following the guidelines of X). The mechanism for making
these bylaws is via a motion at a general meeting (where all members
can vote) or a directors meeting. As these meetings cannot happen
until we are Incorporated we cannot pre-judge the results of the
meetings and promise certain bylaws.
We are forming a non-profit making company limited by guarantee in
England and Wales. As we hope to be registered as a charity (not least
because that gives us the chance to get the government to give us gift
aid - the tax that was paid on the income that was donated to us) we
can not specify that the foundation gets a fixed proportion of our
income, or controls the company in the founding documents. So formally
what we are forming is a completely independent organisation.
The link to the foundation is likely to arise after incorporation. The
directors will meet and may well decide that it is in the best
interests of the new company (i.e. wiki educational resources) to ally
itself with the wikimedia foundation, we will then authorise a
director to approach the foundation and negotiate a contract to use
the logo and name. In return I expect the foundation will write terms
into this contract to protect itself (it can end the contract at any
time and the company must stop using the logo at that point), to
further the foundations aims (the company will make donations to the
foundation). This contract may also make the company a chapter of the
foundation in some sense.
One thing I am not clear about is exactly what a chapter is. Is it
just a group of people who edit wikipedia and who live in close(ish)
proximity to each other, or is it a legal entity of some kind? What
are the formal links between the foundation and the chapters? I guess
the answers will vary from country to country.
I think all of the above is approximately correct!
Regards,
Andrew Walker
On 1/19/06, Anthere <Anthere9(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a stupid question...
>
> Are you planning to have the bylaws visible by the WMF before creating
> the association ? If so, where can we see them ?
>
> Actually... I will go further, is the association planning to be part of
> Wikimedia chapters or is it fully an independant association ?
>
> If a chapter, I think the Foundation should be not only informed on the
> bylawys, but should also approve them. If it is an independant
> association, likely not. But if so, we'll have to do a formal review to
> see whether you may use names or logos.
>
> What is planned about that ? Just asking because I heard very little of it.
>
> Ant
>
