Michael Snow wrote:
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the Wikimedia Foundation and its staff, I would like to thank those who put their efforts into organising a local chapter for the United Kingdom. It's unfortunate that this initial effort is not working out as hoped. In addition to Alison, I know that a number of other people, both in and outside the board of Wiki Educational Resources, have tried to tackle the various obstacles that have come up. We appreciate their patience and their diligence.
It is good to see that people are still interested and enthusiastic about creating a UK chapter, and I wish them the best in this endeavour. I hope those who experienced the first attempt will share their knowledge and consider staying involved to support the new team. In addition, Mike Godwin has mentioned that he will look into having some legal research done in this area, in the hopes that we can better understand the regulatory context and deal with any obstacles. If there is anything else the foundation can do to help the process along, we would love to hear about it.
Michael Snow Chair, Wikimedia Foundation
I'd like to add my thanks to Michael's.
I'm sorry the chapter feels it needs to dissolve, but I'd like to say a strong thanks to the people who I know put so much time & energy into it over the years: Alison Wheeler, David Gerard, James Forrester and Arkady Rose. (I am sure there are others who were active, and I don't mean to ignore anyone's contributions; those are just the people I personally am most aware of.) We at the Foundation appreciate your patience and your hard work, and we hope you'll want to stay involved and help the folks who're picking up the torch now.
Please get in touch with me offlist if there's anything I can do to ease the closure of the former chapter, or help the new one grow. I know you've been talking a lot with Delphine, obviously, and Mike is indeed starting to get some legal research underway, as well :-)
Thanks, Sue