At 21:11 +0000 28/11/05, David Gerard wrote:
Andrew Gray wrote:
David Gerard had some quite useful comments about the temptations involved in giving this little company such a potentially profitable name as Wikimedia UK, though I can't seem to remember the actual case he mentioned.
The Church of Scientology tried to mount a hostile takeover of the National Association for Mental Health in the UK in the '60s - flooded them with membership applications then tried to vote their own guys on board. Took it all the way through court to try to get their way.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/rolph/chr.htm
Basically, if Tralala Limited gets taken over by People We Don't Like, then the Foundation can just cut them off; remove the name, and they can go and do whatever they want, but we can't be held morally responsible for them nor can they claim to be operating for or with the foundation. The actual wikimedia people can then go off, form Lalala Limited instead, sign another agreement with the Foundation to use the name, and we start over again. However, if "Wikimedia UK Limited" gets filled with cranks, it becomes hard for a) the Foundation to disown them or b) to take away the name and give it to the sane chapter. And then things get messy...
Indeed. JamesF's original suggestion was WikiPersonages UK, *specifically* because it was an awful name no-one would want.
- d.
Yes. Or you lock down the Company by
1) Not having any members
or
2) Having a very restricted number.
We then assume the Trustees (Directors) will not be susceptible to "take over".
John (jguk) made some very clear points about what happens at creation (e.g. First Subscribers). He then talked about the Trustees creating membership levels to suit.
My suggestion is 5 to 8 Trustees, 50 voting members maximum, and an unlimited non-voting membership.
An alternative might be to have a larger number of Trustees to start, or after the first AGM.
Perhaps the "First Subscribers" could work on this and bring it all to the first AGM? I would suggest we have the first AGM as soon as possible, certainly with 12 months, and hopefully a lot sooner!