On 21 April 2012 22:23, Michael Peel <michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

On 21 Apr 2012, at 21:24, Thomas Morton wrote:

> The Chapter and the UK community are distinct, certainly. And this list does get a lot of use for Chapter business - less so for general community issues.

I'm not sure why the two of you are trying to draw this line in the sand, since I don't think it actually exists. These roles are two facets of the same thing - those involved in the chapter are part of the UK community, and those involved in the community part of the chapter. We're all Wikimedians, and we're all contributing to the Wikimedia 'movement'. The more overlap between these two facets, the better.

Thanks,
Mike

Hmm. That line in the sand seems critical.

I'd hate for it to reach a point whereby to be a UK Wikimedian meant being part of Wikimedia UK. I consider those two roles, for myself, to be distinct. There are thousands of UK Wikimedians with no interaction or interest in WMUK - and that is fine. Someone could disagree entirely with the idea of chapters, or specifically the UK chapter, but still be a Wikimedian. That is the beauty of the movement.

Indeed; numerous high profile and prolific Wikipedians are not part of WMUK. And to take that a step further, some of us active in WMUK are not particularly active Wikipedians.

Tom