I've been thinking a bit more about my post yesterday and reading through the reactions to it - thanks for the responses. I didn't previously appreciate the point about people who can't participate via wiki but can via email.

I guess the key thing I am interested in is to understand what decisions have been made and really what was the rationale for those decisions. We don't have to do these things in haste and I think it's important that we aim to be open and transparent - explaining the decisions that have been made is perhaps just as important as making the right decisions.

I should emphasise, I personally think that the decisions have largely been the right ones - particularly the tight timetable and the small interim Board. I might question some of the more minor details (why 18+ and not 16+; why mandatory CRB checks?; why is it not called Wikimedia UK?) and I think how those running this initiative respond to questions can be seen as an insight to how this venture will develop!

As an attempt at a solution, I've started a page at [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/Candidate_FAQs] to answer all these kind of questions and explain. I would appreciate anyone who could contribute - either there or in reply here - and answer these questions.

The questions so far are:

• 1 Why do Board candidates have to be over 18?
• 2 Why do Board candidates have to sign the declarations?
• 3 Why are Board members required to accept a Criminal Records Bureau check?
• 4 Why is the initial Board to consist of only [3]/[5] members?
• 5 What are the rules for the election of the initial Board
• 6 Why are we hoping to set up a UK Chapter?
• 7 Why do we intend to register the UK Chapter as a Charity?
• 8 Why have we decided to use a Company Limited by Guarantee structure for the Chapter?
• 9 What will be the main tasks for the interim Board?
  

I've answered 1 & 2 myself already, and I'm about to answer 3,4,6,7,8

(5) i think needs some urgent work as nominations close on Saturday and it's not really fair to ask people to stand before they have a good idea about what is expected of them - another email to follow on that!
Andrew Turvey