hello!
has any progress be made so far on planning how WM UK will be set up, what its purpose is going to be, etc.?
i see the main issue on the meta page is regarding what it should be called and the region it should cover. is there any consensus on this?
(as for my opinion, i don't think a "Wikimedia England & Wales" chapter would be a very useful thing; it's likely to lead to a large number of small local chapters, which even if part of a larger "Wikimedia EU", seems like too much division of resources. beyond that, though, i'm not sure.)
regards, kate.
On Sunday, May 29, 2005, at 20:36, Kate Turner keturner@livejournal.com wrote:
has any progress be made so far on planning how WM UK will be set up, what its purpose is going to be, etc.?
Not much, TBH. I think Alison was going to be working on the paperwork, but that was several months ago, and I've heard nothing since...
i see the main issue on the meta page is regarding what it should be called and the region it should cover. is there any consensus on this?
Ah, yes. We've decided to go with "Wikimedia UK", AFAIAA.
(as for my opinion, i don't think a "Wikimedia England & Wales" chapter would be a very useful thing; it's likely to lead to a large number of small local chapters, which even if part of a larger "Wikimedia EU", seems like too much division of resources. beyond that, though, i'm not sure.)
AIUI, we're going to be registered as an England-&-Wales-ish organisation (because that's simpler), but we will be a charity equally in all of the UK. Wikimedia Europe may well become a parent organisation to us at some point, but for now...
Yours,
James D. Forrester (james@jdforrester.org) [050530 05:40]:
AIUI, we're going to be registered as an England-&-Wales-ish organisation (because that's simpler), but we will be a charity equally in all of the UK. Wikimedia Europe may well become a parent organisation to us at some point, but for now...
Mmm. It should cover the largest geographic zone we can assure tax deductibility for. I suspect that's still country by country.
If VW isn't about, has anyone else set up a charity in the UK and steered it to deductibility?
- d.
Yup, back at the meeting (whenever it was) David G "persuaded" me that I should get into this. Sadly about a week later I had a disk crash and lost the partition containing all my business records (and thus past AoA and MoA). As I hadn't seen or heard it mentioned anywhere in ages I had put it to the back of my mind whilst getting some other stuff re-created.
Should I take this as a nudge and, if so, which way do we want to go vis-รก-vis geography, etc.
Alison
On Sunday 29 May 2005 20:52, David Gerard wrote:
James D. Forrester (james@jdforrester.org) [050530 05:40]:
AIUI, we're going to be registered as an England-&-Wales-ish organisation (because that's simpler), but we will be a charity equally in all of the UK. Wikimedia Europe may well become a parent organisation to us at some point, but for now...
Mmm. It should cover the largest geographic zone we can assure tax deductibility for. I suspect that's still country by country.
does that mean that charitable status in, for example, England & Wales isn't honoured in Scotland?
- d.
kate.
does that mean that charitable status in, for example, England & Wales isn't honoured in Scotland?
strictly, yes. legal systems are entirely different in E&W and Scotland. (look at the WP entries for more!)
Alison
ps to angela ... thanks for teh heads-up; have changed sending addy
It seems unlikely to me that we would ever have a need for a "Wikimedia EU" which would end up being a parent organization to Wikimedia UK.
My thinking on local chapters is that they serve at least these purposes:
First, to provide favorable tax status for the flow of donations. This is still on a country by country or nation by nation status, sort of, kind of, even in the EU, although so far I have been unable to penetrate the mysteries of European law to really grasp the status exactly. :-) One might suppose, tomorrow's vote notwithstanding, that in the future tax deductibility across all the EU for a single organization might well be possible.
Second, and more importantly, as a vehicle for the organization and support of local community. This depends more on geography than on nations, and it is likely that very large countries (like the United States) will end up having multiple local chapters for different regions.
Now, based on these things, it seems that the scope of a UK-ish chapter might very well depend solely on geography. How to organize it legally is a somewhat separate question.
I can imagine, for example, that a future Irish chapter might be incorporated in Ireland for tax purposes, but that residents of Northern Ireland looking for some friends to hang out with at wikipedia meetups might well choose to join the Irish organization rather than the UK one, just because it's geographically easier.
And there could for similar reasons someday be a separate chapter for Scotland, and the UK chapter ought not, I think, resist one forming if there are enough people an interest, and if travelling to London for meetings seems a bit much.
I would imagine that these things will play out differently in different regions for all the usual diverse reasons that make Wikimedia so maddeningly complex. ;-)
--Jimbo
On Sunday 29 May 2005 21:35, Jimmy Wales wrote:
Second, and more importantly, as a vehicle for the organization and support of local community. This depends more on geography than on nations, and it is likely that very large countries (like the United States) will end up having multiple local chapters for different regions.
[...]
I can imagine, for example, that a future Irish chapter might be incorporated in Ireland for tax purposes, but that residents of Northern Ireland looking for some friends to hang out with at wikipedia meetups might well choose to join the Irish organization rather than the UK one, just because it's geographically easier.
And there could for similar reasons someday be a separate chapter for Scotland, and the UK chapter ought not, I think, resist one forming if there are enough people an interest, and if travelling to London for meetings seems a bit much.
is organising WM meetups within the aims of a regional foundation? i think this is maybe something that's better handled by the community in general...
--Jimbo
kate.
Kate Turner wrote:
is organising WM meetups within the aims of a regional foundation? i think this is maybe something that's better handled by the community in general...
Well, it can be both. :-)
I was thinking more about local "conferences" where perhaps money would be raised to bring in speakers or things of that nature.
--Jimbo
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