Hey,
I wish all of you an amazing new year. For the ones that do not know who I am my name is Arie Robert Scheurwater, but please call me Rob or Robert.
I have some questions for people and about other people’s decisions that have been made so far.
Below are the points that I will be addressing in this email:
1. Surnames on the website (www.wikimedia.org.za)
2. The responsibilities of a ‘Board of Directors’
3. The legal structure of Section 21 companies
4. Wikimedia ZA not Wikimedia SA
5. Difference between Reply To and Reply All buttons
1. Surnames on the website (www.wikimedia.org.za)
It would be a good idea if people put their surname on the Wikimedia ZA website next to their name, because it will make it easier to reference people in emails.
2. The responsibilities of a ‘Board of Directors’
A lot of people in the ‘community’ currently wanting to become a ‘director’, but understanding of the term ‘director’ is misunderstood:
- Your first responsibility of a ‘director’ is too giving legal responsibility of the organization to the government.
- Your second responsibility is to make sure everyone is doing their duty.
- Your third responsibility is to take up responsibility for other people’s mistakes.
People think that a director is a person that leads an organization which is not true, because the person that leads the organization are all the members together.
3. The legal structure of Section 21 companies
I know the legal structure has already been decided by Mr. Tobias (unknown surname). Section 21 Companies are, and will always be the most difficult and irratating legal structure to use when starting an organization. Section 21 Companies are intended for organization that have a bigger quanity of members and higher cashflow e.g. Red Cross, St Johns Ambulance, Heart Foundation of America, etc. The Section 21 Companies can be registered according to two different acts: Companies Act 61/1973 or Co-operatives Act 91/1981 neither one if favourable for a starting organization. Most organizations that are currently Section 21 Companies, started off as a plain partnership NPO. Section 21 companies were created so that the government could have more insight in the finances of the organization (we have no finances at the moment). A plain NPO Partnership is the best starting legal structure for an organization. Below is a hierarchy structure for the organization that I would have advised at the time.
4. Wikimedia ZA not Wikimedia SA
I have noticed that a lot of people are calling the chapter and organization Wikimedia SA which is an issuse that needs to get address, because SA means Saudi Arabia not South Africa according ISO 3166 code standards. I do not think we want people to misinterpret ‘us’ (the chapter and organization) as Wikimedia Saudi Arabia.
P.S. if you do not know the ISO 3166 code standards I am sure the standards will be on Wikipedia or you can always just Google them otherwise.
5. Difference between Reply To and Reply All buttons
People say time is money, its true…, so please don’t use reply to all if its not nesserary to do so, because it wastes people’s time.
In conclusion there are several things we as a community should seriously take a look at. You can ask anyone that works for me or has partnered with my company I view things with a more coporate risk angle instead of the ‘lets try it’ attitude. I am not saying my inturpretation is better, but it has saved me a lot of legal problems and time.
I also got a new email: me@ariescheurwater.com
Yours Sincerely and God bless,
From Robert
Arie Robert Scheurwater |
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Founder & Chairman of Scheurwater Industries |
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Mobile: | +27 72 537 9748 | ||||
Email: |
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Address: | Eikenlaan 83 |
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Alumni: University of Cambridge (UK), London School of Business and Management (UK)
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