Dear Kerryn, thanks for keeping us on track.
I have a couple of observations and suggestions to offer.
There are still a few things that perhaps community members here (presuming everyone involved is on the list) should decide on collectively. To the extent that we discuss this with the chapters committee soon, they will want to know who is behind this, i.e. who the community members are. The three immediate things that need to be discussed and resolved are:
(1) Who are the founding members? - Would these be every South African Wikipedian on this list? All those who participated in the August workshops plus all others who are interested but couldn't make it? (If so: perhaps someone like Ian can discuss and compile that list).
Currently at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_South_Africa/Proposed_articles_of_a... this is the corresponding point:
4.1. The first members of the company shall be [names of members, minimum 7, no maximum numbers].
(2) Who is willing to direct (i.e. be a director) of the Wikimedia South Africa chapter? This requires real discussion, as these individuals are committing time to running the organisation, seeding ideas, helping execute them, etc. It needs a process to ensure that there is both adequate and fair representation of all interests involved. Perhaps Ian and you can help lead this process: the questions to be decided are: how many directors do you want over the legal minimum of 3, who wants to be a director, if there are more people interested than there are positions to hold elections, and lastly - though this does not need to be done immediately - a separation of functions within directors as it makes sense, for example, a President, Treasurer etc. or as you see fit.
Currently at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_South_Africa/Proposed_articles_of_a... these are the corresponding points:
8.1 Unless otherwise determined by a meeting of members, the number of directors shall not be less than 3 (three) who are not connected to each other in the sense that they are not spouses or are not related to each other or to each other’s spouses within the third degree of consanguinity.
8.2 The first directors of the company shall [insert names].
Other than attending to the comments made by David and Lodewijk (who is a voting member of chapcom by the way), some decisions will have to be made regarding who the community proposing this chapter is, and what responsibilities you will bear.
Good wishes, Achal
Hi Achal
I have placed this message of yours on the Meta wiki. That way all the comments are there:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_South_Africa/Proposed_articles...
Kind regards,
Lourie
--- On Tue, 10/12/10, Achal Prabhala aprabhala@gmail.com wrote:
From: Achal Prabhala aprabhala@gmail.com Subject: [Wikimedia ZA] Draft Documents for Wikimedia ZA chapter To: "wikimediaza" wikimediaza@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 3:14 PM
Dear Kerryn, thanks for keeping us on track.
I have a couple of observations and suggestions to offer.
There are still a few things that perhaps community members here (presuming everyone involved is on the list) should decide on collectively. To the extent that we discuss this with the chapters committee soon, they will want to know who is behind this, i.e. who the community members are. The three immediate things that need to be discussed and resolved are:
(1) Who are the founding members? - Would these be every South African Wikipedian on this list? All those who participated in the August workshops plus all others who are interested but couldn't make it? (If so: perhaps someone like Ian can discuss and compile that list).
Currently at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_South_Africa/Proposed_articles_of_a... this is the corresponding point:
4.1. The first members of the company shall be [names of members, minimum 7, no maximum numbers].
(2) Who is willing to direct (i.e. be a director) of the Wikimedia South Africa chapter? This requires real discussion, as these individuals are committing time to running the organisation, seeding ideas, helping execute them, etc. It needs a process to ensure that there is both adequate and fair representation of all interests involved. Perhaps Ian and you can help lead this process: the questions to be decided are: how many directors do you want over the legal minimum of 3, who wants to be a director, if there are more people interested than there are positions to hold elections, and lastly - though this does not need to be done immediately - a separation of functions within directors as it makes sense, for example, a President, Treasurer etc. or as you see fit.
Currently at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_South_Africa/Proposed_articles_of_a... these are the corresponding points:
8.1 Unless otherwise determined by a meeting of members, the number of directors shall not be less than 3 (three) who are not connected to each other in the sense that they are not spouses or are not related to each other or to each other’s spouses within the third degree of consanguinity.
8.2 The first directors of the company shall [insert names].
Other than attending to the comments made by David and Lodewijk (who is a voting member of chapcom by the way), some decisions will have to be made regarding who the community proposing this chapter is, and what responsibilities you will bear.
Good wishes, Achal
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As pointed out before, we still need to fill a few holes to keep the process on track.
Who are the founding members? - According to our draft, founding members are those "who agree to pay such annual subscription as shall be determined by the board of directors", so that it seems founding members cannot be chosen until after the directors have been decided, and then met and determined this fee, if any. This is a bit of a Catch-22, especially as this comes before the mention of directors.
- I'd like to see the founding members spread as widely as possible, and to be as inclusive as possible. So anyone that expresses an interest can be a founding member. Most chapters have a nominal fee, as the aim is to be inclusive (the UK has £5/year for example), and we certainly want something similar here. I suggest R10 a year. So, if there are no objections to this, in essence, the founding members would be anyone who shows enough enthusiasm for the process to commit to paying R10 a year before the final version of the document is put together.
- While there are no expectations on members to do anything, the initial directors will bear more responsibility in getting the fledgling chapter off the ground, and will need to be able to commit time and energy to the role. Before we decide how many positions, or what roles, I'd like to get an idea of who is willing to stand as a director. If you want to stand, please mail me. If you want to suggest someone else, discuss it with them and ask them to mail me, or at worst pass their name on to me and I'll follow up.
Let's set a deadline of next week (Wed Oct 27) to get all the names in, and we'll take it from there.
wikimediaza@lists.wikimedia.org