[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Pennsylvania

[Andrew Lih]

On 7/10/07, Brion Vibber <brion at wikimedia.org> wrote:
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> Casey Brown wrote:
> > Just for the record, we are doing State-based chapters at the request of the
> > Chapters Committee.  We had originally wanted a regional committee, but
> > ChapComm strongly suggested simply a state organization (and who were we to
> > argue? :P).
>
> Hmm, I'd tend to agree with the sentiment that regional / metro-based
> chapters make more sense than state chapters, especially if the idea is
> to organize local activity. We already have US legal infrastructure in
> WMF, and there'll be more benefit in local organizing by keeping groups,
> well, local.
>
> Miami and Tallahassee, or Los Angeles and San Francisco, or Philly and
> Pittsburgh, don't seem like super-convenient pairings to me.
>
> What's the argument in favor of state-level blocks?

I agree with Brion here. Unless there is a pressing need, one should
go with a proven model with other organizations.

When I was a board member of a nonprofit regional member organization,
everything was broken down into metropolitan areas first.  In places
without that center of gravity, it was state based. So the obvious
metro aras are NYC, LA, SF, DC, Chicago, New England, Philly/NJ/DE,
Atlanta, San Diego, etc. You could almost imagine it by sports team
classification, since the need is similar to facilitate a physical
gathering and local interest. For an example, see:
http://tinyurl.com/33xrz7

Let's talk, but if we can learn from experience and other successes,
let's do so.

-Andrew