[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Pennsylvania

[Andrew Whitworth]

No matter what we decide to do, we are going to endlessly second-guess 
ourselves, and there are going to be people complaining about every 
decision. Having a pennsylvania chapter is, in my eyes, a good compromise 
between people who want to have chapters based on metropolitan areas, and 
people who want to think bigger like a regional ("Mid-Atlantic") or even a 
USA national chapter.

The fact is that we have put plenty of time and effort into this plan, and 
we are going to be sticking to our plan of a state-based at this point, come 
hell or high water. The people who are actually doing the planning work on 
this are all interested in a state chapter, and we have the blessing of the 
chapcom too.

If other USA-local chapters want to organize themselves along different 
boundaries, that's fine and dandy. I don't think necessarily that our first 
experiment in making a USA-local chapter should become the definite standard 
for all possible future chapters. That in mind, the chapter that we create 
will certainly not be immutable, and we can alter it as necessary.

The important part in all this is the organization of members into a 
powerful outreach group. In person, as a team, we will be able to attract 
readers, writers, and (most importantly) cash donors in much higher 
quantities then we can possibly do in a disorganized fasion. More important 
then thinking about the exact geographical location of the chapter is to 
start planning what we will be doing, and how we will be doing that. 
Compared to this, whether we are "pennsylvania", or "philadelphia", or 
whatever is irrelevant.

We're moving ahead with the pennsylvania chapter as is. Hopefully, our 
actions and our successes will lay all concerns to rest.

--Andrew Whitworth

_________________________________________________________________
Local listings, incredible imagery, and driving directions - all in one 
place! http://maps.live.com/?wip=69&FORM=MGAC01