[Foundation-l] Provisional Volunteer Council - proposal sent to the Board

[Ray Saintonge]

Mike Godwin wrote:
> Just a quick question -- has anyone here conducted a legal review of  
> the proposal for a Volunteer Council (including review of the Florida  
> "Corporations Not For Profit" statute)?
>
> --Mike
I very seriously doubt if anyone has done this.  The emphasis thus far 
has been on bootstrapping a group that could deal with the complex 
issues surrounding the operation of a Volunteer Council; the legal 
environment would be one of those issues.  For the Provisional Council 
to function it's not really necessary since it has no real power 
itself.  The plan is for the Provisional Council to report with 
recommendations in September.  At that point the Board will need to be 
prudent, about which of those recommendations it will adopt; that 
includes taking into account the legal implications of those 
recommendations.  Some, such as any joint responsibilities concerning 
the by-laws, will require particular attention; I do not completely 
exclude the notion that this may not be immediately possible.  More to 
the point will be the necessity for negotiated arrangements between 
Board and Council.


Much of what we in the combined Wikimedia projects are doing leads us 
into uncharted legal territory on a number of fronts.  The by-laws, as 
they are written, do allow for representation from communities without 
defining what that term means.  The WMF has no legal obligation to 
recognize anything that happens in those communities; it can define 
communities in a manner that will best suit the purposes of the Board.  
At the same time any  group can  legally set up a Volunteer Council 
entirely of its own accord, perhaps setting itself up in a jurisdiction 
other than Florida and calling itself "Friends of WMF."  It might even 
just use the initials in its name to avoid any trademark violations.  
That council would have difficulty gaining credibility, but it could 
theoretically happen.  I don't by any means suggest that such extreme 
positions on the part of Board and volunteers would benefit anybody.

Volunteers and Board will probably be best served by some kind of 
symbiosis. If one thrives so does the other.  A collapse by one would 
put the viability of the other into question.  The real benefit of the 
current resolution lies in the initial credibility that it gives to the 
process.  Further credibility will be highly dependent on how such a 
Council acts.

Ec