[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Michael Snow]

Lars Aronsson wrote:
> Board elections, volunteer councils, chapter seats, or not.  They 
> are only decoration. The WMF was incorporated as something else 
> than a membership organization.  They keep the servers running and 
> promote free knowledge.  I think they do a pretty good job.  But 
> they're not a membership organization.  If you want one, you need 
> to create it yourself.  Who's stopping you?
>   
To be precise, the original bylaws of the Wikimedia Foundation provided 
for membership, but it was never implemented. The bylaws were 
subsequently revised to drop the reference to membership as obsolete, 
since the foundation had been operating for years without it. Some 
months later, there was a bit of protest over the change, at least on 
the English Wikipedia. One of the reasons to incorporate chapters in the 
board selection process is because they are generally intended to be 
membership organizations, so that option is effectively re-opened. 
Membership can be administered more easily and with less overhead at the 
chapter level than the global foundation could manage.

--Michael Snow