[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

[Nathan]

Sure, both Erik and Florence have directly or indirectly addressed the
issues of legal
problems associated with this idea - Erik by mentioning bylaws and the need
to involve
Mike, and Florence by specifically asking if parallel or shared authority is
even possible
in US law. These are critical and not secondary problems - rather than
creating a
predecessor structure, perhaps what you're looking for is a steering
committee.

Maybe that is what you're aiming at, and I am misunderstanding - a steering
committee to me
would be tasked basically with generating a report for the community and the
board
on what is involved: goals, roadblocks, regulatory problems, possible
structures and
functions, etc. Once those things are hammered out, then I can see
presenting a
proposal for a volunteer council with a few best proposals. Starting out
with something
that is supposed to be a predecessor seems premature to me, given the scope
of what
you are trying to accomplish.

As far as ChapComs limitations - right now it has a fairly narrow mission,
supporting
nationally incorporated chapters of Wikimedia. That doesn't mean the mission
is set in
stone, does it? Even if it can't be adapted, a Project or InterProject
Committee whose
purpose is informational and advisory without specific authority would still
make more
sense than devilishly complex governance changes.

Nathan

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 3:58 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod at mccme.ru>
wrote:

> There have been several post even in this thread, indicating quite
> specifically possible authorities of the Council, at least one by Eric who
> can hardly be suspected in ignorance of the matter. May be it is good to
> look at these first.
>
>
> Well, chapters are organized by countries, and we are organized by
> projects.  What Chapter specifically addresses en.wp problems? Or of
> Kurdish wikipedia? What Chapter an Ukrainian living in Germany and editing
> ru.wp must be associated with? How the Chapters are going to establish the
> common policy etc?
>
>
> > There is great value in having non-Board groups confer and make specific
> > recommendations, and value in encouraging participation and
> understanding
> > between projects and languages, but I think the idea of a Council as has
> > been articulated by some in this thread is fatally flawed - and perhaps
> > this
> > is why it hasn't moved forward in so long. If conceptual flaws and
> > complexity have prevented agreement on the role and functions of this
> > group
> > before, why should we expect that such agreement will appear through the
> > "provisional council" process?
> >
>
> Because there are many people ready to discuss endlessly but very few
> ready to do something. The hope is a small provisional council will
> finally establish the rules which could never be established via meta and
> mailing lists discussions.
>
> Cheers,
> Yaroslav
>
>
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