[Foundation-l] Chapter-selected Board seats - brainstorming

[Birgitte SB]

--- On Thu, 5/1/08, Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> From: Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Chapter-selected Board seats - brainstorming
> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Date: Thursday, May 1, 2008, 12:35 PM
> Birgitte writes:
> 
> > The US sub-national issue is not about power but
> logistics.   One  
> > national chapter will never self-organize in the US. 
> All the  
> > incentives to do so (tax-deductabilty, legal support,
> press  
> > contacts) have been "stolen" by the WMF.
> 
> So far as I know, there is no legal prohibition or hurdle
> that  
> prevents either a national chapter or a subnational chapter
> from  
> forming in the United States.  Such a chapter certainly
> could organize  
> itself as a nonprofit, seek tax-deductible status, and so
> on.
> 
> I do wish you hadn't used the word "stolen,"
> even if you mean for it  
> to be a metaphor.
> 

What I really mean is preempted but I try to tone down my level of English for the international crowd.  In any event I mean it indifferently without a value judgment on the situation.  The quotes were meant to undermine the negative context.

> I agree that there are geographic hurdles with regard to a
> U.S.  
> national chapter, but would stop short of predicting that a
> national  
> chapter will "never self-organize."  Over the
> course of my career,  
> I've frequently been surprised at the willingness of
> large geographic  
> groups to self-organize.
> 
> 

It is more than the high-cost of the geographic hurdles; there is also the lowered benefit because of the existence WMF Incorporated in the US.  And while I will give you that anything is possible, you must agree that it would be foolish to stake the credibility of the whole "chapter's are the membership arm of WMF" platform on such tiny possibility.

Birgitte SB


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