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

[Pharos]

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 9:28 AM, Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com> wrote:
>  The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that in the
>  Wikimedia case, the US is unique not because it is large, but rather
>  because the Foundation is there to start with. Let us try and imagine
>  for a moment that the Wikimedia Foundation was not a US based
>  organisation, but a... Andorran based one. Would people in the US
>  start with metro-area chapters, state-based chapters, regional
>  sections? Or with a national one?
>
>  I thin it's actually worth thinking about.

For all intents and purposes, the WMF -is- 'Wikimedia US'.  This may
be a "legacy" issue in terms of the WMF being founded here, but the
fact stands that such an organization is already in place.

It would not seem useful at this point to found a whole separate
organization.  If it is felt necessary to have a virtual chapter for
completeness reasons, then I would support just designating Cary Bass
"Representative of Wikimedia US" as an adjunct to his "Volunteer
Coordinator" role, and have done with this question.

A national chapter can exist for legal reasons, and it can exist for
organizational reasons.  In some countries the organizational
activities will be centralized, and in others there will be autonomous
affiliates.  But it is clear that in the US the legal reasons for a
chapter are already taken care of.

Thanks,
Pharos