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

[Pharos]

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 6:17 PM, Sue Gardner <sgardner at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> Pharos wrote:
>  >
>  >
>  > Although we are all used to interacting with the WMF all on a daily
>  > basis, I think we have to recognize that the international
>  > organization has a remarkably light footprint in the real world, even
>  > in the US, and even in our largest city, which is New York City.
>  >
>  > We have been organizing in New York City
>  > (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City) since
>  > November, and there are a number of activities we have started on, and
>  > clear room for much further outreach.
>  >
>  > We already held our our first outreach event, "Wikpedia Takes
>  > Manhattan" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Manhattan)
>  > on April 4, with Columbia University and NYU students.  I reached out
>  > to the WMF, but their only involvement was pointing us to O'Reilly
>  > Media as a willing donor for 'Wikipedia: The Missing Manual' books as
>  > prizes.  This was certainly appreciated, but our collaborations with
>  > local Students for Free Culture groups were rather more significant to
>  > getting this event to happen.  We also talked to several reporters
>  > about this event; obviously there were no official WMF representatives
>  > in place to take that role.
>  >
>  > We've also made outreach to a local organization for the placing in
>  > free content of a Yiddish-language encyclopedia
>  > (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City/CYCO_Yiddish_Encyclopedia).
>  >  There has been no involvement of the WMF in this activity either, nor
>  > is their anyone in the SF office who has a job to do such a thing.
>  >
>  > We have also had preliminary discussions about a free content
>  > photography contest at the Brooklyn Museum.
>  >
>  > And for the Fall, we are planning a "Wiki Week" or wikiconference,
>  > again with organizing by local Students for Free Culture groups.  This
>  > will probably include another "Wikipedia Takes Manhattan", a
>  > small-scale "Wikipedia Academy", and high-profile speakers if we can
>  > get them.  So far, there has been no direct WMF involvement in this
>  > initiative either (admittedly, we only started planning on Wednesday).
>  >
>  > So, I would say there is an awful lot that local affiliates in the US
>  > can do.  And the fact that we can meet in person and coordinate with
>  > other local groups on a regular basis is great contributor toward that
>  > work.
>  >
>  > Thanks,
>  > Pharos
>  >
>  >
>  I agree.  Chapters, because they are defined by geography, are
>  particularly well-suited to staging geographically-based outreach
>  activities such as Wikipedia Takes Manhattan, and to liaising with
>  nearby organizations (e.g., Brooklyn Museum).  The Foundation, on the
>  other hand, has an international mandate, so it wouldn't make sense for
>  it to focus on events that are confined to a single location.
>  Essentially, any F2F event the Foundation supports needs to be scalable,
>  repeatable, templateable - something where we are facilitating the work
>  of volunteers, rather than duplicating it.
>
>  So I don't see anything wrong with the situation you describe, Pharos:
>  do you?  Whether the New York group is ultimately defined as a chapter,
>  a chapter-like organization, a local affiliate or something else
>  entirely - it sounds like it's doing good, useful, needed work.

I certainly don't see anything wrong; things are going quite well,
except that there is not yet a mechanism for US groups to officially
affiliate with the WMF.  If we had that, it might be easier for us to
work with larger local institutions, and it would also be possible,
though the "group exemption" in US tax law, to fundraise as a
non-profit, both for the WMF and for our local activities.

>  Having said that, I would like to see the Foundation grow better able to
>  support chapter activities with advice and expertise.  (I'm not
>  necessarily suggesting the Foundation itself be positioned as the
>  expert, nor that we would be the only entity playing this role -
>  sometimes, for example, I expect we'd be facilitating or supporting
>  expertise-sharing among other groups.)  So far, probably our best
>  example of this is Frank Schulenburg's Wikipedia Academies -  but I hope
>  that, over time, we will develop other good models as well.

I have suggested in another thread that our "Volunteer Coordinator" be
co-designated "Wikimedia US Affiliates Coordinator".  Certainly such a
move would open up greater comunication between the WMF and local US
groups.

Thanks,
Pharos