[Foundation-l] A new proposal regarding US chapters

[Henning Schlottmann]

Anthony wrote:

> Here's my current thoughts on the matter, after talking with you about
> it privately.  It's an attempt at a grassroots bottom-up strategy
> (which both the WMF and the chapters-to-be seem to want) which at the
> same time attempts to avoid constantly reinventing the wheel.

I don't see the beef. The United States don't need a number of local 
chapters, they need one national chapter to provide for a membership 
organization associated with the Wikimedia Foundation. Local groups can 
form under the national umbrella without being incorporated themselves.

Get the organizers of all local meetups, the Pennsylvanians, the New 
Yorkers and everyone else who ever made some steps to chapterhood 
together on a mailing list, ask around if one of the Wikipedians 
involved is a lawyer who can handle any questions, choose a state where 
to incorporate the chapter (based on locality of a few core members and 
the answers of your lawyer) and set up the chapter. That's not rocket 
science. Wikipedians usually are smart people, you should be able to get 
it done without any problems.

You need a charter, send it to the Foundation to have it approved, send 
it to the state office to have it registered, and that's about it.

Henning [[user:H-stt]]