[Foundation-l] A new proposal regarding US chapters

[Dan Rosenthal]

And more importantly, from what I understand, the New Yorkers don't  
necessarily want to go through the process of formally incorporating  
and such. In contrast, I understand that the Penn chapter does want  
to, and I've yet to speak to anyone in the DC working group that does  
not want to incorporate. Why would we force the chapters that don't  
want to incorporate to do so, or force the chapters who do want to  
incorporate not to do so, to satisfy some unwieldy nationwide body?

The concept of a national guiding body, consisting of  the boards or  
presidents (or other senior members) of the local chapters, existing  
for the purpose of those rare times the US local chapters need to  
operate in unison, is a good one. It works when it is needed to, and  
other than that it stays out of the local chapters way and lets them  
do their work in the manner that the local chapters find most  
efficient and best for them, and it can serve to mediate conflicts  
between the chapters if necessary. So basically, it's an ideal form of  
government.

-Dan
On May 6, 2008, at 3:55 PM, Anthony wrote:

> On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 12:38 PM, Henning Schlottmann
> <h.schlottmann at gmx.net> wrote:
>> 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.
>>
> I think you need to look at what's currently being done by Wikimedia
> New York City.  They have a couple dozen or more people interested to
> some extent in forming a chapter, they've appointed an interim
> president, they've run a "scavenger hunt and free content photography
> contest", they're looking into a project for the "digitization of the
> CYCO Yiddish Encyclopedia", and they've "had preliminary discussions
> about a free content photography contest at the Brooklyn Museum".
> They've had numerous speakers at their meetings, and they have their
> next live in-person meeting scheduled for June 1, 2008.
>
> They've got well enough support for a chapter.  Telling them set up a
> mailing list and invite other people from around the United States in
> order to get this chapter formed doesn't make any sense.  I bet at
> least half the people who will show up at that June 1 meeting wouldn't
> even read the mailing list, let alone participate on it.
>
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