[Foundation-l] A local chapter without Wikimedians

[Florence Devouard]

Luiz Augusto wrote:
> I will try whit my poor enghish report a problem that are in discuss in
> mailling list of the brazilian chapter[1]. In the end of this text, are the
> original text in portuguese, for try to minimalize the comunicacion
> mistakes.

Hello,

Thank you for the feedback. I can not really give an opinion on the case 
raised, for I do not read portuguese, but your report brought a couple 
of comments to my mind.

First, is that wrong that a chapter is made in majority or entirety by 
non-editors ? I would tend to think it is unfortunate, but not wrong. A 
person may be part of the wikimedia mouvement without editing a lot. The 
person may be a developer, or help the chapter develop its fundraising 
abilities, or be a political beast and so on.

The main risk is indeed that the chapter board (or its membership) act 
in ways that are inappropriate for the global good, in not believing or 
even worshipping our values. I would also tend to consider as an 
obligation to participate to the global wikimedia mouvement.

Wikimedia Brasil is still very new, so they should be given time.

But over time, I would expect that every chapter should respect certain 
obligations, such as
- being on the internal mailing list
- providing a monthly activity report to WMF and other chapters
- having introduced itself to the other chapters
- etc...

I am not quite sure if there are any obligations right now beyond the 
approval of bylaws. I believe there should be. Failing to provide montly 
reports but only a report once every two months, should not be a valid 
argument to cancel the agreement to be called a wikimedia chapters. 
However, failing to  interact with the rest of the organization during 
several months should be.

At some point in the future, I believe chapters and WMF should discuss 
together more seriously of what define "being a wikimedia chapter", and 
include once every year or couple of years, a review to define if the 
chapter should still be called a chapter. I also think this review 
should not be provided uniquely by the WMF (through a staff member or a 
commission such as the chapter committee), but should be provided by a 
commission including both WMF people and a selection of chapter people. 
If a chapter fails in its behavior (either because of lack of activity, 
or because it preaches the wrong thing, or because of misuse of funds or 
other reasons), the impact will be on all organizations, not WMF only.

We are probably still a little bit too young to establish strict rules, 
but I think 2009 might not be such a bad idea to start establishing 
obligations for all parties to respect, as well as procedure to check if 
obligations are followed and procedures to remove a problematic chapter.

That sounds perhaps harsh to say that, but being a "wikimedia chapter" 
is not being an island in the middle of the ocean. It is being part of 
an archipelago. Each island activity depends on and impact other islands.

Ant