[Foundation-l] A local chapter without Wikimedians

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 8:29 AM, Bence Damokos <bdamokos at gmail.com> wrote:
> I believe under the Chapters Agreement the WMF and the chapters have to
> notify each other if there are substantial changes planned in their bylaws,
> but not of all changes [in my interpretation].
>
> "7.2. The Chapter shall be required to advise the Foundation of any planned
> or actual change in the bylaws or status of the Chapter which might affect
> the Foundation or the continued existence or effectiveness of this contract.
>
> 7.3. The Foundation shall be required to advise the Chapter of any planned
> or actual change in the bylaws or status of the Foundation which might
> affect the Chapter or the continued existence or effectiveness of this
> agreement."

But 7.2 only requires that the chapter notify the Foundation about
changes that affect the Foundation, or the chapters contract. Most
changes to bylaws wouldn't fall under this category at all, and the
rest are subject to interpretation. A chapter could assume that most
changes which might affect the relationship of the chapter to the
Foundation do not affect it "substantially", or do not change the
"effectiveness" of the contract. You could argue that limiting
membership to exclude active wikimedians would make the chapter more
effective in pursuing it's aims (because their members wouldn't be
spending so much time editing, and spending more time doing outreach).

--Andrew Whitworth