[Foundation-l] Board resolutions (chapters)

[Florence Devouard]

Michael Snow wrote:
> I've been assembling my notes from last week's board meeting to pass 
> along. The first set of items I have to report is business from the 
> chapters committee. All of these resolutions have been posted on the 
> foundation website.
> 
> We approved two new chapters, and there's something special about each 
> of the two. Wikimedia New York City is special because it's the first 
> one recognized under the new sub-national chapter guidelines. And 
> Wikimedia UK is special because it's the second version of that chapter. 
> For the sake of formality - and nobody does formality better than the 
> British, which has been part of the difficulty - we revoked the 
> recognition of the first one, which is dissolved or in the process of 
> dissolving. Anyway, welcome to both of the new chapters!
> 
> Also, two resolutions relating to the chapters committee's membership 
> and procedures were approved. One recognizes the current members and the 
> other allows the committee to determine its own membership in the 
> future. This allows them to keep their work going without waiting for 
> the board to pass a resolution (the board reserves the ability to 
> appoint and remove members and will still be informed of changes).
> 
> --Michael Snow


Hello,

For the sake of clarity, I'd like to ask that a mean is given to 
recognize that a sub-chapter is a sub-chapter rather than a chapter.
If not in the name that we use within ourselves, at least on meta and 
internal pages. For now, I guess everyone from the house can guess that 
it is a subchapter, but when we have 50 chapters and 50 sub-chapters, it 
may not be so easy to deal with.

For example, on meta, Wikimedia NYC is listed as chapters, not 
subchapters. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City. And 
the name does not clarify the difference either (it could have been 
mandatory that names used be of the type Wikimedia + Country + blabla).

Beyond this, could it be possible that the difference between a chapter 
and a sub chapter be published ?

I know some guidelines circulated internally, but I do believe it should 
not only be internal. I went to the resolution authorizing its 
recognition as a sub-chapter 
(http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Approval_of_Wikimedia_New_York_City) 
and I found reference to "Wikimedia Foundation: A Framework for 
Encouraging the Development of Sub-National Chapters", but no idea where 
to find this document. I thought I could click on the only link provided 
on the resolution (local chapters), but this one leads to 
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Local_chapters, which does not 
mention sub chapters, nor Wikimedia NYC, nor any framework for 
blablasubchapters.

So, in effect, the resolution does not tell me anything beyond the fact 
that there seems to be sub-chapters and chapters. If there is a 
difference, what is it ?

Both for external world and for us folks, it is important to understand 
the relationships existing organisations. Right now, the information is 
not provided. Could someone from the Foundation fix that and add the 
necessary information, eg
* the text of the framework on wmf site
* the link from the resolution to the framework page
* an update of the chapter list on wmf site, to add the subchapters 
category OR the creation of a second list
* on meta, subchapters must be categorized as subchapters, not chapters

Ant