[Foundation-l] Board resolutions (chapters)

[Austin Hair]

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 12:24 AM, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 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.

I think there's some confusion between recognition of a sub-national
chapter, or a chapter whose purview does not cover the entire
nation-state in which they operate, and a "sub-chapter," which is a
misleading distinction that does not (at the moment) exist.

Although there are some common-sense rules when it comes to dealing
with chapters organized for a metropolitan area or a politically
disputed territory, a chapter is a chapter.  Every chapter has unique
considerations specific to its social and political circumstances—be
it Taiwan, Serbia, Hong Kong, or New York City—but, as far as we're
concerned, there's no such thing as a second-class chapter.

As chapters grow and evolve, so will WMF policy, but for the time
being this is where it stands.

Austin Hair
Chairman pro tempore
Wikimedia Chapters Committee