[Foundation-l] Board resolutions (chapters)

[Ting Chen]

Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> Hoi,
> Is it like in "Animal farm" that all countries are equal but some are more
> equal then others? By calling NY a sub chapter, it is inherent that there is
> room for a USA chapter. Each chapter has one vote as I understand it or will
> each subchapter have one as well ??
>
> Originally the notion of a chapter was very much that it was along the lines
> of legislatures. This no longer seems to be relevant or am I missing
> something?
> Thanks,
>       GerardM
>
> 2009/1/20 Ting Chen <wing.philopp at gmx.de>
>
>   
>> Gerard Meijssen schrieb:
>>     
>>> Hoi,
>>> So in essence by having a New York chapter, it became impossible to have
>>>       
>> an
>>     
>>> USA chapter? Or do we need to propose an Amsterdam sub chapter that will
>>>       
>> get
>>     
>>> all the trimmings like New York? The argument that the USA is so big is
>>>       
>> not
>>     
>>> that strong either, we could have a Moscow sub chapter or one for Bombay.
>>> Thanks,
>>>       GerardM
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Yes, having a New York chapter pretty ruled out the possibility of
>> establishing a USA chapter. But then, the USA chapter was discussed for
>> quite long time and it is quite unprobably that it would become true in
>> the near future. There are also suggestions that the WM-NYC could serve
>> as a seed and gradually expand its covering area at sometime to become a
>> WM-USA. But that's all speculations. We will see how everything develops.
>>
>> Again, from the view of fundation WM-NYC is not a "sub chapter" but a
>> wholevalue chapter. Its area doesn't covers a nation, but that doesn't
>> make it less or more than the chapters whose area cover a country. And
>> sub-national or cross-national chapters also may be established
>> somewhere else than USA, right.
>>
>> As far as I know, there are already two organizations in the
>> Netherlands, why would you want to create an Amsterdam chapter and what
>> is the beneficial of it? Or is the question just theoretical?
>>
>> Greetings
>> Ting
>>
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>   
No, here is nothing with equal or not equal. See, I see the WikiMedia 
and its chapters as partners, as companions. WikiMedia as well as its 
chapters are organisations that developed out of the community and work 
with the community. A chapter may or may not have the same area as a 
country. There are many reason that it may have happend as such or not.

As of the voting you mentioned. Voting for what? The only thing I am 
aware of that probably would be voted is the selection of the chapters 
appointed board of trustees seat. I know that the chapters are working 
on this very hard, but I am not sure if they would actually vote on this 
matter. Sometime ago I read in one of the mailing lists that the 
chapters should work collaboratively with each other and create a 
consenses, not by battling with each other by voting for or against this 
or that candidate. I like this idea. But as I have said, the chapters 
are working on this and I am sure that they will present a good result.

But, looking in the future. There may be at some point that there would 
be concern that say the Netherlands has only one chapter and one ballote 
while the USA may have let's say five chapters and five ballots. We had 
discussed this issue on our october board meeting and we think that if 
at some day this concern is raised, we can still decide to change the mode.

To be honours, I don't see what has nations and countries to do with our 
chapters? There may be practical reasons for identical with the boundary 
of a country or not. I don't like to see it the way USA against the 
Netherlands or Taiwan against China. We have no need to incoporate this 
madness into our project, have we?

Greetings
Ting