[Foundation-l] Board resolutions (chapters)

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 9:30 AM, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, one benefit would be that it avoids strange definitions of
> chapter boundaries. Suppose that we have a Los Angeles chapter and a
> Monterey County chapter, and then people from San Jose, Sacramento and
> a few smaller cities come together to make a chapter, would this then
> be "Wikimedia California except Los Angeles City and Monterey County"?
> Or should it perhaps also be restricted to not include San Francisco,
> since perhaps there will be a city chapter there, and created the
> "California-except" chapter would make such impossible?

5 Friends and their dog cannot make a chapter. To become a chapter,
you need to have critical mass: You need enough people to form a
board, you need possible members. You need to be able to raise money,
and you need to be able to perform activities. If we have a situation
where there are enough Wikimedians in Scramento, Los Angeles, and San
Jose to each form chapters, we should consider ourselves to be very
lucky. More likely, to build the critical mass necessary to start a
new chapter, Wikimedians from all these places may need to work
together instead of working apart. The smaller the geographical area
is, the fewer potential members you have, the less money you are
likely to be able to raise, and the fewer outreach activities you will
have available to you.

--Andrew Whitworth