[Foundation-l] Board resolutions (chapters)

[Birgitte SB]

--- On Tue, 1/20/09, Ziko van Dijk <zvandijk at googlemail.com> wrote:


> By the way, this word "chapter" is unfamiliar for
> me, a German. I did not
> hear it before I became a Wikimedian. What does this
> English word mean? Any
> sub division of an organisation, or is it rather associated
> to a city than
> to a country?
> 
> The word "local" in German ("lokal")
> means: related to a city. What does it
> mean when English speaking Wikimedians talk about
> "local chapters"?
> Shouldn't it be "national chapters"? I
> consider Germany as a national, not a
> local entity...
> 
> Ziko
> 

In my experience a chapter means a organization that is associated with a larger organization with serperate officers from from the larger organization, but the key feature is that it manages it's own memebership.  The larger organization is usualy more closely tied to chapters than in the case of WMF.  But chapters are generally run independently and the larger organization which enforces it's requirements or morals with threats to cut ties with the chapter rather than any direct managment of chapter activities.  Normally chapters are put on probation and given a chance to correct things before being cut off completely.  Chapters are most recognizable to me in social soiceties and advocay groups.  But I think the it would normal for unions and charity organizations use them too.  de.WP has an article on Freemasonary,  the "lodges" within that are should very similar to use of chapters of a greek letter society as that was all modeled on freemasonary.  
 I don't if there is a general concept in German for the way "lodge" is used in Freemasaonary, but in English "chapter" applies to this concept.

Birgitte SB