[Foundation-l] Board resolutions (chapters)

[Nathan]

Correct me if I am misunderstanding you, but are you saying that Wikimedia
needs an American chapter to fulfill chapter functions nationwide, and that
the NYC chapter is subpar because it will not?

What you've been asked is to use the accurate name of the chapter type
rather than one that is inaccurately descriptive. You may believe that there
are deficiencies in the notion of a sub-national chapter that earn it the
"sub-chapter" description, but I think its rather insulting of you to insist
on using it when its been made clear that its initial use was a
misunderstanding. By a similar token, should we insist on calling not very
active or useful national chapters something like "mal-chapters" or "dead
weight chapters" in regular conversation? I don't think so.

The New York chapter does not appear to be limited in any functional way -
it can perform all the functions of any normal chapter, it has merely
determined a specific geographic region in which to pursue those functions.
Why this makes it any less of a chapter than some other specific
geographically restricted chapter that happens to coincide with national
political borders I don't fully understand. Can you expand on that, please?

Of course, the chapter has already been created and recognized and going
forward it will be the membership of the chapter of New York City that is
responsible for its role and functioning, not the members of this list.

Nathan

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Gerard Meijssen
<gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hoi,
> When the right five friends come together, they do not need their dog to
> make a successful organisation. Five people are enough to make a bored,
> five
> people are enough to raise money. It takes dedication and a lot of effort.
>
> One essential ingredient is that a chapter represents to some extend the
> people of projects. Key is the limitation; a chapter has a particular
> importance that the organisational aspects of the WMF get represented. It
> is
> not right that most of the donations are from the USA. This means that a
> more local chapter effort needs to make a difference in Europe, Asia,
> Africa, Australia and South America.
>
> The reason why a chapter represents to some extend the people of projects
> exists on several levels and on the other hand it is wrong. Many of the
> activities have no relation to the projects at all while a chapter provides
> the projects with opportunities that would otherwise not exist. By being
> organised there is the opportunity to connect to archives, to politics, to
> become the public face for the projects.
>
> Ting ruled out the existence of an USA chapter because of the existence of
> the New York chapter. It is equally clear that the WMF organisation does
> not
> want to fulfill the role of an USA chapter. When Dan asks me and Anthere
> not
> to use the "sub-chapter" word, he is right in that the board names them a
> chapter, but the issue of the New York chapter having fewer abilities and
> responsibilities is conveniently swept under the carpet in this way.
>
> The prefix sub indicates that it is less then the norm. For me it is
> obvious
> that some great five or more people will make the NYC a success. What I
> want
> to learn is in what way the national concerns that I expect a functional
> chapter to take care off will be handled for the USA. This is the crucial
> bit of thinking, information that is missing. And as long as this is not
> clear, the NYC is a sub-par to me.
> Thanks,
>     GerardM
>
>
>
> 2009/1/20 Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com>
>
> > 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
> >
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> >
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