[Foundation-l] Report to the Board of Trustees June 2009-

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/9/12 Yann Forget <yann at forget-me.net>:
> Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> While that is true, it is also important to remember that most people
>> setting up a chapter have next to no experience of running a
>> non-profit. They don't know what is and isn't appropriate to spend
>> donations on, they don't necessarily know what needs to done and just
>> because they know their culture in general doesn't mean they know how
>> the charity sector works in their country. The Foundation could
>> provide a lot of advice on those issues. While I don't doubt that the
>> Portuguese Wikimedians are acting in good faith, trust requires two
>> things - good faith and competence. They are almost certainly not
>> competent since they haven't had an opportunity to develop that
>> competence yet, so they should not be trusted to be making the right
>> decisions.
>
> I think this is very rude. Why do you assume that people wanting to
> create a Wikimedia chapter are incompetent? You need to have a bit more
> trust for people you have never met and you don't know.

Why would I assume that someone knows how to do something they have
never done before? Someone from the Portuguese chapter has already
admitted they have very little experience. Note, I don't use the word
"incompetent" as an insult, I just use it to mean what it means - not
having a particular relevant competence.