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

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/9/13 John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com>:
> I am also shocked by this very broad brush.
>
> You are not just saying that they lack experience, or "competence" -
> you are saying that chapters are likely to misuse funds.

You are putting words in my mouth. I haven't specified a probability
that a randomly chosen chapter will misuse funds. I have said there is
a significant chance they will make mistakes, which means the WMF
should take significant care when deciding what to do with WMF funds.
They shouldn't have blind faith in chapters to know what they are
doing.

Perhaps this is one of those cultural things - I am British and here
charities are considered to have a moral and legal duty to take direct
responsibility for spending money people give them in an appropriate
way. Giving money to another charity and trusting them to make good
decisions about what to spend it on would, in fact, be illegal here.

I should clarify that I am complaining about the WMF's actions here,
not those of the Portuguese Wikimedians (who both I and they have
said, didn't know any better - there is nothing to suggest they acted
in bad faith). It isn't just the Portuguese grant that I disagree with
- there are things WMUK requested that I did not support and would not
have granted had I been the WMF. For example, WMUK requests £1000 to
buy a laptop, that is completely ridiculous, there is no way we need
such a high-spec laptop for giving a few presentations. I would not
have granted that money; the WMF did. (WMUK has now requested
permission to reallocate that £1000 to buy a data projector and other
peripherals, which is a far better idea, and I hope and expect the WMF
will allow it.)