[Wikimedia-l] Info: Election for WCA Chairperson

[Bence Damokos]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Bence Damokos <bdamokos at gmail.com> wrote:

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> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 10:50 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:
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>> On Feb 25, 2013 9:41 AM, "James Alexander" <jamesofur at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Err .... ok, I'm sorry but this actually moves to the realms of scary.
>> You
>> > require the new Council member to send in a statement ... pledging
>> loyalty
>> > essentially? I don't see anything in the charter that would require
>> > something like that, is it in your remit as chair? Sadly that just
>> sounds
>> > like a way to force out reformers, if you don't support the charter you
>> > can't join the council? How do you expect to get things to change when
>> > necessary?
>>
>> I'm hoping that was just a poor choice of words and Fae doesn't mean they
>> have to support the charter, just that they have to agree to follow the
>> charter. If they do have to support the charter, then that is excessive
>> and
>> undesirable.
>>
> Probably this type of discussions over the meaning of technical English
> words (after all, I hope that "supporting the Charter" includes supporting
> the part about amendments) and the fact that inviting chapters to become
> members was never really pursued more enthusiastically than stating that 1)
> becoming a member just takes "these easy steps" therefore 2) logically,
> every chapter can make the rational choice whether to join and if they
> haven't yet decided to join that is probably because they haven't had time
> to realize that this is the correct choice, probably "because they are not
> active or too busy with other things" are some of the reasons for many
> chapters not joining.
> At least, this was my personal perception at the time I was still a
> chapter board member; I fear that this model might not work in attracting
> new members (especially as the history to process is growing, so it makes
> more difficult to make an informed decision) and some more active and
> welcoming outreach might bring better results.
>
> In that light, I think Jan Bart's suggestion to give voice to all chapters
> and set up structures that are open not only in principle but practice is a
> good idea. (Although, with that in mind, the choice of the chairperson -
> especially as he needs to be a council member - seems like an internal
> matter, so there might not be big benefits in extending the right to vote.)
>
> Best regards,
> Bence
>