Re: [Wikimedia-l] US affiliates (was: Re: WMF office location and remodel)

28 Jun 2015

Ricordisamoa, I have no preference either way. I live in a geographically
enormous country (Canada), which has a national chapter - centered so far
away from me that I'll never be in a position to participate in person at a
regular meetup. In Canada's case, regional chapters might have been better,
and I wonder about other geographically large countries where this would
also be more workable.

Risker

On 28 June 2015 at 01:17, Ricordisamoa &lt;ricordisamoa(a)openmailbox.org&gt; wrote:

...
  I infer that you would have preferred a single US
chapter from the start,
 wouldn't you?

 Il 28/06/2015 06:08, Risker ha scritto:

  Ironically, Ricordisamoa, the
"decision" to not have a US chapter was made
 around 10 years ago at the strong urging of other chapters. The theory (as
 I understand it) was that the US was the home of the WMF itself, which in
 the view of the era, meant that the US didn't need the "protections" that
 came from a chapter; the WMF itself was perceived to speak for US
 Wikimedians. (Given the times, back when there were literally only enough
 employees to run the servers and sort of keep an eye on MediaWiki, this
 was
 perhaps an incorrect assessment.) Then US regions started to form
 chapters,
 first New York then DC; there are now a significant number of user groups.
 If there had been a US chapter formed back at that time, there would only
 be one US chapter; the rest would never be recognized at the chapter
 level.
 Instead, we now see the specter of what could come, since the US alone as
 a
 nation with a large number of Wikimedians does not have the opportunity
 for
 a single chapter:  given a little bit more organization, and the ambition
 to do the paperwork to become a chapter, the US could have as many (or
 more) chapters than exist in all of Europe in a few years.  One has to
 wonder if some other countries, especially those with a large number of
 Wikimedians or a massive geographic area, might wish they had gone with
 regional affiliates rather than a national one.

 Risker/Anne

 On 27 June 2015 at 23:26, Ricordisamoa &lt;ricordisamoa(a)openmailbox.org&gt;
 wrote:

  I know the confederated approach may surely make more sense for the local
  communities, but I think an established regional
subject would help
 uproot
 the Foundation from a single country it relies too much on.

 Il 28/06/2015 05:00, Pine W ha scritto:

  Hi Ricordisamoa,

 There are multiple chapters, user groups and thematic organizations that
 are active in the US and have a degree of separation from WMF. The US
 affiliates are cooperative with each other, and the affiliate leaders
 communicate with each other fairly frequently. May I ask what benefits
 you
 think would come from having a consolidated US chapter? We've talked
 about
 this casually among ourselves but so far we seem to be satisfied with a
 confederation of smaller affiliates instead of a single national
 affiliate.

 Thanks!

 Pine

 On Jun 27, 2015 7:20 PM, "Ricordisamoa" &lt;ricordisamoa(a)openmailbox.org
 <mailto:ricordisamoa@openmailbox.org>> wrote:

      The WMF will become a truly global organization when a Wikimedia
      US chapter is founded ;-)

      Il 08/04/2015 06:58, Pine W ha scritto:

          Hi Garfield,

          I'm asking this on Wikimedia-l because a number of Wikimedians
          have noted
          the expensiveness of the San Francisco area including its high
          cost of
          living for staff, employer competition for engineering talent,
 and
          associated high salaries for WMF employees.

          I see on

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/8a/RFP_for_Real_Estate_S…
          that WMF is considering relocating its offices when its
          current main office
          lease expires.

          Questions:

          What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at
          its current
          location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated
          for the
          remodel by the building owner?

          I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San
          Francisco market
          area in order to economize, get better value for our donors'
          funds, have
          less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for
          staff. Is this
          being considered?

          Thanks very much,

          Pine
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] US affiliates (was: Re: WMF office location and remodel)