On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 1:58 AM, Florence Devouard fdevouard@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Adam
The WMF has never been a membership based organization.
Hi Anthere,
The bylaws as of September 2004 said: [1]
" This membership [ v olunteer active membership] shall consist of all persons interested in supporting the activities of the Foundation who have contributed under a user name to any Wikimedia project prior to the election ballot request deadline. The only other qualification for membership shall be the creation of a user account on some Wikimedia project."
And:
"Each Volunteer Active Member and each Contributing Active Member shall have the right to vote for the Volunteer User Representative to the Board of Trustees."
Does that not suggest that the Foundation had a voting membership, and that one form of membership was extended to anyone who had created a user account? It did not set up dues, but is that necessary to establish membership?
The bylaws were changed in 2006 and now say: "The Foundation does not have members."
Sarah
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Bylaws&oldid=620#ARTIC... https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Bylaws&oldid=620#ARTICLE_III:_MEMBERSHIP