[Wikimediaau-l] Chapter Update Request :-)

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi all.

Apologies as ever for the exceedingly late reply. I have been doing a
couple of Wikimedia-related things in real life in the last couple of
weeks, which I will put more detail about in a separate email.

For WMAU's officialness, here is where we stand from my point of view:

> On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 05:33:59PM +1000, Liam Wyatt wrote:
>> I think the issue is not so much the organising of an AGM per se, but
>> rather the status of all the things that lead up to that point.
>> Specifically:
>> - A bank account
>> - A membership application/confirmation system
>> - A payment system

These are the only things we need to get to an AGM (plus some time for
people to become members).

We have a bank account, more or less. I am not certain about the last
details of its finality. The current sticking point is the
application/payment system.

I suggested that we use a software system called memberdb
<http://www.flamingspork.com/projects/memberdb/>. It was developed by
someone specifically for managing Linux Australia membership (they are
also incorporated in Victoria). It is also used by the Linux Users of
Victoria (LUV) group. So it is free software, and we would be in good
company in finding people for help with it. Having said that, it does
not have comprehensive install documentation and I ran into trouble
getting it working for signing up new members (kind of the vital
part). I haven't had time to work on trying to solve that. I plan to
pass that problem to John who has kindly agreed to work on it.

As we have a bank account it's true that we could start accepting
members by taking mailed paper forms. However I feel it would be much
better to wait and avoid that paperwork.

On the issue of "concession" definition, this keeps coming up, but I
have not yet been convinced that we would be well-served by doing
anything other than letting people decide for themselves if they are
concession or not. Policing concession cards would not be worth the
time needed to do it. In my opinion.

Liam also raised the topic, as he has a couple of times, of membership
benefits, ie what do members actually get. There has been very little
input about this topic and probably more would be helpful.

Liam also raised the topic of getting an ABN but I feel this is not
necessary for us at the moment. I am starting to feel the distinction
between being a member organisation and a charity. I can't think of
any (????) groups that are both, as in, members are really
participatory. I think charity status (tax-deductible gift donation
status or whatever ATO calls it) is a long way off for us (WMAU), if
ever. Perhaps it is more appropriate for a slightly different org
called the Wikimedia Australia Fund or something. But I don't think
this matters -- there is a lot we can do as a member organisation and
that is where our strengths lie right now so I think that is where it
makes sense to concentrate at the moment. But it is a topic that
interests Liam and probably others, so it might be good to write up a
wiki page to collect all the thoughts about that.

Craig asked if there is anything that "the rest of us" can do. Just
participating on this list is very useful. Other useful things would
be to try and get started some of the initiatives that we would like
to do as a chapter. Many of the things listed here
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Australia/Activities> do not
require officialdom as the most important element but actually a
certain about of dedication from a certain number of people. For
example the Editors Challenge. I would really like to do that, but I'm
not going to commit to running such a thing by myself. (I've already
been there and made that mistake several times...)

Another example, Gnangarra mentioned developing a COI package.
Actually I think a lot of pamphlet writing could be extremely helpful,
each project could do with at least two distinct brochures - one on
what it is/how to use it/highlighting great content, and another on
why and how to contribute to it. Also brochures on e.g. MediaWiki/wiki
concepts, free content licensing, use of Wiki* in education. These are
just 1-2 page documents. They are a giant gaping hole in Wikimedia
promotional material.

I also think regular meetings (meetups) is going to be essential.
Making them regular seems to be the hard bit, but maybe after 6 or so,
when you get some critical mass, they start to be self-regulating?? I
hope so.

So, don't make the mistake of waiting for a certificate or a meeting
before beginning -- or permission.

thanks,
Brianna

-- 
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/