[Wikimedia Brasil] Fwd: Is Wikimedia Brasil a chapter?

[Thomas de Souza Buckup]

Pessoal,

Vejam abaixo a mensagem que o Thomas Dalton compartilhou com os demais
capítulos (comigo em cópia). Alguém se habilita a estabelecer contato
com eles?

Abraços,
Thomas

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton em gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:56:50 +0000
Subject: Is Wikimedia Brasil a chapter?
To: "Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed
subscription)" <internal-l em lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: thomasdesouzabuckup <thomasdesouzabuckup em gmail.com>

Is Wikimedia Brasil a chapter? As things stand, that is a question
with no answer since we have never actually decided (we've been rather
putting it off, since it isn't an easy decision). It is on the list of
chapters on meta [1], but more by default than concious choice (it was
added to the list when it was still expected to become a conventional
chapter, if memory serves, and just hasn't been removed). This
question came up a couple of days ago in respect of the ongoing vote
to decide on a process to select people for the chapter seats on the
WMF board (incidentally - we're just one chapter short of a majority
supporting now, so if your chapter hasn't voted yet, please do! I'd
like to send it off to the WMF board for approval ASAP). I listed the
chapters yet to vote and didn't list Brazil and I was asked privately
if that was intentional. It was. I didn't include them because I can't
see how than can participate. They don't have the necessary governance
structure, as far as I know. There is no way for them to reach a
collective decision (except perhaps by consensus, which seems
impractical in the limited time available). Also, they cannot actually
participate in the process should it be accepted, since we agreed the
list of nominees would be confidential and restricted to chapter board
members, which WMBR doesn't have any of. So, for purely practical
reasons, WMBR cannot participate in inter-chapter decision making,
which is a problem if it is a chapter.

The official requirements for chapters [2] includes: "The chapter must
have a legal structure/corporation that is legally independent from
the Wikimedia Foundation." WMBR does not satisfy that requirement.
Clearly, we must either relax that requirement or cease to consider
WMBR a chapter. There are arguments in favour of both options, but my
preference is to not consider WMBR a chapter. Without a legal
structure, they are just incapable of doing a large number of things I
consider part of the normal existence of a chapter. They cannot
fundraise. They cannot enter into a trademark agreement with the WMF.
They cannot effectively speak with any kind of official voice. While a
great deal of useful work can be done without being able to do those
things, I don't think the work of a chapter can.

It has been suggested numerous times before without anything being
done, but I think we should create a new kind of structure for
informal groups of Wikimedians, of which WMBR could be the first.
These could be groups in a country that doesn't have or want a chapter
or groups that don't have an obvious geographic association. What
relationship this new structure should have with the proposed WikiPods
(which, incidentally, need a better name!), I don't know, but there
probably will be a relationship of some kind. We need to have a
thorough discussion about what role these groups should play and what
should be required of them (for example, should they be required to
designate a leader or committee of leaders in order to facilitate
coordination with the rest of the WM movement? should they be required
to maintain a list of members? etc.).

I'm not sure what forum these discussions (regarding WMBR specifically
and the concept of informal groups generally) should take place in. I
think internal-l is probably suitable for the WMBR discussion (I have
CC'ed Thomas de Souza Buckup from WMBR since none of them seem to be
on internal-l - perhaps some of them should be, whatever form WMBR
ends up taking), but the more general discussion probably needs
broader discussion, but let's start here and at least work out what
the questions are that need to be answered.

Everyone, please give your views.

Tom/Tango

1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters#Existing_chapters
2. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requirements_for_future_chapters

-- 
Enviado do meu celular

Thomas de Souza Buckup
thomasdesouzabuckup em gmail.com
+55 11 3477-2834
+55 11 9213-3931
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