[Wikimediaindia-l] community, chapter and foundation: who is who and who does what

[Achal Prabhala]

To add to the recent discussion on this list, perhaps a few 
clarifications are in order.

All of you are familiar with yourselves - i.e. us - the community; 
people who edit, organise and otherwise help Wikimedia projects move 
ahead in interesting and productive ways. Many of those interesting and 
productive things happening here are captured in this first edition of 
the Wikimedia India Community Newsletter: 
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_India_Community_Newsletter_2010_September.pdf

Then there is the chapter. Chapters are "independent organizations 
founded to support and promote the Wikimedia projects within a specified 
country." (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters). Chapters 
are approved by the Chapters Committee, constituted by folks whose 
mission is to further Wikimedia, and while affiliated to and recognised 
by the Wikimedia Foundation, are yet independent entities which plot 
their own course. Chapter efforts in India started up as early as 2004 
and critical momentum was achieved from 2008 onwards, the result of 
which is that we now have an approved Wikimedia India chapter - awaiting 
registration in India as a non-profit organisation (for more see: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India). The Wikimedia India 
chapter is currently being registered as a 'society' in Karnataka and 
will function as a national organisation. As a 'society' it is required 
to have founding 'members' - and in our case, those members are Arun 
(President), Sundar (Secretary), Hari (Treasurer), Gautam, Srinivas and 
Arjuna. (See: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India/MoA-PostChapComVer).

Once the chapter is recognised as a legal entity within India, these 
members will serve as the Executive Committee of the organisation. 
Contrary to earlier discussions, the Wikimedia India chapter has never 
had 'Directors' or 'Directors (designate)' - it's a society, and 
societies have members. On operation, it will, of course, extend 
membership widely to anyone who wishes to join. Chapters have a wide 
variety of functions, all of which are evolving - for now, a crude 
summary of their purpose would be that they allow individuals from 
within the community to do more than they could normally do alone, 
besides providing the benefits of a formal, organisational setup to 
utilise when necessary.

Then we have the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation based in San 
Francisco that is the legal home of all Wikimedia projects. Over the 
last few years, the Wikimedia Foundation has grown in staff strength and 
capacity, and works to facilitate everything we do as volunteers from 
around the world. In the last few months, and on the basis of a 
strategic planning exercise 
(http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy) the Wikimedia Foundation 
decided to actively help a few geographies grow, one of which is India.

The National Country Director job that Barry Newstead (Chief Global 
Development Officer) talked about on this list 
(http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000850.html) 
is a position that will report to him, which is to say, the staff 
employed at the Wikimedia Foundation office in India are exactly that, 
and not to be confused with the India chapter - they are a separate 
entity, an off-shoot of the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco, 
though they will obviously be working closely with both the community 
and the chapter. Further clarifications on the Wikimedia Foundation's 
office plans in India are available in this email from Barry 
(http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000849.html).

I trust this helps somewhat in understanding the landscape.

Cheers,
Achal