On Fri, October 3, 2008 22:19, Andrew Turvey wrote:
First, are we happy in principle that the
directors should be able to
refuse or revoke membership rights. I could imagine it being used, say,
for a persistent vandal or someone who is tryign to undermine the chapter.
Please, please, please (ok, you get the point!) but please make *no*
mention in any of the legal documents (AoA, MoA) of anything to do with
the Wikimedia Foundation nor with any of its projects (ie editing of or
vandalism of) as it will, eventually, make it difficult for someone in the
future, possibly even yourselves, to show in a court that Wikimedia UK has
no management control or connection with Wikipedia, Wikinews, etc. Don't
muddy waters that should remain crystal clear.
Yes, we may all be aware of a 'likely' co-incidence in the number of
people involved with both, but it needs to be ultra clear that it is
exactly that in law, a co-incidence. It isn't a mandated or
formal-in-any-way connection.
Surely the fact that we have a contractual agreement with WMF and
trade under the name Wikimedia UK makes it fairly obvious that there
is a connection with the projects...
In this case, it doesn't matter, there is no reason to list possible
reasons for expelling members in the documents, it can just be left to
the discretion of the board. Giving specific reasons just makes it
easier for people to game the system.