I see the Foundation has withdrawn their support for the Wikimedia Chapters
Association, the cross-chapters partnership that WMUK backed. Their
statement included some significant criticisms about the way the WCA has
been implemented, something that individual Foundation board members
expanded on in their personal comments further down the page.
I understand that the WCA Council is meeting on 16th February to discuss
this but I wanted to ask if WMUK was planning to review its involvement in
the WCA and to review for itself what went wrong in its implementation?
Thanks,
Andrew
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Chapters_Association#WMF_Boa…
WMF Board letter regarding the Chapters Association
At our February 2 Board meeting, we spent several hours discussing the
proposed Chapters Association and its potential role in the Wikimedia
movement.
Despite our initial optimism, we have now reluctantly concluded that the
proposed Chapters Association is unlikely to advance the Wikimedia mission
significantly. We encouraged the concept in its early stages, but in light
of the implementation to date, we regretfully have come to believe it will
not be successful.
In our opinion, the Chapters Association hasn’t made a persuasive case that
it will be effective. We believe that during its development thus far, it
has not consulted sufficiently with movement stakeholders. We are concerned
that it will not be equipped to offer oversight, which would be essential
for an entity expected to provide governance support and oversight for the
chapters. Considering its proposed role in the movement as well as the
demand it would place on movement resources, we believe these factors are
decisive.
Our reservations about the Chapters Association are serious, and we have
difficulty envisioning circumstances in which the Wikimedia Foundation
would be able to recognize it. That said, we believe in individuals and
movement entities organising themselves to support each other, and that
successful models for this exist.
We are acting now because of the recent call for hiring of the Secretary
General by the Chapters Association and its apparent plans to incorporate
soon.
We acknowledge that significant time and effort have been put into this
initiative, and understand that some people will be disappointed by this
conclusion. We welcome your comments.
For the Wikimedia board, Kat
Walsh<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mindspillage>
(spill your mind?)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Mindspillage> 05:26,
5 February 2013 (UTC)