[Wikipedia-l] foundation of a German registered association

[Jimmy Wales]

Ivo Köthnig wrote:
> Gathering money is the first step. Since we do not know exacly, how
> much money this will be, we can not exactly plan, what to do with
> this money.

Gathering money is not the first step, then.  It would be
irresponsible for us to gather money without a plan for what to do
with the money.

> Some money is needed for the organisation itself. For example each
> year we have to held a meeting, and every member has to be
> informed. We actually dont know if it is allowed to use e-mail for
> that (what we would prefer), but if not we have to use snail-mail,
> and for that reason we would need at least 1?  per member each year.

I will gladly provide funds for anything of that nature.  I would
prefer that we keep all overhead for the use of donor funds to an
absolute minimum for as long as possible.

> But as you can imagine it makes no sence to think about all that in detail, 
> since we do not know, if we collect enough money to finance that.

I think you have it exactly backwards.  Collecting money with no
specific plan for what is to be done with it is not a good idea at
all.

There is nothing to prevent Europeans from being members of the
international Wikimedia Foundation, either.  There is nothing to
prevent the international Wikimedia Foundation from engaging in any or
all of the kinds of activities that you mentioned, either, either in
Europe or in America.

--Jimbo