Hoi, So the only reason why chapters cannot overlap is possible commercial nastiness ???? Does the NYC have a license to negotiate as much as another USA (sub)-chapter have. What is left for the Wikimedia Foundation itself ? How do you make commercial organisations split along "our" lines ?
As I learn more about chapters, I come to my conclusion that they are a confused hodgepodge of conflicting ideas. The notion what the essence of a chapter is is no longer clear at all. I would really LOVE some clear structured text that explains the notion of the chapter and explains what its responsibilities are. Thanks, GerardM 2009/1/20 Ting Chen <wing.phil...@gmx.de> > Gerard Meijssen wrote: > > Hoi, > > The territofy for the Dutch chapter ends officially at the border between > > Belgium and the Netherlands. > I don't see it necessary to be must so. As you have said, it is unlikely > that there would be a Belgium chapter. So if the community support the > idea, I don't see any reason why the Dutch chapter cannot be active in > Belgium. By establishing a branch there the Dutch chapter can also > provide the same services it can provide for its dutch members like tax > exempt status or organize meetings and other activities. If this is a > good thing, and has support from the community, why not? > > > There is no Belgium chapter and given their > > politics it is unlikely that there will be one. The projects in the Dutch > > language include many Belgians and they are welcome to become a member of > > the Dutch "vereniging". > > > And as far as I know none of our chapters has defined that only people > from a certain region can be their membership. Delphine for example is > member of the french and the italian chapter and not of the german > chapter, although she lives in Frankfurt, Germany. > > And the example of Belgium is another good example for allow subnational > chapters. > > Ting, it is nice that you do not see what countries have to do with > > chapters. One of the main points of chapters is that they represent the > > Wikimedia Foundation in a limited fashion and, that they take care of > issues > > that need to be taken care off on a local level. They are things like > > fundraising and looking for a tax exempt status for gifts etc. When a > > chapter is nothing but a society, there is less need for an official > > connection with the WMF. The people in New York can have their own > society, > > there is no need for them being a chapter and take care by necessity of > > these needs. > > > Sure. Suppose the Foundation is not located in the USA, and there is no > USA chapter. The NYC chapter can get for its members tax exemption, so > this is a good thing, why not? The NYC can organize activities in their > area and this is also a good thing, why not? > > And the chapters are by NO MEANs a sub-organization of the WMF. They are > in principle independent and of their own. There are links between the > WMF and the chapters, yes. But as I said, we would also support all > other voluntier activities (or societies) as far as they are affordable. > > If you say that a chapter is only a society and that this is all that > > counts, I do not understand why it is not permitted to have chapters > > covering the same space. Why not have an Amsterdam chapter if the people > > from Amsterdam think it a good idea ?? > > > The chapters has agreement with the WMF that they may in their area > negotiate with third parties on use of wikimedia project logos and > names. The cretiria for a not overlapping in geographical regions is > mainly to prevent a third party to try to play one chapter against another. > > Greetings > Ting > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l